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I’ve found it. Stop looking. The hunt is over. No need to read any of those “Hottest new spots for summer” lists rolled out every November. When daylight savings comes around, I’ll be heading straight to Camperdown Memorial Rest Park and one of the eight outdoor deck chairs at the east-side Comedor. You’ll be able to eat snacky, corn-based Mexican things, sink cold brew coffee, and – if the licensing gods are kind and giving – you may also bring your own bottle of wine.

I say “will be able” because Comedor opened only five weeks ago and venue manager Kieran Took is under the pump just trying to keep up with demand for a table, let alone launch a snack deck in the park.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure if a modern Mexican restaurant would take off in a residential part of Newtown, a block up from the Courthouse Hotel – it’s not quite King Street – but on a recent Thursday night the place was pumping with a who’s who of the inner west – brewers, designers, musicians and artists. Butchers, bakers and at least one candle-stick maker.

You can see the appeal; it’s a good-looking space. Set in a century-old warehouse owned by Newtown local Walter Shellshear, deep blues and earthy reds frame distressed bricks and a long stone bar that’s one of the most comfortable counters in town. So much elbow room! Natural light floods the space at lunch, and I’m jonesing to return for another afternoon session with Took’s cocktails.

The “margarita de nuez” ($22), especially, feels like a five-minute holiday in Jalisco, teaming cardamom-infused reposado tequila with almond syrup, rosé vermouth, lemon juice and rosewater. Floral. Nutty. Very refreshing.

Shellshear doesn’t have much hospitality experience, but he does love Mexico and its food and knows that Alejandro Huerta is the right choice to lead Comedor’s kitchen. You may have previously encountered his cooking at Paddington’s mezcal-fuelled El Primo Sanchez.

The inspiration here comes from contemporary Mexico City restaurants with some Japanese and Italian influences thrown in. Linguine with aged cheese sauce ($30), say, and a hefty pork tonkatsu cutlet ($45) on salsa verde and a pea-green blitz of chayote. (If you grew up in suburban Sydney and don’t speak Spanish, chayote is good ol’ choko.)

The inspiration comes from Mexico City restaurants with Japanese and Italian influences thrown in.

The closest thing to a taco at Comedor is one meaty tiger prawn – as thick as a front-rower’s thumb – laid across a soft tortilla, charred head attached ($15). A clam-infused sauce of morita chillies (like chipotles, but not as smoky) covers the prawn, and … it’s fine. I was just expecting bigger, brighter flavours.

Consider the creamy Jersey milk cheese ($16), made by Marrickville’s Goldstreet Dairy, as a starter instead. The halloumi-adjacent slab is covered in fruity salsa roja and soft strips of nopales (read: prickly pear cactus), and you may be reminded of a slice of Pizza Hut’s Veggie Sensation.

Another highlight is Huerta’s complex mole coloradito, made to his grandmother’s recipe with tomato, cocoa beans, garlic and assorted dried chillies I struggle to pronounce. It’s cooked for at least eight hours until it thumps with flavour and history, and later enhances a jumble of zucchini flowers and yellow squash ($30).

Meanwhile, Jerusalem artichokes are pureed, roasted and fashioned into chip form, and amped up by nutty salsa macha of creeping heat ($18). Plant-based eaters, book now.

There’s also impeccably crunchy fried chicken with an intense chilli jam ($28), and a retired dairy cow steak with mushroom jus and XO ($79).

Snapper crudo ($24) should stick around until spring (fingers crossed), the cured fish sent out in a pool of fermented green apple juice with grapes and toasty furikake seasoning. It’s a deftly balanced dish, but it’s not crudo weather yet.

A persimmon and manchego tart ($16), however, is perfect August eating: butter-loaded pastry filled with salty, whipped cheese, and lightly sweetened by persimmon jam. A dessert for people who don’t like dessert.

Safe to say, I’m a big fan of the place. Floor staff are invested in their work, the open kitchen has a kinetic buzz. A proper job has been done on the interiors so you can still hear the person across from you over the packed dining room and the soundtrack, which swings between 1970s Columbian pop and Seals and Crofts’ Summer Breeze.

And if the parkside deck plans are fully realised – and you can bring gamay and eat fried chicken and listen to American soft rock? My gosh. The Good Food Guide may need to introduce a fourth hat.

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine