Maiz & Mezcal

We recently visited this restaurant during our trip to Adelaide. We would not have been more disappointed. The food was luke warm. My partner had the pork belly it was a very small serving for a main meal. I had chicken enchiladas they were tiny and drowned in brown sauce. One child had tacos which were no where near resembling any taco I have seen more like taquitos. And two other kids had a steak quesadilla which was a tortilla folded in half a tiny piece of steak and cheese and they were $ 9 each!!! Everyone left hungry. We should have known it was going to be awful being a Friday night and no one in the restaurant! Never again. And for others looking to dine here anywhere else would be better value for money!

I rarely loathe writing a review but this one really did my head in. Mostly because we were there to celebrate a friend’s birthday and his better half had organised the night out. I like her as a friend, so I didn’t want to be mean about the place in front of her, so I left feeling guilty about my negativity.
The service was good, and the venue itself was a bit kitschy and fun, but it left an awful lot to be desired as far as value for money goes in the food department.
We opted for a tapas platter. My thinking was, ‘2 people sharing for $ 49, this should be good’. I was wrong. What came out was disappointing. In both serving amount and quality.
I could have easily finished off the whole platter myself. Mexican food is pretty basic, and I didn’t think it was possible to get it wrong. I was mistaken.
The rest of the table was also left feeling hungry, but we made the best of a bad situation and had a bit of fun chatting and sipping our drinks after dinner until time came to pay the bill and head home.
It is a real shame, because I love ‘mexican’ food. But there are much better options out there and I won’t be returning.

The only reason this restaurant is getting a 1 star is because there is no lesser option. I was excited when I saw a local Adelaide restaurant was serving Mexican food and was hopeful it was at least adequate.
The food lacks any resemblance to Mexican food and is made with as little cultural ingredients as possible and the worst Australian counterparts available.
I started with the Mexican basket as a starter and the small potion of chips was answered with a request to pay for more corn chips. The dips were quite flavorless for a Mexican restaurant.
The cheese enchiladas were made with Tasty cheese. Far to sharp for a Mexican dish and not even close to a jack cheese. There was no enchilada sauce, however a tomato sauce base that was more like an American Ketchup than anything Mexican.
The Golden Crispy Tacos (they are actually called flautas if you do your homework) were an exact copy of the enchilada, however hard shell fried and covered in cabbage and a white sauce that, again, resembled nor tasted anything like something found in Mexico.
So far all attempt to offer the restaurant my services to teach them how to cook have been ignored and since visiting can see they get negative reviews deleted. I hope this one lasts as a warning to those who think this is real Mexican food.

Have been here many times so I knew it was 5 star but they keep changing the menu and improving it. Totally family run and everything made in house. Definitely not like a franchise fast food Mexican. The food is fantastic and the décor is cute

Wow!!! Wow!!!
Now, despite the current culinary craze, I’m not the biggest fan of Mexican cuisine. It stems mostly from me being one of those people that tastes coriander as intense soapy flavours instead of amazingness like most others in the population and secondly from too many lesser quality Mexican venues known famously all over the US that will always serve you some sort of combination of tortillas, beans with cheese and tomato regardless of what you ordered on the menu, heck sometimes they don’t even try to rearrange the plates so the three orders look identical…
This place however really is something different, a treasure even. I had a pork belly sandal, lovely the pork tender and succulent, the sauces balanced and delicious. I couldn’t get enough. I also had an entrée chonchita, that was cheesy-​chicken goodness! Everyone loved their meals and were very satisfied!
I’d give it full stars if the staff were a little more helpful, we suffered reckless abandonment for about the first 35 minutes of being seated and it wasn’t particularly busy. At the end there was much confusion over items on the bill vs what what the menu items names were. This makes it hard to split your bill with 5 others if the names don’t match. The staff didn’t really seem to care about explaining how they billed the items to expedite the process.
All in all of definitely want to come back here if time permitted!

