Los Amates

Matt Preston, Reviewer
November 14, 2006

An authentic Mexican restaurant, Los Amates has potential.

Los Amates has potential.

Los Amates has potential.
Photo: Gary Medlicott

34 Johnston St, Fitzroy
(03) 9417 0441
Tue-Thur, Sun 6pm-10pm; Fri-Sat 6pm-11pm; Sun 11.30am-2.30pm
BYO, Late Dining
Bankcard, Visa, EFTPOS, AMEX, Mastercard, Diners Club
Price Guide
Entrees $5.90-$12.90; mains $20-$25; desserts $5.50-$8.50. Corkage: $5.

CALL me a slave to Yankee corporate imperialism but I see nowt wrong in settling down with a big bowl of nachos loaded with orange queso, sour cream, salsa and avocado slurry, and washing it down with a jug of some alcoholic slushie claiming to be a margarita.

It's just that this isn't really Mexican food - even if the restaurant in question does have sombreros pinned to the walls and cactus-shaped dunny brushes.

Over the years, however, the occasional lone voice has emerged promising the real food of Mexico. Yet no sooner have I developed a taste for corn smut or the dizzying potential of a true pounded mole sauce, aptly named "table-cloth stainer", than they disappear into the scrub with far emptier pockets.

The latest of these lone rangers is Arturo Morales. Three years ago he opened Los Amates with the commendable notion of exploring the rich regional heritage of the true Mexican kitchen.

The printed menu looks to the central regions of Mexico and it's full of familiar dishes such as nachos, beef tacos and enchiladas. We order soft tortillas with a herb-flecked bowl of firm potato and chorizo bits reminiscent of an under-cooked hash. All wrapped up, these tacos are simple but good with a smear of slightly astringent salsa verde - even if we saw none of the menu-promised sour cream. This omission rather fitted our impression of Los Amates being a slightly haphazard operation - an impression formed early that evening when phone calls to book a table elicited four responses: 1. they weren't near the reservation book; 2. they were full; 3. they weren't open tonight; and 4. a table at 8.30pm was fine!

And while we're whining, the wooden tabletop was stickier than flypaper.

If you want to eat something more unusual then look to the specials board. While tamales in Colombia or El Salvador might be loaded with fillings, here it's a thin seam of chicken or pork that runs through the mass of steamed cornmeal flavoured with whipped pork lard. It's peasant food - filling, cheap and, unfortunately, boring.

My white pozoles is far more interesting. A salty pork broth is full of little porky bits, sliced radish, shredded iceberg lettuce and hominy - kernels of fluffy-surfaced white corn that remind me of pulled molars. You add a squeeze of lemon, a little dried Mexican oregano and some dried chilli to finish off this light soup.

While the use of canned hominy is a shortcut, there's a sense their mole negro has been made in the proper and very time-consuming way. The sauce is smooth and the flavours of the smoked and dried chillies, spices and bitter chocolate are integrated so it never tastes like someone has melted a bar of Cadbury's Old Gold over the escalopes of chicken. It's a commendable dish.

Desserts are limited but the pastel de elote - a moist corn cake flavoured with molasses-rich piloncillo (Mexican sugar) - is excellent. There are more than a dozen fancy tequilas, a selection of Mexican beers, frothed up Mexican hot chocolate and spiced Mexican coffee for cinnamon lovers.

Los Amates has potential. I hope Morales sticks around for a while before he saddles up and leaves. Melbourne needs an authentic Mexican.


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