Like a rookie (surely it’s to be expected when it’s my first review), I didn’t take any photos of the food and drinks I will be talking about in this review, so hopefully my words can paint a picture of what this place was like and capture the experience we had.
I went to a well-established restaurant in Sydney last night called Tequila Mockingbird. Now when your name is as punny as that, you know you’re off to a good start.
We turned up for our booking and were lead through a small little townhouse which was the home for the restaurant. We were lucky enough to have some of the best seats in the house, up on the second floor in the outside seated area, which had greenery all around (and thankfully a little portable air conditioner as Sydney was in the middle of a heatwave at the time). The only better seats there would be on the little balconies, but I was very happy with our spot. It is the cutest little space, the only thing that struck me though was it boasted itself as an authentic Latin American restaurant with a twist, and the decor didn’t really suit that at all. It was like being in a nice Australian cafe with Latin American music playing in the background. It was a little unusual.
We started off with cocktails, with a whole section dedicated to tequila (as you would expect with a name like Tequila Mockingbird). The Harper Lee references don’t end there though, with cocktails aptly named the Atticus Finch and the Harper Lee Ever After. I ended up getting the Piscojito, a delicious concoction of Barsol Pisco, lime, coriander and ginger beer. Sometimes when choosing cocktails it can be hit or miss, but this one was definitely a hit. I would never have imagined pairing tequila with ginger beer, but it was absolutely delicious and went down far too easily.
We then decided to opt for the Tasting Menu on offer, where you could choose items across the 5 sections of the menu: Raw, Street, Flame, Sides and Sweets. This deal is fantastic value for money and gives you the chance to dig into a lot of different dishes.
Raw: For our raw portion of the menu we went with the dish you can never go wrong with; guacamole. This is the first dish where we discovered the love of lemon within the menu. It was fresh and zesty, and accompanied with chilli flaked tortillas. The perfect start. We also got the ceviche tacos. I am not normally one for ceviche, but my friend wanted to try, and When in Rome! I am so glad that my friend was there to push me to try these, because they were delicious. It didn’t change my mind about ceviche at all, but the sauce and the crispy taco shells paired so well with it that it was easily once of my favourite dishes of the night. Our final Raw dish was a Buffalo Mozzarella with Salsa Verde and puffed black rice corn tortillas. This dish was my choice, and as like the rest so far, it was delicious. The salsa verde had a nice kick to it, which was balanced out well with the buffalo mozzarella. My only qualm with this dish was the ratio of mozzarella to tortilla. There just wasn’t the right amount, but all the flavours paired so well that all will be forgiven.
Street: Despite the Street menu offering all types of different dishes, we decided to stick with tacos. We had heard great things about the soft shelled crab tacos, and the crispy shrimp tacos also sounded too good to pass up. The crispy shrimp tacos were ok, they were yummy, but I think compared with all our other meals so far they were just average. The guajillo salsa was good, but definitely didn’t have the kick I would have hoped for. The soft shelled crab tacos though lived up to their reputation, and were definitely my dish of the night. All the flavours were amazing, and worked so well together. I had never heard of Chipotle Curd before, but it is now something I will never forget. It was unreal. If any of you have ever watched Easy A, imagine me doing the Emma Stone at the Lobster Shack, her eyes rolling around in her head with the sheer deliciousness of it all. I was getting pretty full already, and we were only now just reaching the mains. I wasn’t quite sure how much more my tastebuds could take.
At this point it was also time for another cocktail. This time around I decided to go for the build your own margarita, shaken with Blanco tequila. It was good, but I regretted getting such a plain drink when there was so many amazing options on the menu still to explore. My friend, on the other hand got the Gengibre Y Romero, with Corralejo Reposado, Canton ginger liquer, yuzu juice, lime juice, rosemary, cracked pepper and a salt & rosemary rim. This is a drink I would never have gotten for myself because the rosemary didn’t appeal to me, but after trying it I realised that the rosemary was what brought it all together. It was a fantastic drink, and one you could sit back and drink all night.
Flame: And now it was time for the main meal. After much debate we landed on the BBQ lamb shoulder with an Argentinian chimichurri. Lamb is not something I often get, so we thought it would be a good thing to try. It did not disappoint. The meat was moist, and almost didn’t even need the accompanying Chimichurri because it could have stood all on its own. We didn’t quite finish it all, but this wasn’t a reflection of how yummy this meal was, but more just how full we were by this time.
Sides: We went with something light and green for our side, the charcoal Broccolini with a tequila dressing and pea mole. Tequila as a dressing is an intriguing thing, but sadly the flavours of the tequila didn’t really come through with this dish. It was still another yummy side, and went well with the lamb shoulder, but not quite what I was expecting.
Sweets: We finally made it to the last dish. Now, I am not much of a sweet tooth, but when it’s there you can’t say no. We got the strawberry mousse with almond dacquoise, green apple sorbet, tequila strawberries. It was the green apple sorbet and tequila strawberries that really sold it to us. It was kind of like eating a strawberry flavoured pavlova, and I loved it. The sorbet was smooth, the dacquoise was crumbly, and the strawberries were sweet. It was a dream.
So we made it through the tasting menu, luckily wearing dresses so we didn’t have to unbutton our pants at the end. Tequila Mockingbird had been on my list of places to go and I am so glad I finally got there, because it did not disappoint. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for somewhere a bit nicer for dinner, and people who like share style food. It would be perfect for a date, or even just a small dinner with friends.
Overall, I give Tequila Mockingbird 10/10. It doesn’t get any better than that.
A Turtle Stranger 