Wednesday 23 January 2013

Chiquito, Basildon

My friends and I went for a Christmas meal at Chiquitos, a Mexican Restaurant at Basildon’s Festival Leisure Park. There is a good cocktail list-I recommend the sweet, Disaranno based MexiPop. Some of us had pre-ordered our meals and some hadn’t, but the staff were obliging about our mix-and-match approach.



The table was decked out in Christmas crackers, party poppers and balloons. I appreciated the festive spirit put into our table, although my cracker gift was the weirdest thing I have ever seen-a small pair of plastic orange lips. Still, you never know when you will be invited to a goldfish fancy-dress party.

My starter was a tub of barbecue chicken wings; there were a lot of them, so it’s a good thing they tasted great. My main was a chicken and chorizo skewer. This was served on a sizzling hot plate, meaning that sides like sweetcorn continued to cook after it arrived. I liked the fun presentation of the dish. It also came with sweet-potato chips, but given the size of the main plate, the chips were surplus to requirement. For dessert, I had a honeycomb cheesecake served with a small pot of melted chocolate. The chocolate was unnecessary but tasty, and the cake, topped with chocolate-coated honeycomb, was the highlight of my meal.
                                                                                
Other highlights included: fajitas, with the wraps served separately to an array of fillings, so that the diner can create whatever kind of wrap they want; Churros, the Mexican donut strips; and ice-cream Sundaes. There was also a monster Strawberry Daquiri served in a glass which could have contained an entire Dita von Teese Burlesque act.

While I love a three-course meal, given the size of the portions at Chiquitos, I would advise visitors to stick to two-courses. My friend had a burger which included two giant patties, which would challenge even Hunger, the erstwhile Shreddies mascot. The service, while friendly, was also a little slow, and our booking deposit was not deducted from the first copy of our bill, although our cheerful waitress was quick to correct the error. It was also good value at three courses for £19.95 from the Christmas menu.

A Visual Representation of My Main Course
Overall: 7/10

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