Playa Takeria

This review has become a novel, and as such I shall title it «Bitch Better Have My Burrito».
I noticed this place was new to my delivery app. As a transplanted American, naturally I lurve me some Mexican food and was excited to try it out. I noticed they were in Darlinghurst and wondered if that was a bit of a trek for delivery, but the restaurant confirmed the order. The confirmation said it would take an hour, which would be 7:08pm. I was willing to wait. The hungrier, the more satisfying, right?!
A half hour past delivery time and I’m still burrito-​less, slowly becoming wild eyed, and beginning to salivate at the thought of chewing on the lawn. I call the restaurant and they inform me that my order only left five minutes ago, but it should only take another ten minutes max. Then he says bye and hangs up on me before I can utter another word. Fifteen minutes Darlinghurst to Balmain during a weekday dinner time? I hope they’re on a motorcycle, cradling my sacred burritos and guac like Indiana Jones and the sankara stones (minus the whole dropping them in the crocodile infested river part).
Fast forward forty-​five minutes past due, and I’m beginning to think maybe the driver DID drop them in a river. I call the restaurant again. The manager refuses to call the driver to see wtf is going on. No offer to refund or anything whatsoever to make it right. I’ll be writing my delivery app about this, requesting a refund. No burrito sitting in a car is going to still taste good at this point.
It’s now an hour and forty minutes past delivery time. I’m pretty sure my delivery driver has died in a car crash while stuffing his face with my burritos. Someone please save me. Send a St. Bernard with a guac cask collar.
Edit: I get a text message from ASAP that the delivery driver is bringing my food… at 9:49pm. The delivery driver got here THREE HOURS LATE at 10 freaking o’clock, ringing the doorbell, waking up my toddler and making her scream and cry like a banshee. Seriously?! Let me tell you where you can put those burritos! I politely tell the driver that it’s too late and I can’t accept them, knowing that this royal eff up isn’t his doing. I could hear the delivery driving calling his boss to ask what to do. Did his boss then call me to apologize or anything? Noooope.
This means that they had straight up lied to me when they told me my order had been sent out. Never again.

Tried playa at the disappointing day of the dead festival in Brisbane and they had a stall there. Overpriced bland tacos. Basically avo on a taco. Staff were rude and basically takes a lot for myself to give a bad review.

Whooooooooa, had really high hopes for this place and was absolutely shocked by the service we received.
It was a busy Saturday night so I expected some wait time for drinks/​food but 20 minutes after ordering we finally asked the waitress if she had any timeframe on when we would get our margaritas. At this point she told us the ticketing system had broken and that our food orders hadn’t gone in. I’m just wondering how long she would have let us sit without thinking «gee, I wonder why those people in my restaurant don’t have any food, oh right, maybe I should check on their order.»
We managed to get our margaritas, which were quite delicious but opted to leave since we were late to another function. Really wish we’d been able to try the food!

I adore Mexican — when it’s done well it’s fresh, filling, delicious, crunchy, tangy and oh so much more.
Playa Takeria definitely ticked the boxes. We started with a passion fruit margarita which was to die for — tart and salty and sweet.
We munched on crunchy tortilla chips and guacamole and then I chose the vegetarian burrito which was great. The burrito came with a nice side of guacamole and some pickled red cabbage which was acidic and crunchy and a nice contrast to my gooey burrito.
I was also impressed with the variety of taco fillings — pork, prawn, fish, chicken and veggie — almost the whole food chain!
All in all a great dinner and very affordable too — dinner for 2 cost $ 70 which I thought was pretty good considering we had a margarita and a starter to share.
So if you want to check out a new Mexican place head on down!

Addit: Actually.. no not even for the food.
Love love love the food. But boy howdy, the service is rubbish. I return because I am a sucker for authentic Mexican, but i get frustrated every time because waiting 15mins for them to open a beer is… and then having to collect half the drinks order myself when the place is half full, rubbish.
Having the paper towel dispenser full at the start of the evening would be pleasant too.
Random service, awesome food.. not sure if they can sustainthe pricing with the service.

