Pancho's - Victoria Park

Ok, I'll admit it. I don't often eat Mexican, and didn't know the difference between Tortillas and Enchilladas until a few months ago. I went into this a bit green, mostly based on my experiences with chili con carne and kebabs. Overall, I was impressed with Pancho's even though I was a bit of a newcomer to Mexican food.

We did need to wait a bit, the place was very busy which was surprising for a Tuesday night! I was hungry walking in, there were some spices in the air but not as thick as an Indian restaurant.

I was very impressed with the Gluten Free menu (even though I don't need to eat from it) However, the menu was a bit confusing to me with limited experience and a lot of traditional Spanish words in the descriptions. Roughly half the menu was appetisers, I didn't feel too enthusiastic about chicken with Mexican as I figured that the most authentic tastes would be from red meats.I settled on something in the chef's suggestions which basically was sizzling chorizo with tortillas, cheese, sour cream, spicy tomato sauce, lettuce, diced tomatoes and a 'salad'.

I am a big fan of chorizo and don't get to eat it often. I was very happy to receive my order quickly since I was pretty hungry. The chorizo, was indeed served sizzling, as Chinese would serve sizzling beef etc. It was an immense serve, half of it was sliced chorizo sausage and the other half a heap of what seemed to be a weak cabbage, capsicum and broccoli based salad which was insipid. Soggy vegetables are one of my pet hates when eating out, and these were basically left untouched.

Moving to the tortillas, they were quite pleasant and soft. The side dish could have been physically bigger which would have helped me heap the shredded iceberg lettuce, mozzarella cheese and diced tomatoes on. The waitress had asked me whether I wanted mild, medium or hot, and the 'medium' tomato sauce had absolutely nothing in it! I'll be going hot next time. I managed to portion myself fairly well onto the four tortillas, spreading the sauces, crisp chorizo and adding condiments. As you know, I am a lazy eater and like as much done for me as possible so I slightly hoped that these would have been prepared and rolled for me but I guess this gives me complete control of how much of each ingredient I wanted. The tortillas were surprisingly filling and the sour cream became a little much at the end and began make me feel heavy.

The meal became quite messy with a small plate and dripping tomato (think lots of little kebabs). The tastes worked quite well together, but perhaps some diced Spanish onion (instead of rings) could have given the dish zing, or guacamole could have mellowed it out. I'd suggest both of these as options for the sauces, allowing the diners to choose their next tortilla's personality. The 'salad' could have been eliminated completely and it would not have impacted the meal at all.

I would have loved a Fanta with the meal but I don't do very well with soft drink.

I felt a little queasy at the end of the meal as I had overdone the sour cream a bit and ate too quickly. Overall a fun, quite tasty and very affordable outing! Four stars.