Swensen’s - A Tex-Mex (In)Experience

i fell in love with mexican food during my dallas trip back in november. tex-mex food, to be more precise. that’s mexican cuisine with a texan twist! i love the spice, the rich flavors, and the multitude of vivid colors that turn tex-mex dishes into plates of art!

unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any good mexican food in singapore! okay, i know i’m probably not making a fair statement since the only mexican place here i’ve checked out is café iguana (which is more of a bar than a restaurant). but i spoke with a mexican person who’s a permanent resident living in singapore, and he concurred.

currently at the swensen’s restaurants, local celebrity couple allan wu and wong li lin have rolled out a series of new dishes, including — surprise, surprise — a tex-mex dish! while knowing that it’s unlikely to be good, i was still curious enough to try it out (with lukewarm enthusiasm).

Tex-Mex Fish
Price: $14.90 (includes soup of the day and lime juice soda) + 10% Service Charge + 5% GST
Dish rating:

this tex-mex dish was quite simply fish with chips. taste-wise, it was very bland! the grilled fish fillet tasted like any regular unseasoned fish and was severely lacking in flavor! if not for the little chili symbol on the menu, i wouldn’t even have realised that this was meant to be a spicy dish!

the tomato salsa set atop the fish was slightly crunchy and watery. it was supposed to be spicy but again, i detected no spice! then, there’s the bean salad that formed the bed of the dish. that, i barely touched, because it looked to me like whole beans that had been boiled in water. certainly not very enticing!

by any standards this had been a disappointing dish, even if it wasn’t meant to be tex-mex.

aesthetics-wise, i thought it definitely didn’t make the cut. look at these authentic tex-mex dishes i had in dallas and you’ll see what i mean.

swensen’s, allan wu and wong li lin have certainly not done any justice to the tasty and colorful mexican and tex-mex cuisines! is there no decent mexican food in singapore?

how about the following mexican restaurants:

cha cha cha (holland village)
el patio (also holland village, but i heard it’s no good)
chico’s and charlies (orchard parade hotel)
margarita’s (east coast)

does anyone have any feedback or recommendations on any of these?

Swensen’s
Bugis Junction
200 Victoria Street
#01-68 Singapore 188021 [map]
(65) 6336 9784
Service rating:
www.swensens.com.sg

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