burger boy is a huge fan of mad mex - it’s almost taken over Oporto as his first place to visit when we travel to the east coast. He was that into it that he had Mad Mex almost every second day on our recent trip to Sydney. Note this mad burrito eating business happened during the week I had already flown home to Perth! I just happened to have it once in the week I was in Sydney, there was just so much to eat so I had to prioritise my meal times! I’ve mentioned some of my favourite Sydney eats on my restaurant reviews over east page (they are on my to-write-list).
Anyway with the above mad burrito eating business in mind, you can imagine how excited burger boy was when I said Mad Mex was coming to Perth and that we had been invited by the founder and Head Honcho Clovis Young to visit his very first Perth Mad Mex store located in Hillary’s Boat Harbour (just a few doors down from Grill’d).
On arrival, we spotted The Food Pornographer & her other half Jac ordering their Mexican feast and Clovis in his Mad Mex gear
burger boy didn’t need much of an introduction on how to order so we got straight into the Mad Mex queue and started off by firstly choosing our Mexican style. There were plenty of styles to choose from - burritos, naked burritos (all filling with no tortilla), nachos, tacos (soft & hard), quesadillas (a toasted tortilla) and the grande melt (a quesadilla with the works).
Even though both burger boy & I are madly in love with burritos we ordered responsibly as we were heading to a Perth food blogger dinner at Kitchen Crusader’s place that night.
And as much as I love pork, I went for the soft tacos with slow roasted beef and mild tomatillo salsa. At that ordering moment, my pull pork was hitting its tenth hour in the slow cooker in preparation for the foodie feast that night so I thought I better not over do it with the pork!
My taco was tasty and I was really happy that I was able to pick & choose what I wanted…inside my taco there’s just beef, cheese and guacamole 😉 and I thought the three layer taco idea was awesome. I’m a messy eater and the layers really held the taco together.
burger boy didn’t put as much thought into his selection and went for the pork as we normally would – I had major pork envy. He had the quesadilla with slow roasted pork which he enjoyed but he would have liked more filling 😉 It wasn’t until we had got home that he noticed the grande melt on the Mad Mex menu - so he’ll be ordering that next time!
Clovis also ordered quesadillas for us to share and taste test the sauces…
My fav is the guacamole as I’m not a fan of chilli
As we enjoyed our Mexican feast, Clovis told us about his Mad Mex journey which started with a road trip from Georgia to Los Angeles where he tried over 50 Mexican restaurants. The end result was a taco belly and the creation of his delicious Baja-Californian inspired Mad Mex menu - which is a combination of the bold flavours of Mexico and the health consciousness of neighbouring California.
Mad Mex founder Clovis Young and TFP’s camera 😉
After his American road trip, Clovis spent a year sourcing the best Mexican ingredients he could import to Australia and determining what type of Mexican food would hold true to its origins yet satisfy Australian taste buds – I’m sure his family & friends would have happily volunteered to be taste testers.
Clovis also ordered us his churros to try which was light and crispy and most importantly covered in cinnamon and sugar…it’s making me hungry writing this post!
The churros were cooked in rice bran oil (oil made out of rice skins) which is known to lower cholesterol…I thought it was pretty cool that churros can be good for you!
And I love that Mad Mex’s churros are super chunky and knowing that Clovis has spent a year finding the perfect chocolate makes me appreciate the warm chocolate dipping sauce even more.
Churros dipped in chocolate goodness
We also tried Jarritos Mexican soda for the first time - it was like Schweppes Agrum range but better! I love the novelty of the lime - makes you feel like you’re having an alcohol beverage when you’re not 😉
I had the Guava and burger boy had the Lime Jarritos…
Mad Mex Hillary’s is currently working on getting their liquor license so very soon Mexican beers, tequilas and margaritas will be on offer too!
burger boy goes mad for mad mex even before the Mexican fast-food franchise reached Perth so we are both excited that Mad Mex have plans to open 4 - 5 stores in the next 18 months. The second Perth Max Mex will be opening in Subiaco soon - sharing half of the Sicilian Restaurant space on Hay St (train station end).
Mad Mex uses fresh local produce and combines it with authentic imported Mexican ingredients to bring us fresh, healthy and authentic Mexican food. They even have a cool nutrition calculator on their website where you can calculate the exact nutritional value of your meal before you order. There’s also a kids menu and vegetarian and gluten free options too.
We had a wonderful time at Mad Mex, big thank you to Head Honcho Clovis Young and Owen (Mad Mex Hillary’s franchisee) for having us. Our Mexican feed was delicious and we can’t wait for the Subiaco Mad Mex to open (closer to home :)).
Mad Mex Hillarys is open 10am-10pm everyday - churros for brunch is pretty tempting! More info about Mad Mex can be found on their website.
9 Comments
Eek! I didn’t mean to do a photobomb in your pic of Clovis!
It was great to catch up with you guys. We want to try the Grande Melt next time too. And no matter what else I may order, I will have to have more churros.
TFP (The Food Pornographer) recently posted..Chat Thai Thaitown, Haymarket, Sydney
hehe adds to the photo TFP 😉 action shot yea? Great seeing you guys also - wished we had more room to fit everything in
Yea the grande melt looks awesome - the menu like you said in your Mad Mex review was a bit overwhelming so I went for the first thing I saw that seemed “light”. Oh yes, the churros were good!!
Great write up foodie cravings!
This all looks very yummy and i am very happy that there is a mexican place in perth that finally does carnitas!
Also i am happy there is a subiaco one opening, that might give me a little incentive to go on a jog there from my place after work one day. (work off all the slow roasted pork before i have it)
Simon recently posted..Istanbul Turkish Restaurant, Fremantle
hehe jog Simon? Wow how far do you live from Subiaco? That’s impressive. Yep I think carnitas is a must on any mexican menu - Flying Taco do it too… love love pull pork. Bringing my pull pork to Christmas lunch at my Italian mamma-in-law’s 😉
Yum I cant wait to try those Churros! Carlos would be impressed with them as they look like the ones we ate in Peru…
nice review, can’t wait to go and try them!
oh it’s pretty yum! The burritos are a must Kanni
Food prices are through the roof, Qld winters really are the best and Mexican is the Comida del Dia. Everyone rolls their eyes about Tex-Mex and Montezuma’s … Clovis grew up in California, enjoying the delights of Mexican food but once he moved to Beantown on the East Coast, there was no decent Mexican to be had so it was up to his family to recreate their own Mexican meals and dream of a better life. Identifying a gap, indeed,affordable mexican restaurant
lissa324 recently posted..Baby Shrimp
Yes indeed, food is getting more and more expensive. I remember thinking Japan was extremely expensive back in the day and now we are almost on par. Yes Clovis is clever in identifying a gap in the market and the craze for Mexican food in Perth hit it’s peak earlier this year with all types of Mexican restaurants opening up (to name a few, Casa Mexican El Compa, El Publico, La Cholita, Zambreros…)