A few months ago, my cousin and her chef husband suggested a new restaurant in town that I might like to try. Mamasita is modern Mexican on Melbourne’s Collins Street (Paris end) and is being touted as the new IT restaurant of the moment – but best of all, the entire menu was gluten free. Given that my cousin and her husband were frequenting this establishment, and they KNOW food, it had to be good, and sure enough the place was being written up everywhere glowingly within a few weeks.

Mamasita doesn’t take bookings, so it seemed it might be a while before I managed to get there. Today was that day. Miss J and I made plans to visit, and Miss E’s excitement when I mentioned we were going was contagious. The three of us ventured out on this freezing Melbourne Tuesday to find out what all the fuss was about and hopefully, warm our bones.

Arriving around 12.45pm, the place was packed and no one looked in a hurry to leave. We scored a bar seat by the kitchen, not such a bad thing since that is where most of the warmth is created. While Mamasita is just an unassuming door on the street followed by a flight of stairs, upstairs is buzzing with midday chatter and the sounds of plates being collected, a bell to signify a ready order and the drone of an open kitchen. Atmosphere is important and Mamasita certainly has it.

We ordered and were thrilled when the food arrived barely ten minutes later. I ordered Tostaditas de Pollo with no real concept of what I was in for except for the fact that Pollo means chicken. I discovered that a Tostaditas is (essentially) a corn chip; the de Pollo part a stack of char grilled chicken, avocado, queso fresco & chipotle mayo. And it was awesome. Not overly spicy but a meal that left me with that pleasant tingly sensation on the lips – exactly what I wanted.

The thrill of being able to order anything on the menu (as the WHOLE menu is gluten free) was not lost on me either. Compared to Switch at Knox, where I ate last Friday night and only one menu item was gluten free, Mamasita is haven for the gluten-ly challenged. If I wasn’t going out for dinner, I might well have ordered more but instead will make Mamasita a regular haunt until I have tried everything they have to offer.

Images thanks to Mamasita