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El Macho Mexican Village Restaurant

23 Hope St, Liverpool L1. Tel: 0151 708 6644

Many years ago, when I was a student in Liverpool, a favourite haunt for a cheap meal was El Macho, widely regarded as the best Mexican restaurant in the city. It capitalised on its Hope Street location, practically next door to both universities, with an affordable lunch menu and beer served by the pitcher. It could also cater for huge parties, numbering in dozens, in their large upstairs room. I recently decided to revisit the place, and see what, if anything, had changed.

The most obvious difference is a large, glass-enclosed dining area, leading down to the kitchens, at the back of the restaurant. Built several years ago, on a separate level from the rest of the restaurant, this is a large, designated no smoking area. I'm not sure if the upstairs room is in use anymore - perhaps only if they get really busy.

The staff have an interesting mixture of European accents, and the service they offer is helpful and efficient. Turning to the wine list, my heart sank. I didn't expect much, this being very much a 'cheap and cheerful' outfit, but the dismal offerings here are either uninteresting or unintelligible. Heading the list is 'Champagne', but no information on whose Champagne, vintage or cuvée, just the price. I must admit this had me chuckling in disbelief. Following on was an exceedingly short list of wines from across the globe, numbering two white and two red. None even remotely interested me, so I tried to recapture my youth with a three pint pitcher of Urquel Pilsner. Tasty stuff, but delivered in a large pitcher, full to the brim, which made it impossible to pour without spilling it.

The food here was always great. My favourite dish was a large crispy flour tortilla, covered with cheese, guacamole, jalapenos, lettuce and your choice of chicken or other meat, which was called Paulos Nachos. Unfortunately, many years ago, this disappeared from the menu never to reappear. Paulos Nachos is now used to describe a pile of tortilla chips smothered in a similar mixture (but no meat) which, although pleasant, could all too easily be knocked up at home. The same could not be said of that crispy flour tortilla.

For our starter we opted for the above Paulos Nachos. Unoriginal, but quite tasty, and certainly filling, as portion size is no problem here. Already close to sufficiency, our main courses arrived. I opted for the safe option, chicken fajitas, something else which is very easy to knock up at home. I'm sorry to say I was disappointed. The dish was unrecognisable, smothered in a large amount of spicy fajita sauce. Our other meal was half a roasted chicken (I did say portion size wasn't a problem) with a spicy sauce. Good, moist and tasty chicken, which we were unsurprisingly unable to finish.

We sensibly avoided dessert, although we did listen as the waitress recited a list of the choices on offer. An uninteresting selection.

To summarise, although El Macho doesn't seem quite the attractive proposition it once did, business for them does seem to be good. You will never be the only diner there, and this may have something to do with the prices, which can be described as 'competitive'. Of interest, I recall they also had a couple of other restuarants in the North West, in Manchester and elsewhere, also called El Macho, I assume working from the same laminated menu!

Prices: expect to pay £10-12 per head for two courses, not including drinks.

El Macho Mexican Village Restaurant

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