Mexican food is new to the Indian market, although I found about a decade back that it is pretty close to Indian taste. I started to like Mexican when I traveled to US about a decade back. Back in India, now we have more than a few Mexican eateries opening up in last few years and Bengaluru is leading from the front. These are on both ends of the segment ranging from fast food to fine dining. Mamma Mexicana is mid range and has chosen a nice spot for its restaurant, at 1 MG Road Mall. MG Road is one of the busiest roads in Bengaluru, in fact visited by literally every tourist coming to Bengaluru. The restaurants in the area serve to a mixed clientele. I’d been longing to have Mexican food for some time so I chose Mamma Mexicana.
The Location
1 MG Road Mall is at the trinity junction of MG Road opposite to Taj Vivanta hotel. It has a good range of shops available so frequented by a number of young people and tourists. They have dedicated the top floor (5th) to international cuisine restaurants. Mamma Mexicana is one of the 4-5 of these restaurants.
Address: 5th Floor, 1 MG Road Mall, MG Road, Bengaluru – 560001
Phone: 9886670606
The Hours
The restaurant is open from 11AM to 11PM. Reservations is a good idea for a weekend evening. Paid parking is available in the mall.
The Ambiance
The 5th floor of 1 MG Road mall has a small lookout to the busy MG Road, the restaurant has a typical small garden gate opening to a fountain. The back wall has a Mexican mosaic painting while Saturday’s evenings have live solo music performances. A nice soothing experience overall.
The Service
The tables were waited promptly and repeat orders came in quickly. Waiters seemed to influence the choice of meals as they were out of stock on a few items. I would have expected that they had good stock for a early Saturday evening and it was a bit disappointing specially for the most famous Indian beer.
My final bill for some reason was divided into two, which I really didn’t bother and chose to pay and move out. Given a chance I would not have gone for a mandatory 10% service charge.
The Price
Mamma Mexicana is a mid range restaurant and you can expect to pay about INR 1200 ($20) for a meal for two without drinks while the drinks range from INR 180 ($3) to INR 350 ($6).
The Food
The restaurant serves mostly Mexican, however there are a few basic Italian dishes as well on the menu, although I stuck to the Mexican. For the starters, I went with Nachos with my Margarita drink. They came nicely dressed in sour cream, guacamole and cheese, however I felt the serving size could have been slightly bigger, as some of their competitors give free refills. The Margarita drink was just a usual one as well. The other starter options include Mollets and Camaro’n Tijuana (Mexican styled shrimps). They have a few soup items like American Seafood Chowder and Tortilla Soup available, which I did not try.
Mexican main course includes the basics like Burrito, Tacos, Enchiladas and Chimichangas (with choice of vegetable/ chicken and seafood) while they have some Tex-Mex burgers and a Steak. We tasted the Burrito and Chimichangas and they were fairly ordinary.
In the dessert menu, we tried All American Mud Pie, again nothing stood out as such.
Overall, I think they are only good for a quick meal if you don’t want to go with regular fast foods on your visit to the mall not really for “Disfrute de la velada”.