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Sol Amigo: Ikebukuro Mexican / Ikebukuro

1 Review

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Nico


  • Sol Amigo: Ikebukuro
  • (2007-10-10)
  • There is only one reason to visit Sol Amigo, and that is to take advantage of their generous tequila offer on your birthday. If you visit on your special day, Sol Amigo will give you not a shot, but a whole bottle of the fiery Mexican brew for free! However, only a restaurant that is desperate gives away the booze, and this was a bad sign of things to come.

    I'm not opposed to fusion cooking in the very least. In fact, if a restaurant is doing Mexican food in Japan, I think it's logical that they adapt the flavours to the local taste and incorporate local ingredients into the original dishes. Nonetheless, there's a smart way to do this, and then there's Sol Amigo. The food either had no trace of Mexico left in it, or the crossover was badly conceived. The highlight of my meal was a Dos Equis beer (700 yen) that came with complimentary chips and salsa. Though the kitchen told me that they don't add ketchup to their salsa, it tasted so sweet that I still remain doubtful. From there I proceeded to an order of tacos (650 yen). The shells were oily, which made them disgusting to the touch and also taste, while the innards were mostly shredded cabbage with commercial thousand-island dressing. This is exactly what I mean by badly conceived fusion ? shredded cabbage with sweet dressing should henceforth stay away from the tacos and their slightly more spiced toppings.

    I should have paid more attention to the differences between the Spanish and Japanese names of their menu items. While I though I was ordering a guacamole salad, when it arrived it turned out to be just a green salad with avocado on top (700 yen). Ready to argue, I picked up the menu to explain why this salad was deceiving but then I noticed that the Japanese read “Avocado salad.” If you take it just for an avocado salad, it was ok, though heavy on the dressing.

    I finished this disappointing meal with an order of chorizo quesadillas (750 yen). I suppose gyoza wrappers are a decent substitute for tortillas (though they could get real tortillas!), so if you don't mind the quesadillas looking like gyozas, they don't taste that bad, but definitely not good either.

    Atmosphere-wise, Sol Amigo pulls out every cliché Mexican decoration and stuffed the room full of them. There's also about five giant TVs dotting the relatively small restaurant where they show various sports or endless movie trailers.

    All in all, the only reason I can think of for anyone to show up is to collect their complimentary tequila bottle. If you're in the search for good Mexican food (which is hard to come by in Tokyo!), better head to Salsita in Hiroo station where they'll never give you anything for free, but you'll be glad to pay for it.
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