This new city restaurant serves chicken enchiladas, but not as you know them

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The speed at which Melbourne’s food scene is expanding and improving is somewhat mind-boggling these days. After living in Los Angeles, I often think about arriving back in my hometown in 2017 – eight short years ago – and struggling to find decent Korean food beyond barbecue, or Mexican food beyond a few good tacos (and many, many bad ones). These days we have our very own Koreatown, and Fitzroy is fast becoming a haven for all manner of Mexican venues, good and great and … not as great.

Over in Southbank, a little place called Maiz y Cacao was also working to expand the city’s Mexican options. Open since 2022, the restaurant relocated in September to Queen Street in the CBD, and owner-chef Miguel Rios has broadened the menu to include a wide variety of dishes that go well beyond the taco.

The tacos are good, of course, but Maiz y Cacao is a place to come and try something new, something you may not have seen before in Melbourne.

The new venue, in the bottom of an Adina hotel, is a tad corporate feeling, but Rios and his partner Cassandra Ortiz (who oversees service) have done their best to imbue some soul into the space via colourful hand-painted hats, traditional masks, and murals of Aztec and Mayan gods framing the semi-open kitchen.

If you’re the type of cocktail snob who can only endure a proper Tommy’s margarita, they have one of those on the list, but if you’re willing to lean into fun, there’s a fantastic frozen strawberry version that tastes of real fruit, and not the neon-pink fake stuff. There’s also a spicy mezcal number, and a few classic booze-free options including horchata and agua de Jamaica, the lovely deep purple drink made from hibiscus flowers.

During the day, from breakfast through mid-afternoon, the menu is a bit of a hybrid, offering a mix of Australian cafe breakfast classics alongside Mexican dishes. I wish they leaned in a bit more to Mexican breakfast – chilaquiles and pozole would be welcome, and far more interesting than another avo toast – but what they do have is pretty great, especially the mole tamal served with sourdough toast and a fried egg.

The Oaxacan-style mole is so dark it’s almost black, with a bitter chocolate underpinning – at dinner it’s served with chicken, but the egg version is simpler and more pleasingly elemental.

There are reasons to come back for the night-time menu, however, including chicken enchiladas drenched in a pale green salsa that’s almost fluffy in texture, along with crumbled cotija cheese. These are not the gloppy, gooey enchiladas you may have eaten at Taco Bill (or my house – I make ridiculously inauthentic enchiladas using three kinds of cheese including one that starts with the word “cream”); rather they’re elegant, restrained, delicious, and much closer to what you’d actually get in much of Mexico.

If you are looking for something crispy and cheesy, the quesa birria will fit the bill, full of juicy, salty lamb, crisped on the griddle, and with a rich broth on the side to dip in or pour over.

A ceviche of octopus, mussels and prawns comes in a sweet tomato-laced liquid, along with tortilla chips to pile it on, and it’s a generous enough serving to share with a whole table of diners.

This is a fine place for a group – much of the food is easily shareable, the service is friendly and helpful, and those strawberry margaritas are a great tone-setter.

The tacos are good, too, of course. But Maiz y Cacao is a place to come and try something new, something you may not have seen before in Melbourne, or something you’ve been longing for since that trip to Mexico or Los Angeles. Much of the food here tastes like home cooking in the best way – like food made with heart and tradition and love and pride. It’s another leap forward for Mexican cooking in Australia, and another concrete example of how diversity and migration make our city that much more delicious.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.