First Look: Maiz y Cacao Takes On Wedding Mole, CDMX Street Snacks and Deep-Fried Tacos

While many venues including recent openings El Columpio and Cumbe showcase the diversity and regionality of Mexican food, some Australians still believe Old El Paso taco kits are the pinnacle of the cuisine.

At Maiz y Cacao (Spanish for “corn and cacao”), chef and owner Miguel Rios says one customer even told him the soft corn tortillas their tacos were served on were “inauthentic”. (He was expecting the hard-shell versions that come in a box.) That customer’s now a regular, but Rios says it took time and care to communicate what Mexican food really is.

In late September, the restaurant relocated from its original Southbank location, which opened in 2022, to the Adina Hotel on Queen Street. At the original spot, the duo focused mostly on tacos. With the move, Rios and his partner Cassandra Ortiz, who runs front of house, have expanded the menu to showcase an even greater variety of dishes from across Mexico. 

Few dishes sum up the venue better than the tamal, a steamed corn cake – topped with eggs in the morning and chicken at night – and smothered in mole negro. The Oaxacan-style black mole is made with chillies, spices and cacao that are toasted until they’re almost burnt, left to rest for several days to let the bitterness subside, and then blended into a nutty, earthy sauce.

“[In Mexico], we have more than 120 moles – a lot of colours, a lot of flavours – but this one specifically is the one we select for weddings,” says Rios. “We don’t have the clay pots to make it [like they do in Oaxaca], but we follow the same process.”

Dishes like the tacos dorados – lamb tightly wrapped in a tortilla and deep-fried – are variations of recipes Rios and Ortiz grew up with in Mexico, Rios in Acapulco and Ortiz in Mexico City. “It’s something mums make all the time,” Ortiz says. “Sometimes you prepare it with leftovers. There can be anything inside.”

Others, including the pambazo – a chorizo-and-potato-filled sandwich dunked in red salsa and grilled like French toast – are classic Mexico City street foods.

Some recipes have been adapted to suit Australian ingredients. The cochinita pibil tacos, for example, are made with pulled pork and traditionally flavoured with Seville oranges, which are tart, slightly bitter and hard to find in Melbourne. So Rios and Ortiz worked with a food chemist friend to re-create the flavour using a blend of local citrus.

Rios mostly aims to harness the flavours of Mexico as faithfully as possible. But his breakfast dishes lean more into fusion, using Mexican elements in cafe staples such as the eggs Benedict, made with a corn cake instead of an English muffin, topped with cochinita (a slow-roasted pork dish) and hollandaise. To drink, there are Mexican beers, cocktails and soft options such as agua de Jamaica (a hibiscus beverage) and horchata, the cinnamon-spiked rice punch. 

Despite its hotel setting, the venue feels personal, decorated with Mexican artwork rich in symbolism. Hand-painted hats from a corn-growing region of Oaxaca hang near the entrance, while murals depicting Centeotl, the Aztec deity of maize, and Ek Chuah, the Mayan deity of cacao, frame the kitchen.

Maiz y Cacao
1/189 Queen Street, Melbourne 

Hours:
Mon to Fri 7am–9pm
Sat 9am–9pm
Sun 9am–3pm

maizycacao.com.au
@maizycacaomc