Review: Baja Cantina, Glebe

If you know me, you know my general impression of Mexican restaurants in Sydney.  So it’s with a little reluctance that I start restaurant reviews, because I don’t just want to set up a cranky series of whinging restaurant posts.  However, there are some bright spots on the Sydney scene, so to be fair and balanced I guess I should just plunge on in.

I’m going to be judging restaurants the same way I did in Austin, using the salsa and the fajitas as a baseline.  If a companion gets some other dish at dinner (and gives me a portion!) I’ll describe that, but if I’m out alone and don’t think I’ll get by the joint again, these two dishes are going to be my barometer of Mexican goodness.  I’m really not going to go into the whole Tex-Mex vs. Mexican thing too much.  That’s just quibbling.  So whether I call them fajitas or carne asada or tampiquena, I’ll at the very least be sampling these two items consistently.

I went to Baja Cantina just at sundown on a Sunday, and after a short wait they took me to the back patio seating area.  Once the sun went down this area became quite dark and gloomy.  I’d go for some tacky christmas lights rather than the 2 or 3 scattered fluorescent tubes.

Once seated, my order was taken within about 5 minutes, and some chips and salsa appeared about 15 minutes later.  My food arrived about 40 minutes after I sat down.

The tomato salsa was sweet and vinegary, seasoned with pickled jalapenos.  I thought I tasted commercial (canned) tomato sauce, diced freshed tomatoes, and onion.  I was pretty hungry and I finished it off.  It was bright and had a decent spice kick, but didn’t knock my socks off.  The chips were quite thick, and seemed homemade.  They were *crunchy* rather than *crispy*, which made for an interesting textural experience.  I think I prefer a thinner chip.

When the fajitas arrived on their sizzling skillet I was famished.  I tried to take a picture of the dish, but my iphone’s weak little flash couldn’t combat the dark gloom, and the photos came out kind of scary-looking.  Sorry about that.  The beans were quite salty and a little tired, perhaps from steam table fatigue.  The mexican rice had a not unpleasant bitter flavor to it and I felt it was a pretty passable effort.  The meat was a quite chewy cut.  I went round and round whether it was skirt steak (the traditional fajita cut) but ultimately couldn’t decide.  The marinade was decidedly unassertive, didn’t blow me away.  Overall the extreme chewiness and the lack of a strong flavour earned them a C score.   The assembled fajita taco, with guacamole, salsa, and some lettuce, was generally pleasant – it scratched the itch, but I couldn’t escape the feeling that the flavours were a little off, they didn’t gel like a well-marinated, well-cooked steak and utterly fresh condiments can.

I had to ask twice for corn tortillas, and when they arrived, they were cold and crumbly-cardboardy – clearly someone in the kitchen didn’t understand corn tortillas – they should be served hot, pliable, and melt-in-your-mouth.

I paid my bill and wandered home back down Glebe Point Road, past the Flying Fajita Sistas joint, which I will review soon.  My friend Audra gave me a great recommendation for a place in Pyrmont, which I think I’ll review next, because I want to have some good reviews in here too!