Mezcalito - The Italian - Mexican Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Sintra

I met Mario and his GF (the owners) as I was walking by, and they sold me on trying the Mexican food. Having grown up in California and Texas and having tried Mexican food a number of places in Europe and being thoroughly disappointed, I was very skeptical. But I was intrigued. So I tried the cochinita pibil, which I was told is a favorite of the Mexican tourists who've tried it and say it is very authentic.

I was told to prepare for spice as it was spicy, but it was not (maybe by European standards)? However, it was extremely flavorful, the pork was delicious and soft, with a fantastic shredded texture and lots of slow-cooked seasoning shining through! The traditional onions of the dish were very good and complemented the pork very well. The proprietors told me I would not be disappointed, and they were right.

For the side dishes, they offer some homemade pico de gallo (good, generally accurate taste and texture), white rice (just basic white rice - I would prefer if it was cilantro lime rice or maybe a yellow rice to bring more flavor), and black beans (good, but too wet for basic black beans, or lacking the ingredients for properly flavorful Mexican black beans).

The crew here also makes a spicy oil-based pepper hot sauce in-house which can help kick up the heat if you're craving more. They also make an in-house picante style salsa, using tomatoes and the pico de Gallo plus some additional seasoning, and it's pretty decent. Throw some of the spicy pepper oil on it and it's a pretty good facsimile of a medium-hot salsa just like home!

I highly recommend the cochinita pibil tacos, a side of chips and salsa, and ask for the hot pepper oil to add to taste. They make a very good margarita on the rocks, and that tops off the tacos perfectly. 👍

Mario and his family are excellent, providing details and input on the process, and happy to help with requests. I wish him and his family all...

The vegetarian food and service here is really great, significantly above my expectations, and margaritas were affordable and nice as well! I was honestly a bit worried as a vegetarian to go here, went after the fancier restaurant I wanted to try was fully booked. Wife and I were delighted by the enchiladas and veggie cheese tacos- the sauces were super good, there were great textures and crunch thanks to some cool uses of nuts, the tofu was shockingly well prepared. Talked with the owner, he was saying that while he is a meat eater himself, he really appreciates the importance of making vegetarian dishes fun and interesting rather than as a side note. Furthermore, the spicy chocolate cake was awesome- one of the only truly spicy chocolate dishes I’ve ever tried. The chef was telling me how she makes her own recipe from crushed peppers and cacao. 10/10 would come back and would recommend. Nice fun casual spot, and nice low prices as well. Added bonus- the margaritas were pretty darn good and I think only 6.5...

Lovely service but the food was poor all round.

Nachos cold with cheese squeezed out of a tube (when menu says Cheddar), ditto sour cream, ditto jalpeno.

Hoping the enchilada would be better. Sadly not. Pine nuts substituted with walnut halves. Raw spinach inside. Drowned in sauce and cheese. Flavourless and unappetising. Good enough to satisfy hunger and thats all.

They need to ensure the items prepared actually match whats on the menu, and they desperately need a new chef. In fact, they do not really need a chef -- anyone with food assembly...