Mexican Fiesta @ Hard Rock Cafe - A taste review

I love Mexican food. Always have. When Hard Rock Cafe invited some of us bloggers for a taste review of their Mexican Fiesta Menu, was I thrilled!! I've also always liked Hard Rock Cafe's, particularly their music and ambience. So, Alieana, Madhuri, Suma and I met there one afternoon. 

About the menu - had all the usual mexican fare of tacos, burritos, tostadas and the event being in Hard Rock, there was also a Burger with a Mexican twist. Add some very interesting cocktails to this and you have a winner of a menu. 

It was an afternoon to remember - good food & drinks, great company and nice music. We met there about 1pm, HRC keeps its music mellow till abt 4pm, and then pumps up the volume. When we left the volume was pumped! You get the picture!! 

We met with the Chef, who gave us a brief run down of the menu, understood that 3 out of the 4 bloggers were vegetarians and suggested appropriate menu options for us. And then the food came! And so did the drinks!

We started lunch with the Spicy American Corn & Danish Mozzarella Samosette. This was served with some salsa and a basil pesto dip. The dip alone is worth another visit! The samosette was very good. Little morsels of corn / mozzarella wrapped in phyllo and fried. 

Next, we tried the Tacos. They serve them with grilled chicken, beef chili or cottage cheese. We sampled the cottage cheese tacos. Crisp corn tortilla shells brushed with a tangy / zesty BBQ sauce and filled with your choice of filling (meat or paneer) and lettuce, tomatoes, olives, pinto beans & spring onions. I loved the lively flavor of the BBQ sauce. This was served with house-made guacamole, pico de gallo & sour cream. 

We then moved on to the Burritos. They have a chicken & a cottage cheese version of this as well. Basically a flour tortilla brushed with chili-garlic sauce and filled with lettuce, tomato rice, seasoned cottage cheese, spicy bean ragout, mixed cheese and some veggies. The chili-garlic sauce added a very nice flavor to this dish. The burritos come with a side of fries, guacamole & sour cream. 

After this the tostadas made their way to our table. They have a BBQ Chicken or a Beef Chili. Chef made the chicken for us vegetarians with paneer instead of chicken. It was good. So what is a tostada, you wonder. It is a Mexican Pizza. This was a thin crust base brushed with a chili sauce and topped with seasoned cottage cheese, red peppers, caramelized onions, mixed cheeses & jalapenos. 

By now we were all rather stuffed, but we still had to try the burger and the dessert. The burger was very good, I could just manage a bite! I'd an idea of what the dessert was, so I decided to save my appetite for it!  

While all this food was happening, we also sampled some of the special Tequila based cocktails created for this event - Chapala, Diablo, Ginger Fiasco & Payback. Of the lot I can still taste Diablo & Payback. The other two drinks were good, but they took the back seat! 

The Diablo - black currant infused, with hints of ginger & lime. The Chapala - watermelon based, was nice, but was completely dominated by the Diablo & Payback. 

The other two drinks we tried - Ginger Fiasco & Payback. Off these two again, Payback dominated with the sneaky jalapeno aftertaste and that nice burn. Loved it! The Ginger Fiasco was also good. 

The Payback - kiwi flavored with hints of jalapeno, a definite winner. 

Now came the dessert, chocolate pyramids in white & dark chocolate served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream & a dash of chipotle sauce. The habanero peppers used in the sauce was a good compliment to the sweetness of the chocolate & vanilla ice-cream. 

Wrapping up, I'd say it was an enjoyable lunch and certainly worth a visit. I did feel that the veggies got an overdose of paneer, but that was because we tried all the dishes on the menu. If ordering just a main course, just a burrito would do! This is HRC, their portions are large and the drinks are mixed generously! 

They have valet parking. Check out their website for the promos for this event. The Mexican Fiesta ends on Sept 18th. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a bite @ Hard Rock Cafe, St. Marks Rd. Bangalore.