Ay Carumba! - Arribar Mexicantina

Is it Royal Kitchen or is it Arribar?

Went to Arribar recently with the family on a very hot Thursday evening. I have been looking forward to eating here ever since I heard of its impending opening. I love the Cantina style of Mexican cooking such as Fonda Mexican in Melbourne. It's super yummy and I felt very enthusiastic about Arribar as a potentially great thing for Castlemaine.

Okay, so far we have enthusiasm and potential. We arrive at Arribar and walk into the downstairs part of the cafe. There are a few customers there already and as it is only about 6.30 pm we feel comfortable that we'll get a table. We wait to be greeted and seated, and we wait and we wait and we wait. We must have waited for about five minutes which is quite a long time to be in a restaurant that has no staff members in it what so ever. None.  Not a glimpse. It was starting to feel weird so I went next door to the Theatre Royal to see if there were any clues out there. Lo and behold there was, they were able to produce a staff member, a very flustered staff member, who showed us to a table upstairs.

It's really cute and charming up there. The whole place is cute and charming. So we were seated and given menus, and things progressed reasonably well once a second, less frazzled wait staff member had appeared. We ordered margaritas which were sort of limp and wilted once they arrived. The waitress carried them one in each hand up the stairs so that they sloshed around spilling a bit and soaking off the salt. My advice to them is get a tray!

This is a photo from their Facebook page

This is reality

But hey, it's early days - for them, and for us as diners! The waitress was very sweet and friendly and took our order and our meals arrived in a timely fashion. We kicked off with Ceviche, Peruvian style Rockling with red and yellow capsicum, red chillies, coriander and mint. This was lovely, very fresh and zingy. Really nice. We also had the pulled pork Tostaditas. This also tasted fresh but was a bit boring. The pulled pork had no pork like taste or texture to it. It could have been anything, or nothing. So the taste  relied on the corn shell, which admittedly was excellent in both taste and texture, and the salsa components which were likewise fresh and tasty but not hero worthy. We  ordered the ubiquitous Nachos and it was nicely done. The corn chips seem very traditional, do they make their own? Surely not. There was an excellent guacamole that had really great flavours and was well seasoned. I could have eaten a whole meal of just that.

Pulled Pork Tostaditas

Rockling Ceviche

Nachos

Our starters were cleared and we were told that the burritos were on their way. Were they? No they were not! We waited for aaaages and when I asked the (I guess) Manager she looked alarmed and rushed off to check. Then she berated the waitress in front of us, oops, and sort of accused her of ineptitude. I thought the waitress handled herself really well and she remained much more professional than the Manager! After far too long the Burritos showed up and they weren't really worth the wait. They were Beef Burritos, at least on the menu they were. In person they seemed to be Rice Burritos. In each Burrito there was one cube of Beef. I mean that literally, not descriptively. On the bright side there was more of that amazing guacomole and also, to be fair, the flavours of the Burritos were very nice. Surprising nice, given that it was 97% rice.

Beef (Rice) Burritos, with boring side salad and excellent Guacolmole

In summary, the evening was bizarre! It was a bit like an episode of Fawlty Towers. There were more shenanigans that went on which I am not going to report out of a spirit of decency. I'm going to chalk it up this way. The venue itself is fantastic. The menu reads well but doesn't quite deliver. The management needs to take a deep breath and relax and buy a tray. Would I go back? Hell yeah! I'm thinking and hoping it was just a bad case of 'early days-itis'. Also, despite the not quite there-ness of the food it really did seem to be made with a lot of heart and a lot of love. That'll keep me coming back every time.

Is it a Great Eat? Yes it is

Arribar Mexicantina

Hargraves Street Castlemaine, 3450

0423 249 397

Their Facebook page