Eat Drink Hong Kong

At first this didn’t look like it would be an all that comfortable place to eat. The music was loud and the tables seemed a bit pokey and suitable only for drinking at. I was about to pass on by when I noticed a flight of stairs to the right.

I asked the waitress if there were more tables upstairs. “You want to go upstairs?” she asked somewhat surprised. I’d like to take a look I told her.

Upstairs was much better. The music wasn’t so loud and there were tables that looked like you could eat at them. Cafe Iguana serves Mexican food. You don’t need a menu to tell you that. One wall is green the others are yellow. They are hung with paintings featuring colours from the red end of the spectrum. A pile of sombreros lay to one side.

It’s not a big menu but what it does it does well. Four variations of guacamole are the first items. I ordered a Poblano ($68) and a bottle of Carta Blanca beer ($50). Poblano is a mild type of chilli pepper from Mexico. It adds a gentle spiciness to the avocado. Also in the mix was corn and asadero cheese. It is served with tortilla chips which are used to scoop it up.

The cocktail menu, on the other hand, is quite impressive. Patron, Don Julio and Herradura and the three main tequila brands used but for connoisseurs there are almost 50 others in stock. I do like tequila but I prefer to save it for weekends and days when I don’t have to remember what I was doing the night before.

From the tortilla section I had ordered the Carnita ($98). This is pork braised in orange and tequila and garnished with another dollop of guacamole. They are served open on freshly made tortillas. They roll up fairly easily but what impressed me the most was that the contents stayed inside. Usually when I try to eat things like this half of it falls into my lap.

Following this came the Alambres Al Pastor ($138). This is a large skewer of barbecued goodies. The waitress had asked if I preferred prawn or chicken. I suggested a mix of both and off she went to consult the chef.

The skewer itself is hung horizontally over a plate of roasted lime-oregano potatoes. On the skewer, alongside the prawn and chicken were red and green peppers, onion and pineapple. I don’t normally approve of pineapple in a dish like this but this time it was sharp and tangy so it worked quite well.

I finished off with a rather agreeable coconut flan garnished with blueberries and crispy coconut shavings.

When I left there still were not too many people upstairs although the ground floor seem fairly well populated. But it’s still a very new place, things will probably change as it becomes better known