CHILATE

Chilate sits in a short side street off the Blanquerna pedestrian zone, a few paces from Carrer Comte de Sallent and just north of Plaça d'Espanya. From outside it is easy to walk past. Inside it is a long, narrow room with the kitchen at the far end, kept in orange, yellow, brown and red, with only a handful of tables. Every dish is cooked to order — an evening here is a sitting, not a quick meal. The name points to a traditional drink of the Mexican Pacific coast, and that is where the kitchen looks too. The house describes its work as inspired by the Mexican Pacific, with flavours from the coasts around Acapulco, and states its own claim plainly: preparations beyond the clichés, the local product thought through from another angle. If you have met Mexican food mainly as Tex-Mex, you will find a different menu here. That this is more than self-description is also the view of the Fundación Casa de México en España: Chilate carries the Sello Copil, the mark given in Spain to authentic Mexican cooking. What comes out of the kitchen at Chilate The menu is short, and it changes. What stays are the tortillas: Chilate makes them by hand and uses nothing but nixtamalised corn, grain opened up with lime before it is ground. Without that step a tortilla loses its aroma and its give — it is the difference guests here mention most often. To start, the card carries guacamole with house totopos, tostadas of tuna marinated in chipotle with charred onion, molletes of confit pork, and a tlacoyo of huitlacoche and cheese. Then come plates for the middle of the table: the house mole, a tamal de elote with Mahón cheese cream and basil, rib cooked at low temperature with green mole, lamb shank in adobo with pickled sweet potato purée, tacos of prawns or of tongue in chipotle. One dish is called "De Hidalgo a Guerrero" and carries the distance this kitchen travels in its very name. The chilli is no spice among many here. The house calls it the king of its kitchen and brings in a whole range directly from the Mexican Pacific, chosen for what each individual dish needs. Chile de árbol, serrano, jalapeño, chipotle and habanero stand not for degrees of heat but for different flavours. Maíz and mezcal On its own channels the house calls itself "Maíz & Mezcal", and the second half is not an add-on. Chilate keeps a range of Mexican spirits unusually broad for Mallorca — tequila, mezcal, sotol, raicilla — and openly offers to walk you through it rather than leave you guessing. The words "Mezcal Tasting Room" in its full name are meant literally. The cocktail list does not lean on the margarita alone, even though that comes in several readings: classic, smoked with mezcal, spiced with chile de árbol, coloured with achiote. Alongside are palomas, a negroni with cacao, an espresso cocktail and a version without alcohol. On the beer side Mexican labels meet Mallorcan ones, and the wine list puts bottles from the island next to Mexican growths — a pairing you will hardly find anywhere else. Before you go The room is small and has few tables; securing a place through the venue's own booking system is not a superfluous step. Because everything is cooked à la minute, there is time between courses — the house says so itself and asks for patience. Eating vegetarian works here without falling back on side dishes: the tamal de elote and the tlacoyo of huitlacoche and cheese are dishes in their own right, even though the larger part of the card aims at meat and fish. And if you are unsure about the spirits, just ask — being guided through the mezcal and tequila selection is explicitly part of what this house offers.