Street food in the alley at Mamacita's

 20 December 2023

 

MAMACITA’S

The Hari, Harrington Street, Cape Town

 

Mamacita’s purveys alleged Los Angeles street food of the Tex-Mex persuasion but not from a food truck as the term “street food” would suggest but rather from a sleek, chic bistro in the fast expanding East City Precinct. Oh, and there are also tables in the alleyway  between The Hari and the building next door.  That was where we, the basic four-piece fam plus the philosopher son of a late friend, sat.

 

Initially, we thought we could sit inside until we realised that a small four person table wouldn’t do. The suggestion was that we move outside to a larger table and this seemed  like a grand idea until we realised that the larger tables outside are high tables with bar stools.  The younger set saw no issue but the wife and I weren’t keen. We were about to depart for dinner at Vintage India but then the manager guy (I think), ever attentive to our needs, organised the placement of two small tables and five chairs in the alley to form a semi-banquet table.

 

Talk about the extra mile to retain customers. Kudos.

 

The Philosopher drank three draught beers while the rest of us supped deeply from the special cocktail offer, of various types of margarita at reduced prices if you order two.

 

Here also, the food menu gilded old fashioned starters as tapas. It truly is the nom de plume du jour, so to speak, for ordinary items like fries, chicken wings and fille jalapeños.

 

We ordered Buffalo chicken wings (R139), tortilla crisps and guacamole (R105), Baja fish tacos (R129) and deep fried avocado (R109). 

 

The latter had a rather disconcerting shape and colour but tasted better than the visual identity would suggest. It’s not something I’ll ever order again, but the others were taken by it. The tortilla crisps were well crisp and the guacamole was superb.

 

Apparently the chicken wings were tasty and I had a bite of a quite yummy fish taco.

Our Philosopher chose a bean and mushroom nachos dish (R169) as his main course. He claimed that it was supremely tasty yet it was too much to finish despite the alleged excellence. 

 

The elder goddaughter didn’t have a specific main course but had a bite of each of the various dishes. The younger goddaughter and I had the BBQ pulled pork soft tacos (R149)  and the wife went for the paprika aioli pulled beef soft tacos (R149). Plated, on paper on wooden boards, they are lookalikes.

 

The wife and I exchanged tacos. She thought the pork dish was superior to the beef version and though pork trumps other meat in my book, I thought they were both excellent, with tender, succulent, flavourful meat. The pork had a delicate sweetness that added an extra dimension to the layers of flavour.

The contentious issue of the evening concerned the dessert menu or rather, the lack of availability of all items bar one, cheesecake filled churros. The explanation was that Mamacita’s had experienced an unusually busy night the evening before and had sold out 90% of the desserts.  Why this would lead to a  no show the following day, wasn’t clear to me. If it’s on the menu, you must provide.

 

Anyhow, we were interested in the churros, mostly, from my perspective, with a morbid fascination. Not all churros are equal, even in Spain, and I haven’t yet come across proper churros in this country. Mamacita’s promise of freshly made churros was intriguing enough to merit  a try out. However, the classic, simple dish of churros and hot chocolate wasn’t available. It was cheesecake churros or nada. This suggested to me that, perhaps, they weren’t truly freshly made. 

 

Anyhoo, we ordered two portions to share. The churros were light and crisp, the cheesecake filling was smooth and creamy and the accompanying passion fruit cream was delightful.  

 

Although we sat in the alley, and a chill wind blew down the wind tunnel on occasion, it was a really good evening, with cheerful and good service, good food and, of course, good company. The interior was packed with a happy, noisy throng and on reflection it was far more pleasant to be outside. 

 

The bill came to R2191,00 including food and drink and excluding tip.