El Columpio

Roll up your sleeves: things are about to get saucy. Almost everything at this colourful eatery – a Mexico City native’s taste of home – is made to be held. The torta, Mexico’s national sandwich, is among our city’s finest: crusty bolillo rolls are ugly-delicious with hunks of aromatic, fall-apart beef brisket plus melted Oaxaca cheese coating the outside.

Guajillo chilli-marinated pork tacos are so stacked and sauced they’ll spatter your pastel-hued plate, while the lamb barbacoa tacos are a Friday-to-Sunday specialty served with consomme. A metres-high sign on the frontage spruiks the signature dish: pozole, a deeply nourishing soup seldom seen in Melbourne, fragrant with oregano and bobbing with chewy hominy (maize kernels).

What El Columpio lacks in frills, it makes up for in high-calibre Mexican thrills, offering freewheeling good times with mezcal-spiked cocktails – and the occasional mariachi band.

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