I’m perched on a stool, elbows resting on dusky-pink tiles, taking in one of Melbourne’s most beautiful restaurants.
asserted
elbows → perch → restaurants
It’s not a flawless stunner; more like a model with a gap-toothed smile.
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It → ’ → smile
Bare mortar crawls up the brick walls in a windowless room, the kitchen and potwash are in full view, and tables are constructed out of old Coca-Cola crates.
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tables → crawl → crates
Candles flicker (the main source of light) and at regular intervals sit clusters of flowers in reds, creams and more dusty pinks.
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clusters → flicker → reds
It feels like being in a church.
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It → feel → church
It’s used not just for tacos, but mulitas, gringas, taquitos and vampiros, part of the enormous category dubbed “Mexican food” that we see only a fraction of in Australia.
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we → use → Australia
Taqueria Sin Nombre’s owners Katherine Simkins, Paul Walcutt and chef Isaac Castellano also run Dingo Ate My Taco, a food truck that’s now joined by an Abbotsford restaurant that spotlights the “Texican” border food Walcutt grew up eating.
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Walcutt → run → food
This spot, which opened last September, is their homage to Mexico’s taquerias: fast, casual, affordable eateries often serving regional street-food specialties.
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which → open → specialties
Mulitas and taquitos are part of a bracket of snacky things, although really the whole menu is a collection of antojitos: items you’ll eat in a few bites, most probably with your hands.
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you → eat → hands
Two round blue corn tortillas make up the “sandwich” that is the mulita, cradling a rubble of flame-coloured chorizo and white Oaxacan cheese that stretches into extravagantly long strands.
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that → make → strands
Phones may be whipped out to capture cheese pull content.
uncertain
Phones → whip → content
The vampiro, a Sinaloan dish, dares you to take it on.
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vampiro → dare → it
Two crunchy tortillas precariously bookend pork, onion, pineapple, avocado salsa and cheese.
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tortillas → bookend → pork
It will end in a mess.
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It → end → mess
That’s how it’s supposed to be.
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it → ’ → ?
Prawns zarandeados is a beachy favourite in Mexico, served with the same abandon here.
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zarandeados → serve → abandon
I’m not sure if it’s the under-the-radar dishes, the mysterious identity (“taqueria without a name”), or the even more cloak-and-dagger location, but this restaurant has become a darling of the internet.
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restaurant → ’m → internet
Hidden in a laneway off a laneway in the CBD’s Chinatown, Taqueria is easiest to find by looking for the queue, which starts about an hour before opening time.
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which → hide → time
Staff periodically come out to chat to new arrivals and get their party size, and every 90 minutes or so, they offer snacks.
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they → come → snacks
On one rainy evening, they handed out umbrellas.
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they → hand → umbrellas
Inside, things run the way I imagine Taylor Swift’s tour does: efficient and calm, everyone playing their role.
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everyone → run → role
They might point you toward the salsa station, where you load up on lime and four kinds of salsa – mild to assertive.
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you → point → salsa
The bar is the best spot to appreciate the theatre of a restaurant that’s in full swing, every part humming, each moment thrilling.
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moment → appreciate → swing
In AFL, small yet significant actions that can change the result are known as “one per centers”.
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that → change → centers
Taqueria Sin Nombre is built entirely from these.
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Nombre → build → these
Four kinds of tortilla spanning flour and corn are laboriously made in-house every day.
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kinds → span → house
For the tomatillo salsa, a key condiment in Mexico, the restaurant buys an astonishing two tonnes of the tart green fruit in summer, then peels and freezes them to use almost year-round.
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restaurant → buy → them
The centrepiece of the kitchen, the vertical spit known as a trompo, can take an hour to load up with thinly sliced pork brushed in a chilli-pineapple marinade.
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centrepiece → know → marinade
The straight-outta-Coyoacan shirts the staff wear, inspired by a classic taqueria uniform, were designed by a Mexican-Australian couple who run Texan design firm Saucehaus.
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who → wear → Saucehaus
Tacos rotate often and can lead you down the road of excess – the brisket costra lays butter-soft smoked meat on scorched cheese – or to the crunchy salvation of fried fish with shredded cabbage.
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costra → rotate → cabbage
A good in between is the al pastor, one of the best I’ve had in Australia, with hot, fatty, crisped-up pork and the pucker of pickled pineapple.
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I → have → pineapple
The kanga asada, a ’roo taco treated like asada beef, might be a new Oz-Mex delicacy.
uncertain
asada → treat → beef
A separate vegetarian menu exists; just ask!
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menu → exist → ?
Yes, lining up for food seems silly, especially in a part of the city that’s dense with dumplings, Thai noodles, Sichuan hot pot, Korean barbecue and more.
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that → line → dumplings
But our Mexican restaurant options are far behind those cuisines, and the yawning gap in anything beyond standard-issue tacos, quesadillas and burritos has only recently started to fill.
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gap → yawn → tacos
This room – with its sense of drama, the clarity of these salsas, the made-that-day tortillas – literally cannot be found elsewhere in Melbourne.
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room → make → Melbourne
Until that changes, you’ll find me in a grungy alley surrounded by the dumpster bins, HVAC units and kitchen exhausts of Chinatown.
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you → find → Chinatown
And at the other end of the line, I’ll reach the rare breed of restaurant that is both viral and vital.
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that → reach → restaurant
Go-to dishes: Brisket costra taco ($10); escabeche ($8); al pastor taco ($8); fried fish taco ($9); vampiro ($15); prawns zarandeados ($32)
Drinks: Tequila and mezcal cocktails; Mexican beers and soft drinks; micheladas
Cost: About $100 for two, excluding drinks
This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine.
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review → go → magazine
Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently.
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reviews → book → ?
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