Personally I’m not a fan of Mexican food or tequila and lucky for me this place is the only place I actually enjoy eating it because I live on top of it!
The passion fruit Margherita is delicious and they’re really lovely and margaritas neighbours too which is ways a plus. Great way to start a night out with tacos and margaritas!

What a great time we had here celebrating Mexicos «Cinco de Mayo»!! Marauchi band, sombreros, margaritas and tacos. I mean the owner and chefs all come from Mexico .
I got a chance to speak to one of the chefs and learn how difficult it is to cook ‘real’ Mexican food in Sydney. First of all access to ingredients is number one. The only way to cook with hominy, Adobe peppers, corn husk for example is to import them. Even after that, chef said that the dishes I am missing such as deep savoury spicy pasole are never ordered. So Americans like myself complain not to mention the fact that Avacados are $ 3 each.
I got a chance to try the pork and lamb tacos. Not a fan of pineapples I was a little disappointed in this more Hawaiin spin but the barbicoa was excellent! And so was my $ 10 guacamole. Slight sarcasm.
Either way, playa boasts a ton of proper Mexican food with proper ingredients. They have specials constantly and I can’t wait to go back!

Just popped my Cinco De Mayo cherry, and now I wonder why I held out for so long. Morals? Nerves? I don’t know but whatever it was it doesn’t matter any more because I’m in to it.
Sydney went from having no Mexican restaurants, to some average Tex-​Mex, to now having some really great authentic Mexican places, and this joint is one of the best around, from their succulent tacos (the little ones with the soft tortillas, fully legit) to their face-​zapping margaritas, to their chef, a young Mexican guy who came out and drank on the street with us. This is colourful graffiti, sprawl out onto the pevement fiesta good times.
Hell man, they even had a mariachi band turn up and people were passing a tequila bottle around on the sidewalk, can you even get a more legit Mexican party than that? Unless someone starts a knife fight I’m here to tell you that no, no you can not.

Huitlacoche. I’ve been looking for it for many years, since Keeno and I ate at Colibri Mexican Bistro in SF. Colibri has 1,497 Unilocal reviews, including one by me, most of them very good to great and the others written by morons.
It’s where I first learned Mexican food had really amazing flavours and that you can eat a mole. I realised that the rubbish I had been eating at «That New Mexican Place» and other Sydney places was a hoax.
The bloke at Playa would not let me try the ‘hot’ sauce — I had to prove I could take it by tasting the ‘middle’ sauce first. The ‘hot’ sauce is called ‘machete’ — for a reason, ay caramba! I handled it though, but I should wait and see how the afternoon pans out.
I had three little soft tacos, Taco Don Pastor a pork taco which is described in terms that I could not say to my mother but which tasted better than any Mexican food I have ever had in Australia… until the Taco Palenque — a veggie taco with Huitlacoche, chile ancho, chile chipotle, chile eric, zucchini, corn and sour cream. That instantly became the best Mexican food I have had in Australia.
Huitlacoche is a mould/​fungus that occurs naturally on corn. It imparts a unique smoky earthy deep flavour that is like nothing else. I then decided that I could not leave without trying Taco Padre — a chicken taco with Playa’s home made chipotle mayonnaise. Absolutely fantastic.
I loved everything about this little place. The blokes were friendly and funny and the vibe is really nice. I went early on a Thursday for lunch and it was quiet. The guys said it can get very busy and I have read there can be a wait. I had no such problem but it did take five minutes plus and I was the only person there. It’s worth it when the food is so good.
Oh …by the way, there is no such thing as ‘chile eric’ — I just made that up to see if you were paying attention.

Carefree, colourful and fun. As the name alludes, they don’t take themselves too seriously. Playa Takeria doesn’t get caught up in what’s authentic and what’s not. The food is tasty but not tacky. GREAT guacamole recipe and I most enjoyed the taco combination with black bean.
Sitting in the window and watching Humans of Darlinghurst roll by adds a star to this affair. On the other hand, I’m deducting some points for the waiter losing our order. We waited A WHILE for our food.
Final word? Worthwhile edition to Darlo. Bring two pals and go olé.