Tuesday 23 June 2015

Café Iguana - A Mexican Dining Encounter [MEDIA INVITE]

Cafe Iguana

Looking for a place with a selection of 100 labels of 100% blue agave Tequila and Mescal, Café Iguana is the place for you. Founded in year 2000 by the same folks that set up Brewerkz, Café Iguana has been the place-to-go for authentic Mexican food and margaritas at fantastic happy hour price.

Monte Alban Tequila Reposado
with Agave Worm


We started with Puerco en Chile Verde ($14) and Fuego Wings ($18). Puerco en Chile Verde is Spicy green chilli stew pork served over rice, with flour tortillas and sour cream. This little Chilli bowl is kind of comfort food combining pork stew with rice. The pork are tender but watch out for the spiciness that creep up later. Luckily the sour cream helps to put out the fire. Fuego Wings is the mexican answer to buffalo wings. Tangy and finger licking good. The spiciness level is about 3/10, while it can be better if the chicken is more crispy. Currently it tasted more like baked chicken instead of fried chicken.

Puerco en Chile Verde

Fuego Wings

From the Tequila Grill, you can have either Tequila Grill Chicken (1/2 for $28) and Tequila Grill Prawn Brochette ($35). Both the chicken and the prawn are marinated with lime mixture that made it tender and succulent. You can taste the smoky flavoured with nice grilled marked on the proteins. Both dishes are served with grilled vegetables and poblano-scalloped potatoes. I personally like the chicken more and I find the portion for the prawn is too meagre for the price.

Tequila Grill Chicken

Tequila Grill Prawn Brochette

Now to everything from tortilla, the staple of Mexican dish: Shredded Steak Chimichanga ($25), Red Snapper Burrito ($27), and Camarones al Diablo ($23). Chimichanga is a deep fried flour tortilla, with vegetables, onions, cheese, sour cream and guacamole served with Mexican rice. The shredded beef is well seasoned and tender. I personally like the crispy deep fried flour tortilla, which taste like giant curry puff crust. Let me say this, the portion is huge. If you want to try other dishes, you might want to share this dish with others.

Shredded Steak Chimichanga 

Burrito is flour tortilla skin heated on a grill, then filled with Mexican rice, borracho beans, cheddar and mozarella cheese on top of the thick red snapper fillet. This Red Snapper Burrito is a healthier version compare to chimichanga. Although the fish is thick, it remains flaky and moist. Good combination with the rest of vegetables.

Red Snapper Burrito

Quesadillas is tortilla filled with cheese and mushrooms. In Camarones al Diablo the quesadillas looks like a little flat pie, and it was served with Prawns sautéed with fiery habanero chile, capsicum, ginger, cumin and lime. If it is not in a Mexican restaurant, you can't be faulted if you think it is an Indian prawn tikka masala, as the aroma exuded was almost similar. A beautiful dish and I can't get enough of it. We actually keep looking for extra carbo to polish off the sauce.

Camarones al Diablo
The spiciness level on each of the dishes are not mind blowing hot. If you need something more challenging, there are three sauce to choose from.

Three Different type of Hot Sauce made from Habanero Chile

For desserts, we sample two type of banana dishes Banana Chimichangas ($14) and Sautéed Bananas ($14). Banana Chimichanga is a Mexican version of goreng pisang (fried banana). Deep fried tortilla filled with bananas drizzled with caramel and strawberry sauce and avocado ice cream. The tortilla texture is crispy filled with banana that melts in your mouth. The caramel and strawberry sauce provide a good ice cream toppings for the creamy avocado ice cream.

Banana Chimichangas

The sautéed bananas is a Kahlua-glazed baby bananas with vanilla ice cream. The bananas are sweet, well caramelised and melts in your mouth. The vanilla ice cream helps to tone down the sweetness, however it is missing the crispy texture in this dessert.

Sautéed Bananas 

Ancho Chile Chocholate Cake ($14), this flourless cake is dense and feels slightly dry if eaten on its own .The vanilla ice cream helps grease the cake but the margarita sauce are too insignificant to make an impact to the desserts. Probably need about the same amount as a shot of espresso.

Ancho Chile Chocholate Cake

Churros ($12). The churros is crunchy and coated with sweet cinnamon powder. The vanilla bean ice cream provide a good dipping sauce, however the chocolate sauce in the bottom made it hard to get to. It would be better if the chocolate sauce is on top of the ice cream.

Churros

Café Iguana is set up more like a gastro pub instead of the cafe. The lights are slightly dim, but the atmosphere is lively. The seating closer to the bar are using high table and chairs, while the ones closer to the river are at normal height.

The Bar

Overall, I really enjoyed the food in Cafe Iguana and I learned a few new things about Mexican Cuisine and different type of Tequila. While it was supposed to be authentic Mexican food, I find there was much of Tex-Mex influence in the dishes, especially the serving size. I really look forward to our next visit here, hopefully I am off my medications and can have some margaritas as well. Salud!!! Cheers!!!

Thank you very much to HungryGoWhere and MENU team for the tasting invitation.

Food & Drink: 7.5/10
Value: 6.5/10
Service: N/A
Ambiance: 8/10
Budget per Person: $51 - $80; $81 and Above

Cafe Iguana
30 Merchant Road
#01-03. Riverside Point.
Singapore 058282

T: +65 6236 1275
OH:
Mon – Thu: 16.00 – 01.00
Fri : 16.00 – 03.00
Sat : 12.00 – 03.00

Sun : 12.00 – 01.00

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