el Publico, Mt Lawley

Website: http://elpublico.com.au/

El Publico is a modern Mexican Bar and Kitchen on the foodie Beaufort Strip serving traditional Mexican tapas with a modern twist. You can order individually or choose their Feed Me deal which is $45 per person and in our opinion it is far greater value than ordering individually. Upon first inspection of the menu most of the dishes are quite over priced for the quantity you receive. For example one small taco on its own costs around $7! Therefore we decided on the Feed Me deal featured on their website instead.

Fried Chickpeas, Street Prawns, Guacamole & Black Bean with Tortilla Chips

As a word of warning if you wanted to order this from the normal menu, you would have to pay for the Fried Chickpeas, Street Prawns and Tortilla Chips individually and when we did some maths we realised that it would add up to $24.50! Now onto talking about the food, this dish was quite plain for our liking, the guacamole could've had more flavours added to it. The Chickpeas and Street Prawns were crunchy and great as a bar snack but we would prefer a bigger serving. This dish deserved no more than a 5/10.

Mushroom Quesadilla

After being disappointed with the previous dish the Quesadillas pleasantly surprised us. They were succulent, cheesy and had a hint of spice, everything you would want in a Quesadilla. The mushroom gives it a savoury element while the cheese and crispy tortilla gives it body. Paired with the Esquites(in the background) it was a match made in heaven. We rate this dish 8.5/10.

Esquites

If you enjoy your corn, you'll love this dish! The corn was fresh, juicy and sweet, it was cooked with a light creamy sauce. Having this along with the Quesadillas was a tasty combination. The creaminess of this dish neutralised the Quesadillas whilst adding component freshness. We give this dish a rating of 8.5/10.

Beef Shin Taco

One word, delicious! The taco contained beautifully tender shredded beef shin, a fresh mixture of greenery and topped with a tomatoey hot sauce. Every bite of the taco was a party of flavours in your mouth, our only critique was that the tacos were small. We rate this dish 8/10.

Carbon be Mercado San Juan

If you're dining with males, this is the ultimate dish as it contains every type of meat (chorizo, beef, roast pork, chicken drumsticks) and lots of it! We have to say that the chef is quite the connoisseur with the grill, as every meat on this platter was beautiful and tender. The meat that stood out to us the most, was the roast pork which was soft, tender and pulled apart effortlessly with the touch of your fork. We rate this amazing dish 9/10.

Grilled Zucchini Ensalada

The Zucchini Ensalada (salad) was an aspect of freshness that was much needed after all savoury dishes. We added the salad and the meat to the given tortilla bread, which reminded us of Fajitas. Also it was simply a delicious salad on its own. We rate this dish 7.5/10.

Dessert Board

The dessert board contained the Peanut Butter Parfait, Vanilla Ancho Fudge and Coconut Cake with Chocolate and Pistachio. The Coconut Cake was average, the cake itself was quite dry, hard and chewy, the chocolate also didn't do much for it, so we rate it 5/10. The Vanilla Ancho Fudge tasted just like regular vanilla fudge, we couldn't really taste any chilli in it, only the tiny bit sprinkled on top and we rate it 6/10. However the Peanut Butter Parfait blew us away, if you're a peanut butter lover, this is the dessert of your dreams! The peanut butter combined beautifully with the creamy parfait and from the first bite we knew it was a 10/10.

Overall Review

We were told that the Chefs go to Mexico every year for research and inspiration, we can definitely see that in the amazing food. However we wouldn't recommend ordering the dishes individually as they are quite expensive for the average person. So if you're up for a big feed, we recommend choosing the Feed Me deal so you can try the variety that is available at a reasonable price. Overall we thought that the quality of food, the customer service and the atmosphere were all commendable and we give them a rating of 8/10 overall.