Borderland Mexican Restaurant, Crows Nest

What do you do if there are 6 of you and you want to celebrate S's birthday on a rainy Easter Monday in Sydney and most of us need to go to work in the morning? Why head to Crows Nest of course and check out what's open. Quite a lot of places it seems but what appealed and what we all wanted to try was a Mexican place which according to J has been around for a long time.

A quick look at the menu and it seems obvious that what we're going to get is the fairly plain and simple Mexican food that most Sydneysiders have been brought up to be familiar with, nachos, quesadillas, enchiladas and fajitas etc but sometimes on a humid wet Easter night, that's what you want: friends, a drink or two and something as familiar and comforting as fried rice with lots of white pepper from the local Chinese takeaway (hehe, don't complain about non sequiturs, my blog, my comfort food!)

We arrived fairly early but the tables filled up rapidly, service was a little slow but friendly and we were in no hurry. The food when it arrived was appetizing and filling. First a plate of condiments: onion, tomato and coriander salsa (pico de gallo - is this not one of THE great flavour combinations, right up there with tomato and basil), guacamole and a huge mound of sour cream, full fat no less! Containers of warm tortillas came next, although I found with beans, rice AND tortillas it was carb overload time!

S had the mini beef and bean burritos

J ordered the beef fajita and C the lamb fajita

The other S who was not the birthday S, and K and I had chilli and drunken prawns respectively.

I can't speak for the others but my prawns, 6 large ones, cooked in a white wine, garlic and shallot sauce were delicious! I skipped wrapping the lot in a tortilla but mixed some of the juices with the flavoured rice and salsa and guacamole (yes, and the full fat sour cream) and was still dipping a finger in the garlicky sauce at the end of the meal.

Happy Birthday S, hope it turns out to be a great year!