I come from California, so Mexican food is like «mother’s milk» to me. I’ve been looking for a good Mexican Restaurant in Adelaide for years and have tried a few, but been disappointed each time. This one was recommended by a friend-​of-​a-​friend who is Mexican and said the food at Maiz & Mezcal was really authentic.
Six of us arrived for a retirement celebration and found the ambiance was warm and cozy. It was a little noisy, but not too bad. Looking at the menu I didn’t see many full meals, but if you think of this more of a tapas-​style restaurant you’ll be fine.
We started with guacamole & chips and were served our main meal in good time. The food was delicious (we got 2 of the tapas meals with a variety of small dishes). The price was moderate which was a bonus and we all said we’d love to come back again.

A lot of things about this restaurant were impressive — the food and drink was delicious, the staff were very friendly and I loved the décor. However I was let down a little by one thing — we ordered all vegetarian dishes, but when one of them arrived it contained chicken. I think this was an honest mistake, and the waiter who served us was very apologetic once he realised (you couldn’t see the chicken until you bit in to it) and quickly brought us the correct dish. Unfortunately my vegetarian boyfriend had already eaten a mouthful, and although he tends to be very laid back about these things it was still a little upsetting.
We continued on to dessert and we were both very impressed — the avocado ice block was delicious, and the vanilla ice cream dish (containing actual vanilla seeds, delicious sauce, and a sweet tortilla) was 5-​star, according to my dining buddy.
We were both also quite impressed by the atmosphere — there were a lot of people in there but the noise level was quite low, so it was very easy to have a conversation.
If it wasn’t for the chicken mix-​up I would have rated Maiz and Mezcal 4 stars, definitely worth a visit.

We went here last night after plenty of positive recommendations and good online reviews so went in with high hopes. We have never been so disappointed. We arrived on time after booking in earlier in the day and were seated and the very front right by the door which was constantly open and being a cold night we were freezing. We ordered our meals all together and were not served even our starter for 35 – 40 minutes. When our starter came out our friends whole 3 courses were all brang out together and finished within 10 minutes or so while we were still waiting for our entrée and main. Eventually after another 25 minutes it came out to us, Luke warm at best. Bland. And not anything at all impressive. Our friend orders a drink of coke while he watched us eat our food and we saw it sit at the bar for at least 10 minutes before reminding them. We then left as soon as we finished our meal (about 9:45) still starving and charged for an extra drink we didn’t even have also. Very let down and will not be back here again. The friend we dined with was a regular who also felt this was a terrible night out.

I always like to give restaurants a few chances before I write them off, especially if they’re serving the kind of cuisine I usually enjoy. However, for me Maiz and Mezcal has had more than its three strikes and is definitely out. As it is super busy booking a table is basically a necessity, but reserving a table was a painful and frustrating process. The décor is nice and the wait staff are friendly, but these elements don’t make up for the disappointing food.
I’ve had the platters before and also chosen individual dishes, but there was not a single thing that stood out to me. The crispy tacos looked more like a spring roll and tasted like reheated, unpleasant chicken or of gluggy nothingness depending on their filling. The Volcano’s flavours were bearable, but it was a total mess to eat and the ratio of toppings seemed totally off. All other dishes I’ve had were unmemorable and had none of the complex, exciting flavours I would want from Mexican foods and some were dry and underwhelming (including the stock standard corn chip + dip combos). I am genuinely surprised this is such a popular spot, as I’ve had such marginal experiences.
There are only two good things: one is that the whole restaurant is gluten-​free so it offers a really extensive range of options if that is a dietary requirement for you or your dining companions. The second is that is serves some funky margaritas if tequila is your spirit of choice, but alas it is a foe and not a friend for me, so their drinks menu was mainly a write off for my tequila-​shy stomach.

