Viva México — Restaurant in North Island

We stopped here for lunch on ANZAC day and boy what a great place we ended up picking. I had the Quesadillas suizas (chicken in a wrap with cheese, green salsa and black beans) and it was exquisite! I couldn't believe how good the flavour profile was. The chicken was soft but not mushy, and delicately flavoured. The wrap was soft and chewy, but not tough. You could cut it with your fork. The green salsa had a great sourness to it which cuts through the creaminess of the chicken and the fatiness of the cheese. There's a slight spiciness in the salsa which was well rounded and delicious. The black beans were flavoured just enough to be not bland on its own, cooked to be soft but still retained enough firmness which gave good texture. Together paired with the quesadilla it gave the right balance in flavour richness, and evened out the spicy in the salsa. I loved it. The pickles onions were a welcome palate cleanser for everything else on the plate (and didn't have the overpowering flavour raw onion has and that, I hate! Bonus points for me) and the astringency of it added a great depth of flavour. My friends had Tamales de rajas and Pescado a la veracruzana which were also amazing. The tamales ended up being the spiciest out of the 3 dishes we had and the corn dough was very filling. The fish and sauce/condiment paired well with the chilli rice. In my opinon all 3 dishes had a wonderful flavour profile and I will definitely come back again next time I'm visiting Wellington. The service was good, the staff was attentive although it did take about 30 mins for food to be served after ordering - unsure if it was because there was less staff rostered for a public holiday; since the restaurant wasn't very busy when we were there. They also have a great music playlist. tl;dr - best Mexican food I've had to date, extra yummy, would...

This is my third Mexican restaurant visit in recent months. The food didn't seem fresh, particularly the enchiladas dish. The black bean paste had a crust on it that can be seen in the photo, presumably from sitting in a warmer for some hours, and the rice also had a crust that had to be ‘cracked’ to get into. Walking by the kitchen to our table I saw the kitchen staff banging upside-down rice moulds on the plates to release it. The only thing on the plate that felt fresh was the salad. This would also explain why the dishes arrived so quickly. The Flautas are apparently filled with marinated chicken, chipotle and cheese, but what the photo doesn’t show is that they are so incredibly thin it’s impossible to discern anything beyond a white product inside them, and they too were sat atop a dried-out mound of black bean. The Queso Fundido wasn’t much fun either. The chunks of unmelted cheese in the bottom didn’t add to the dish and it lacked flavour. Why pre-heat and dry out the black bean and rice? Why rush the Queso to the point the cheese isn’t melted, and therefore not 'molten'? If this food is, as they say on their website, ‘the real deal’, then I’ll settle for the ‘fake’ Mex I've had elsewhere lately and...

I happened to walk past Viva Mexico, saw there were tables and chairs outside, so I thought I would be able to order something and eat it there. It was sort of busy inside, not crazy, there were no customers waiting at the counter, so I went up and asked if I could order a slice of cake and a cup of tea and have it at the table outside she looked at me strangely, then started talking to another staff member in Spanish. Eventually she said "OK". So I went outside and waited. She brought the cake out in a takeaway container and the tea in a takeaway cup. Even though I had asked if I could eat it at a table outside. I had hoped for a plate for the cake and a cup and saucer for the tea. I went in to ask for a fork and she gave me a filthy look. Then when I realised there was no milk in the tea, I went in to politely ask for some only to be met by one of cooks who asked what I wanted, then proceeded to give me half a teaspoon of milk...

The cake was very nice, but the service was terrible. Expensive lesson learned. Will never...