I guess one of the perks of a highly active social life in Split means that you become friends with essentially everyone: bartenders, restaurant owners, backpackers and even the guy at your 24 hour convenience store. A perk of being friends with essentially everyone means that when one of your said bar or restaurant friends has a new idea or concept they want to try out in Split, you get to be the guinea pig. And getting to be the guinea pig/taste tester for new Mexican restaurant opening in Split (I’m also from California so my friendship may not matter as much as my tastebuds…) makes you feel pretty special, either way.
Without giving away too much information (but painfully teasing you throughout the remainder of this article) a brand spankin’ new Mexican/Latin American restaurant will be opening in the city center, and it will be opening soon (like this week soon).
I know the idea of tacos are still very foreign to Croatians. Hey, we just figured out what burritos were a few years ago and we are making “so-called” burritos everywhere now, or we’re at least trying to. I guess essentially the entire concept of Mexican or Latin American food is foreign to Croatians, but once they get a load of this, I promise we’ll have converters left and right.
The menu will be simple, serving up tacos, burritos, quesadillas, nachos, no-carb taco salads (for all you waist watchers) and a selection of appetizers from queso dip (a Tex-Mex specialty) to various salsas. They’ll even be making a Gazpacho (for those of you that don’t know, that’s a southern Spanish tomato based soup, served cold).
All of their corn tortillas will be homemade, and they’ll even be making their own tortilla chips! Margaritas will be pumping in the blender and I honestly hope that they’ll be playing some authentic mariachi music to complete the full effect.
I very fortunately got to taste the queso dip (OMG), a pico de gallo salsa and a spicy salsa. I had a plate of one spicy shrimp taco (marinated spicy shrimp in a corn tortilla topped with tomatoes, jalapenos, and pineapples with a spicy white sauce), a beer-battered fish taco (homemade corn tortilla, beer battered fish, spicy white sauce, topped with red cabbage and chopped jalapenos), and a bite of my other very lucky friend’s al pastor taco (pork marinated with chiles, pineapple and spices).
Each taco plate came with a side of white rice, topped with this magnificent stew of red beans, peppers and onions.
Full, happy, and still in disbelief that I was eating such menu items minutes from Diocletian’s palace, Miss California “I know everything about Mexican food” was impressed. And I already know come opening day (which is later this week), I’ll be snagging tacos left and right, asking my friend to pay for the gym membership I’ll be needing for the next two years.
Thank you for bringing my favorite cuisine to the city I love so dearly. Me versus tacos until the end of eternity.
More info coming soon!