The fact that the whole menu is Gluten-​Free made for a relaxed evening as I was dining with a friend who usually only has limited Gluten-​Free options to choose from when we eat out.
The atmosphere was great — there was some nice Mexican music playing. The staff were friendly and attentive, and our meals were served within a reasonable time.
I found the whole booking process a bit ‘different’. There is a mobile number that you can only ring between 10am — 3pm daily to make a booking (which is probably reasonable as you wouldn’t want to be taking calls all day long). I asked to book in a table for 3 people at 6:30pm on a Saturday, but I was told that they could only fit us in at 5:30pm. As we really wanted to try this place we accepted the earlier dinner spot — and I thought that this place must be really popular if they can only fit us in at that time. However, I was slightly annoyed to find lots of spare tables when we got there, tables which also remained free until we left well after 7pm.
Great food, great mood — definitely somewhere to try!

Usually if I went somewhere and sat facing a wall I’d be less than impressed but given I dropped into this popular suburban haunt on a busy Saturday night I was just glad they made room for us!
Despite sitting in a less than ideal spot, the staff were still attentive to us which was nice. They said that the food was going to be slow due to how busy they were but I have a feeling they were being overly cautious as it didn’t seem we waited long.
We started with Alitas de Pollo which were super yummy chicken drumsticks. Then for main we opted for a «share plate» probably because we were too lazy to decide what we wanted. The chargrilled sizzle steak volcanoes were the stand out — so delicious I could have devoured an entire plate of them. The soft tacos al pastor make no mention of spiciness but they sure were firey (although according to my partner — they weren’t that hot). We also enjoyed crispy tacos and chicken and potato quesadillas!
They have an extensive margarita and cocktail menu which would be fun to explore –will definitely visit again and make a booking so the view from my seat isn’t a wall.

OK so this is an early review. I popped in for a ‘quick snack’ and I’m glad I did.
I’d heard about this place (all good comments) and finally got to partake.
I had a Mayan Flavoured Volcano. A crispy Tortilla full of the tastes of Mexico.
I am looking forward to getting back there for a proper feed with some friends.

I’ve been coming to Adelaide since 1992 and the only thing Adelaide was missing was a good Mexican restaurant. Maiz & Mezcal has done it! I’ve waited for almost a year knowing this restaurant was happening from info from Chile Mojo and ate there the other night. FANTASTIC! Great service, Great food, Great price, GREAT GREAT GREAT. While eating dinner we made plans to come back. WELL DONE Maiz & Mezcal we’ll become regulars. You’re making me step up my game to make a guac as good as yours!

We arrived early and were given a table reserved for later, so that was lucky!
I started the night with a hibiscus cocktail and my partner got a Mexican beer. Both were delicious.
We ordered the vegetarian volcano no dairy and my partner the tacos with a side of nachos, the waitress suggested we order more but I found the sizes of the entrees + nachos a good meal size (we eat too much really right).
The food arrived with cheese and cream, but as soon as I advised the waitress she didn’t make me feel awkward and a replacement made its way speedily to our table.
The service was good, the waitresses attentive and helpful.
I would definitely go back! But I’ll be making a booking and not driving so I can try more cocktails!

Praise. Finally a Mexican restaurant in Adelaide I can get on board with. We came into this restaurant with extremely high expectations and were blown away. Firstly the staff are all sassily attractive and provide great service, and the décor is colourful and fun without being at all cheesy. ‘But the fake donkey out front!’ you protest. Don’t be an ass, it’s not cheesy at all, and donkeys are cool.
We started with hibiscus margarita’s which were fragrant and delicious, and then classic avocado dip and corn chips, which were the freshest, saltiest corn chips I’ve ever encountered. Then we shared a tasting platter and the food was so good I only stopped eating in order to breathe, and occasionally exclaim ‘food so good, nom, nom, nom!’ The standouts on the platter were definitely the Volcanos, which were crispy tacos filled with steak, pecorino cheese and Mexican cream… amazing.
One highlight of the evening was having a great chat with the manager after our meal; he genuinely wanted our opinion on the place and to make sure we’d come back again. How long have we been waiting for an authentic Mexican restaurant that serves food that makes you feel good? Adelaide, it’s finally here. This place is new and needs good press to grow: go to this restaurant and tell your friends.