Any Mexican restaurant launching in Beijing is going to create some serious buzz. So when Cantina Agave came to town, riding the coattails of its two immensely popular Shanghai venues, the foodie fiesta began. On first impressions, it certainly looks and plays the part. With stencils of Mexican wrestlers and playful menus that greet you with a bold ‘Hola!’ it’s tacky enough to be fun while respectable enough not to offend any stuffy Sanlitun types.

Whereas Q Mex mastered the art of looking snazzy to the point of mimicking a stuffy hotel lobby, Cantina Agave couldn’t really care less about how cool it looks. Any restaurant with dangling piñatas and a menu that implores diners to ‘get stuck in to the spicy stuff’ and ‘be a man’ can’t take itself too seriously, after all. It’s about as close as we’ll probably get in Beijing to the light-hearted, family-friendly Mexican-food-for-Anglo-Saxons type of restaurant so popular in the US.

It certainly has American-style portions: even a half-order of nachos is enough for two people, and the option to add more meat on top of the already sizeable allotment of sour cream, beans, jalapeños and impressively fresh guacamole is practically stomach busting. The real boost here is the serve-yourself salsa bar, where spicy red salsa arbol and sweeter mango salsa fill in the gaps between ingredients and ensure you never need choke down a dry nacho.

In fact, we found ourselves returning to the salsa bar frequently as everything we ordered was in desperate need of more flavor. Whatever filling you choose for your burrito mamita it still tastes like beans. While we were enticed by the option of chicken mole sauce, we could barely taste it.

Address: S4-32 Taikoo Li South 19 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District 朝阳区三里屯路19号三里屯太古里南区三层S4-32

Source: timeoutbeijing.com