el Agave, Flurstasse, Zurich

What would one expect in the no mans land near Letzipark ? Certainly not that someone opens a new restaurant. But the folks from El Agave believe in the location and have opened a new mexican place. The menu had some interesting elements, which you won’t find in many places.
The Guacamole and the corn chips were average, but not more. Compared to say the serving at the Bite the Guacamole was lacking taste (also served too cold) and flavor. Things improve vastly with the Quesadilla, which were filled with cheese, pumpkin flowers and cuitaloche. Unlike most places these weren’t soggy and greasy somethings but nicely cooked tortillas where especially the cuitaloche stood out. This is some form of funghi infected corn and leads to a very interesting taste. A mix of savoury and sweet flavors complemented nicely with the cheese and the slighly toasted tortilla. Lastly the red salsa with Habanero chilies was lovely that was served with the Quesadillas.
Another interesting dish was the Molcajete. A rechaud like bowl, filled with sauce, cheese, chorizo and strips of beef together with some tortillas & lime wedges were part of this dish. It looked great, but again fell slightly short of flavor. The meat and chorizo was good and tasty but the sauce in the bowl didn’t add flavor. It failed in tying together the individual components to a cohesive dish.
The el Agave left a mixed impression, they had Ceviche on the menu but were unable to serve it on that day, one good dish and two on the dull side. This wasn’t radiating the freshness and burst of flavour you expect from a mexican inspired restaurant consistently. On the other side they are showing dishes which haven’t been seen in Switzerland before. Maybe food will improve as the restaurant matures.