Kara Monssen reviews a CBD Mexican restaurant with a twist

Click PLAY to hear Kara Monssen’s review on 3AW Breakfast 

Would you like grasshoppers with your fries?

Hacienda may have some scary sounding menu items at play, but know chef Ross McCombe’s new Mexican restaurant in Southbank is wildly approachable at every turn.

Take those chippies: thin, leggy and golden fried, they’re tumbled in a classic sweet and salty mix that’s almost identical to your chicken shop fave. Except here, chef McCombe adds chapulines, a dehydrated mix of grasshoppers and worms sourced from a friend in Mexico City. Don’t worry, I certainly couldn’t taste any creepy crawlies in my chips!

Maybe you’ll give Hacienda’s house-made horchata a whirl; a tall, chilled glass of sweetened rice milk that goes gangbusters south of the border.

There’ll be no judgement for ordering this as an adult: toasty with a sweet biscuit bent, it makes for wildly delicious drinking if you’re off the tequila or mescal bandwagon.

Chef McCombe has worked in some of the world’s fanciest restaurants, including The Ledbury in London, Sydney’s Tetsuya’s and Quintonil in Mexico. He also lived in Mexico City for seven years and continues to run a restaurant there, so trust he knows his way around a taco.

If you’re after a straightforward Mexican feast, Hacienda can arrange that too.

Smashed avo nachos and pork tacos, wrapped snug in McCombe’s daily-made tortillas, are worth a look in.

Those pork-filled wraps ($25 for three) see a mixed bag of slow-cooked Western Plains pig meat, smooshy fat and puffy crackle tucked into those tortillas with fine dice of apple and habanero. Note, we’re at a three out of five spice level, folks, with a persistent tingle humming from first to last bite.

For crunch, try the crab tostadas ($28 for three), shatter-fine tostada (deep-fried tortillas) frisbees piled with cold crabmeat, a zippy habanero mayo and radishes. The texture, chilly breeze, punchy spice and limey freshness— what fun!

Maybe you’ll crave something richer; grilled oysters bubbling with chorizo and burnt butter ($36/$64) should do the trick, or perhaps something more substantial.

I’d steer clear of the picana: a medium-rump cap steak mossed over in green peppercorn chimichurri alongside an indulgent mashed potato and gravy ($55).

Unless you fancy making sense of a Sunday roast taco, the meat is too tough to chomp inside the tortilla and needs cutlery to get the job done.

I’d choose the beef short rib or suckling pig in future.

Each main also comes with a sack of free tortillas (three, but more on request) for your wrapping and dipping pleasure. Yet Hacienda isn’t really the place to long for a main, as you’d get by on snacks and drinks, easily.

Speaking of, cocktails lean signature and classic from $25 a pop, with plenty of tap and bottle beers, a slim yet functional wine list, and even lesser known agave spirits such as raicilla (roasted agave) or sotol (grass spirit).

Choose your own adventure at Hacienda. Test the taste buds or revisit the classics. And if anything, have a bit of fun.