Owner Roberto Molina leaves the cooking to Aunt Dona, who ran an eatery in L.A. for seven years
Alfie Lau
Sun
‘We have a lot of Mexican jockeys from Hastings Park who come here because the food is a lot like what they get at home,’ says owner Roberto Molina of his new restaurant on Hastings. Photograph by : Bill Keay, Vancouver Sun
If there’s any country that knows how to deal with sweltering hot summer days, it’s the Mexicans.
Roberto and Dona Molina opened up Mi Mexico Restaurant in the Burnaby Heights area earlier this year and the solid mix of refreshing drinks and authentic food has made it one of the coolest eateries in the area.
“This is how they do it in Mexico,” said Roberto. “You have a nice margarita or a smoothie, you have some nice, cool dishes with salsa and you take it easy.”
On a beautiful summer weekday, I took my sister, brother-in-law and nephew out for a break from the heat.
We started off with smoothies — mango, strawberry-banana and pineapple-coconut — and were pleasantly surprised at their large size.
As we munched on chips dipped in homemade salsa –more watery than store-bought salsa because of the intended mix of lemon and lime juice — we were amazed to find our appetizer, the cocktails de camarones (prawns), served in the same glass as our smoothies.
The spicy prawn cocktail is meant to be scooped onto a cracker or a tortilla chip and it was a delightful way to start our dinner. The prawns were plump and juicy on top of a sensational bed of cucumbers, onions, fresh tomatoes, sliced avocado, cilantro and lemon.
For our mains, we had originally asked for the tilapia fish, a smooth whitefish fried up whole; the carne asada, grilled steak, done rare; and the chicken quesadilla, served with rice and beans. But a mixup in the kitchen led us only to receive the chicken quesadilla and our apologetic waitress, Tara, begging for forgiveness.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, “but my suggestion is you try the camarones al mojo de ajo.” How could we turn down more prawns, this time cooked in garlic oil?
The quesadilla was so large that my sister and nephew could barely finish it. Our prawns were nice, even bigger than the prawns in our appetizer, and were nicely seasoned without being too oily.
We had enough room to share mango ice cream and flan — the Mexican custard dish that is a dessert favourite — between the four of us.
Business has been going well for Mi Mexico so far, Roberto explained a day later over the telephone.
“When we took over this property, it was a tanning salon,” he explained. “We had to add the kitchen and make sure the bathrooms were wheelchair-accessible. It was a lot of work but I’m pretty proud of what we have here.
“We’re pretty happy, especially on the weekends because we’re pretty full.
“We have a lot of [Mexican] jockeys from Hastings Park who come here because the food is a lot like what they get at home.” Roberto leaves much of the cooking and new recipes to aunt Dona, who ran a Mexican restaurant in the Los Angeles area for seven years.
New to the menu is the alambre, Spanish for wire, which is a tortilla dish served with sausage, beef, green and red peppers and Mexican cheese.
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AT A GLANCE
Mi Mexico Restaurant
3853 Hastings St. (on the second floor)
604-677-1602
Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Sunday (10 p.m. closing time on Friday and Saturday, closed Monday)
$$ ($50-$100)
