Mezcla Japanese-Mexican Fusion

Checked out Mezcla, the newest brand in The Feather Blade and Rappu family. The restaurant sells itself on its Japanese-Mexican taco bar fusion menu. So instead of a seaweed wrap like a handroll (temaki) at Rappu, Mezcla did it tortilla-style or with grilled and crisp seaweed.  

There are only two tables outdoors that could seat four or five. I don't mind the heat. I mind that one table is just next to the giant dustbin, and that floor is almost always wet and dirty. Those floors generally hold a lot of cigarette ash. And a clean floor under outdoor tables is very important to me. Tonight, I asked for thick napkins and squatted down to dry and brush the floor.  

The ceviche of the day was hugely disappointing. Today it used yellowtail, and was garnished with usukuchi pickled roma tomato and lime zest. The garnish was fine. The fish wasn't cured properly and had no flavors and was pretty much rubbish. The Unicorn was decent and came in a serving of 2 pieces and was pretty much uni on a purple tortilla chip with grilled corn and Cotija cream.

The man pretty much wanted everything on the tacos menu. Okaaaay. I wanted the chipotle tofu wrapped in spinach tortilla, habanero, pickled cabbage slaw, onions and tomatoes. We had to order that $32-a-piece uni and scallop with seaweed taco, ikura, togarashi mayo and pickled onions. Some decent flavors going on, but needs refining. It's currently rather rough; I guarantee you that any one of us could reproduce these flavors at home, and better. If you want handrolls, stick to Rappu. I don't have much love for tortillas.........

It's got cocktails and $13 margaritas in tiny glasses. That would do. I went easy on those. Tequila would kill me. The man actually bothered to have a Mezcal Negroni to end the night with. He said it was good. Mezcla is definitely a tad over-hyped as a restaurant. But luckily for us, we didn't come for the hype. We were there because it was convenient that night, and it had an outdoor table for us. Okay then!