Brisbane Mexican restaurants: Baja, Fortitude Valley

This new Fortitude Valley eatery is to Mexican food what Donna Chang is to Cantonese and Gerard’s is to Middle Eastern, says reviewer Tony Harper.

A friend describes Baja’s food as a westernised take on Mexican, and I get what she means.

Chilli is used as an enhancement instead of a feature, and there are no bottles of Cholula, Insanity Sauce or Tabasco on the table to amp things up; the food is pretty – artfully presented – and mostly devoid of the earthy, rustic elements you’d expect at a street stall in Oaxaca. And there’s no melted cheese.

Which is, I reckon, precisely the point.

Baja, is at 211 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley.

Baja is to Mexican food what Donna Chang is to Cantonese and Gerard’s is to Middle Eastern – a stylised interpretation with stronger, closer links to the foods of Mexico than anything dished up by cheesy family restaurants or the likes of Guzman y Gomez and even El Camino.

And it’s thrilling.

You’ll find Baja in the fast redeveloping end of Fortitude Valley that not so long ago was solely populated by strip clubs, seedy bars and adult shops.

They are still there, but sharing the quarter with the likes of the Valley Wine Bar, Netherworld and now Baja.

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You step down a small flight of stairs into a room of concrete, timber and mezcal bottles. Curves predominate in this architect’s version of an adobe hut with an open kitchen.

I perch at the bar, gaze at the mezcal bottles, but settle (I’m driving) for a passable pale ale.

Wines tend to the hipster side of things, and there is a formidable collection of cocktails. Regardless, the mezcal holds centre stage.

Looking at the menu, the temptation – especially if there were a few of you – would be to order lots of tacos.

The tacos at Baja are “terrific”, but there’s better to be found on the Mexican menu.

There are four on the menu, with tortillas courtesy of La Tortilleria, a Melbourne-based restaurant and small-scale tortilla manufacturer.

But even after watching, twice now, The Taco Chronicles and obsessing over the magic and variety that Mexico has to offer, it’s the least part of the Baja menu.

I try one – carnitas, which is pork neck with green salsa, escabeche and coriander ($16 for 2, $23 for 3) and it’s terrific, undoubtedly as good as a taco gets in Brisbane. But it’s just a taco.

Whereas esquites ($12) starts to rattle my food-bone – this is a traditional fare, street food, but when was the last time you saw it on a Brisbane menu? Never? And that’s my point.

The esquites at Baja, Fortitude Valley

At Baja they have taken a rustically good dish of sauteed corn kernels with mayonnaise and turned it into something special: corn broth, kernels, lemon aioli, Parmesan and chilli powder. Wow.

The best of the lot? Boned chicken wings ($16) on a beautiful verdant sauce flecked with buttermilk, pomegranate molasses somewhere in the mix.

Baja is as intriguing as it is clever.

Mexican cuisine is as misunderstood in our country as Chinese cuisine was in the 1960s, and Baja has decided to not only correct our ignorance, but to cut out the middle phase of gradual familiarity and jump straight to turning it into something remarkable.

SCORES OUT OF 10

Food: 8

Drinks: 7.5

Vibe: 7.5

Service: 8

BAJA

211 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley

Ph: 3625 0069

Tue-Sat, 5.30pm-late

Thur-Fri, lunch 11:30am-3pm

Chef: Valerie Frei

Vegetarian and gluten-free options