Pancho's Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Sydney

Pancho's Riverwood

Service 4/5 Food 4/5 Authenticity 3/5

Good food, good service, brings back memories from the early 2000's.

Late dinner on a Saturday night, for four people. We arrived around 9pm, so missed the normal Saturday crowd. Pancho's has been a local haunt for our group of friends back when it was located in Mortdale, when good mexican was very hard to find. I guess the disclaimer is, I like this place because of the memories of Friday and Saturday nights where babysitters, childcare and the rising cost of nappies weren't the order of conversation.

So, food. We order beef nachos and chilli con queso to share and a combination meal each. I picked the Tijuana Burritos plate, which has a beet burrito, chicken taco and beef taquito (served with rice, beans and sour cream).

Nachos are ok - the ratio of topping to chips was spot on. The guacamole dip was pretty bland (my only complaint)

Chilli Con Queso dip - I had really fond memories of this, but honestly it was not how I remember and really missed the mark.

Tiguana Burritos - was exactly what I remembered!!! So good and even the rice and beans (which let's face it 'rice and beans' are going to be bland) were good!

If you managed to read all the way down to the end of this review, then I guess the big idea with Pancho's is....

It's good local mexican, with a team that have served the St George Area for around 20 years. The food is good, you could travel to Glebe to find better, but there is something to be said for supporting the locals and making new memories with friends...

This is the best Mexican restaurant in Sydney.

I know this because I have been searching without luck for years. Forget ALL the ones that pop up on a google search for ‘best Mexican restaurant in Sydney’ and head for Riverwood. If you love proper Mexican food and like me you know it doesn’t exist in this city, this is your place.

Food is all freshly made. The burritos are better than the tacos (the shells of which are a little bit oily, go for soft tacos) and there are no black beans, which is a shame, but these are the only negatives based on one visit last night.

We had the chilli con queso dip starter which was supremely tasty and had nice hidden jalapeños in it. The guac is spot on, with fresh corn chips. Then as I mentioned the burrito I had in my combo as a main was better than the taco. The veggie platter my wife had was nice too, mildly-greasy taco shell excepted. We didn’t go for any extra heat but it’s available if you want it.

The flavours are awesome and everything is beautifully cooked and presented. Isabelle makes a mean margarita, too!

Forget all the expensive (and mysteriously, well-rated) try-hards in the CBD, this is it. Finally, after so much disappointment, I’ve found a Mexican restaurant in Sydney that lives up to the description ‘Mexican’.

Try it if you love Mexican food and have been wandering out of so many other ‘Mexican’ restaurants in Sydney feeling let down. Terrific place and we’ll be back way too often,...

We ordered over $100 worth of varied food from here - and will never be ordering from this restaurant again.

We ordered via Uber Eats, our food was ready in 15 minutes and it makes sense why.

Nachos: Soggy throughout, burnt on the top, the meat/bean filling was bland and the cheese was thick, clumpy, and like glue.

Taco: Misleading as we were expecting 3. Only one, which had warm salad probably because they use a microwave to heat up their pre made food. Filling was soggy, flavourless.

Tacquito: Deep fried more than once which made the tortilla inedible due to its hardness. Barely any beef filling which was tasteless.

Chilli con carne: only good thing about this was the 5 corn chips that came alongside it. Bean/beef filling had no flavour and was extremely soggy.

Enchiladas: inedible. Bland, flavourless, and a complete disappointment. The tortillas were soggy throughout and had no flavour.

All of our food had quite obviously been microwaved right before being sent out.

Do NOT order from here if you intend on having take away. It seems the only positive reviews are those from dine...