Mad Mex: Fresh Mexican Grill is a new addition to Crown Street, and it is a fast food restaurant where the owners pride themselves on freshness. It's a bright space, and decorated with a groovy Mexican fighting mask in keeping with their slogans: “Fighting for flavour. Defender of freshness!”



For me, the big step up, is that it is fast food where you can eat quickly with a Silver Herradura Tequila Margarita ($10) in your hand!  And it wasn't a bad one either! You can also have beer, hence the Corona ceiling art...



On the night I attended, there was a queue to the door, as people lined up to enjoy the Baja inspired Mexican cuisine at the communal centre table, and bar style seating. First you choose a style of food (think Burrito, Quesadilla, Nachos or soft/crispy Tacos), then a filling. We were given soft Tacos, a Quesadilla, some hard shell Tacos and Nachos...



Then you choose a filling. All of the pricing is done with respect to what filling you choose (regardless of what style of food you have). My favourite filling was the Carnitas ($9.90) which is pork that has been slowly roasted for six hours, after being marinated in lime, cumin, onion and garlic. Incidentally, food items on the menu are all under $12.95, and they are all reasonably filling.



As you can see, they were particularly excited by ladling on the guacamole... it was a tad overdone in my opinion!



Finally, you add a salsa. Unfortunately as we didn't choose our own, I am not sure what salsa we got. They are made from a range of imported Mexican Chillies (Jalapenos being the mildest, Chile do Arbol being in the hottest salsas). We found the food mild, so I am hoping that was just because they gave us milder salsas.

Oh and be careful - their burritos are particularly large!

All in all, for fast food, this restaurant does a reasonable job. For Mexican... well it's not trying to be Mexican per say - it's er... Californian Mexican, which is basically cheesier, creamier and milder as a style. But having a Margarita at a fast food restaurant - well that bit is priceless!

Mad Mex: Fresh Mexican Grill
Shop 2, 241-247 Crown Street, Darlinghurst
Ph: (02) 9331 2288