El Mexicano Zapata Cantina Hamilton — Restaurant in Hamilton

Many months ago, I was walking along the Hamilton streets and I saw a car that had "El Mexicano Zapata Cantina" written on the side of it. From that moment on, it became my life's mission to find out how I could try the food of El Mexicano Zapata Cantina. I called the Rotorua store and they told me they would actually be opening in Hamilton soon. I was more than excited. Mexican food is my favourite food. My hunger for Mexican food is something that I deal with every single day and sometimes I cry, when I think about how delicious Mexican food is.

Fast forward into the future and El Mexicano Zapata Cantina has arrived here in our city. Located in the old Metropolis Cafe building, they have completely revamped it - taken a slice of a Mexican city and inserted it here into Hamilton. The store looks amazing and they have really put the work in to make it look spectacular. So much colour, and wonderful decorations. The atmosphere is so full of joy. The staff are lovely, nice and also hilarious! The food was fantastic and full of flavour! I felt like I was in heaven! We ordered beef empanadas, which were baked to perfection; a chicken quesadilla which had a nice spice and was perfect to share.. as well as a beef enchilada which was actually to die for! So delicious!!!

This is one of the most delicious and most filling meals I have had in many years. If I could give you guys 10 stars, I would. This was actually all I hoping for and my expectations were definitely met, without a doubt. Chef Tony is a bloody legend 😎 thank you guys so much for providing such good service and great food!! I will be...

My friends and I tried this spot for the first time and this didnt disappoint!

Considering it was 6pm on a Saturday night and we didnt reserve a table we tried our luck as a walk in reservation and were lucky to get an outside table👌🏽 I'd recommend booking as it was a full house inside😊

Staff and service were amazing.. staff were so attentive we had 4 different friendly staff members wait on our table which is so awesome! Sucha welcoming feeling!

Food came out promptly I was very impressed considering our what we ordered.. we actually couldnt fit all our plates on our table😂 Alot of people stopped to look at our table of food with nodds of approval so I'd say you have a few more customers coming your way!😊

Everything we ordered was amazingly good! My favourite was the jalapeno poppers.. ive never seen them so big.. but they were also sooo delicious👌🏽 Ceviche was also a winner for me so refreshing and tasty, Im glad we tried it considering its only available for weekend specials. Awesome variety of sauces, some with a great chillie kick. Oh and the Enchaladas were sooo yumm! Another winner!

Prices are reasonable.. me and two friends ordered a tonne of food to share and taste and our bill came up to $55 each but considering what we order we thought that was sooo cheap!

We ordered the following!🐷😂 EL QUESO CON CHORIZO DIP JALAPEÑO POPPERS x2 MEXICAN FRIED BREAD QUESADILLA - BEEF PAPAS FRITAS con CARNE y QUESO FUNDIDO - CHICKEN ENCHILADA - PORK CEVICHE de PESCADO And drinks!

Overall defs happy this place has opened up in Hamilton. New fave Mexican spot for me! Highly...

Kia ora. We were part of a 7-8 person crew that came in an hour before closing earlier this week, for dinner, and instantly fell in love with the place. Although we were late, we weren't rushed at any point during the night and didn't feel like we needed to hurry along.

Upon walking in you're already captured with all the decorations outside. Than walking in you're greeted with an even more impressive set-up/vibe and couldn't believe how great the shop looked.

We were met by a lovely young Māori waitress (Nevaeah was her name I believe) and she was the best. We all believed that the experience might not have been as good if it wasn't for her energy & welcoming vibes.

Only to be amazed once again by the plethora of options to choose from for the food. Which I might add were fair prices considering the massive size of the plates. Drinks were awesome too as so was the bartender, who I believe was nicknamed 'T'. He was also welcoming and provided the same energy.

All of us got different entree & mains and can wholeheartedly say that each & every one of those dishes that were brought out, were absolutely beautiful. Could not fault any of them.

One of our friends knew the boss, Tony, and managed to pull him down from the office which I felt was really cool as he made an effort to come down and meet us and check on how we were enjoying the night.

We all agreed that we are now making that our new spot for our weekly food meet-ups. Cannot stress enough how great our experience was and recommend this shop to anyone & everyone. 100/10. Thank you to the staff. Keep up...