Bluecorn

5.5 Average

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  4      Value  4     

I walk past the corner of Barkly and Acland Street very frequently, just like any good St Kilda resident on the way to the number 96. There are no shortage of treasures in this location – Leroy, La Roche, Big Mouth and Coles...

One place I have walked past frequently is Bluecorn, a Mexican restaurant sandwiched between Claypots and that bottle shop with five thousand different beers – yes you know that one. Until very recently I viewed this as a small but cheerful restaurant on Barkly Street, so it was with disappointment that I fronted up to a packed full restaurant looking for a feast I expected was not forthcoming.

There is just something delicious about the typical mix of beans, red meat, sour cream, chilli and flat bread that you want to keep eating. We ordered enchiladas with spicy beef, beans and rice and the ‘too big to hold” burrito with sliced steak, BBQ sauce, pepper and onion. Both were excellent. The enchilada had a softer more filling flavour due to the rice component. The burrito had well cooked (i.e. medium rare) beef intermingled with the pepper and onion and a nice dollop of guacamole.

Again service was quite slow with the food so recommend ordering promptly to ensure shorter waits.

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Nov 24, 2011 

7.3 Recommended

Food  8      Ambience  7      Service  7      Value  7     

Very good mexican food. Drinks are good too.

Apr 04, 2011 

1.3 Not Recommended

Food  1      Ambience  2      Service  1      Value  1     

Worst restaurant in St Kilda! And I'm a local who's been to most of the best.
They deliberately over charged our bill by $100, when my friend handed over his credit card before seeing the itemized bill. They are outright thieves who tries to pull one over us. The margaritas are mixed with cordial, no lime/lemon juice and they cost $16 minimum each.

The food was a massive pile of slop on the plate. Honestly looked like it had been put through the blender. Service was no existent. We had a booked for 3 as we walked in, 3 people came in off the street with no booking and were given our table, so we had to wait outside in the cold for 10 minutes for another group to leave. Avoid this fake mexican haunt like the plague!

Mar 27, 2011 

2 Not Recommended

Food  2      Ambience  2      Service  2      Value  2     

Margharita was the worst we have had, mango cordial with large chunks of ice.
Burito was burnt to a crisp and inedible, when we mentioned to the waiter he said that is the way it is meant to be.

Octopus was remarkable in the sense it was both burnt and freezing cold!
Corn bread recipe has changed, it was Ok, but is use to be blue and have the texture of cake, now it is just chewy bread. Considering we could spend $100 bucks at MOvida, Mamasita, Anada, etc...the value of food was very poor. No atmosphere with an absence of music and staff not very present.

We should have known, on a busy St Kilda night with all the other restaurant busy and full, we got a seat straight away. Without a doubt the worst restaurant experience I have had in recent memory!

Jan 04, 2011 

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  7      Service  4      Value  5     

Wait for food wasn't too long. Waitress knocked over my friends beer on the table with most of it spilled and didn't replace it with a new one. So we weren't impressed about the service.

Food looked good and there was alot there for each portion. I had the smokey steak dish and there was no smokey flavour at all. The first bits of steak were too tough to chew and there was very little flavour in the dish as a whole. I think the word bland fits well here. But when you're paying $28 you make the best of what you get. My wife had the fish and again it was lacking in flavour.

Was a good night out with friends but if you're after a really tasty mexican feed I'm sure there's a better choice out there.

Mar 19, 2010 

7.5 Recommended

Food  9      Ambience  7      Service  6      Value  8     

Fantastic food. Service can be very iffy and slow, but takeaway is normally no issue at all. Huge servings for the price.

Feb 26, 2010 

5 Average

Food  7      Ambience  7      Service  1      Value  5     

Worst service I have ever experienced in a restaurant. We stood for 10 minutes waiting to asked to be seated (I, obviously pregnant) while the waiters socialised with (friends?) at other tables. We had a booking and our table was empty btw. Food was fine but partner's cocktail tasted awful.

Jun 11, 2009 

3.8 Below Average

Food  8      Ambience  1      Service  3      Value  3     

I’m hoping this will be constructive as well as critical. First impressions were not quite the authentic feel other reviews had lead us to believe. The front part of the restaurant looked no different to that of a typical daytime cafe, vibrant colours but no thought involved. We were the met with, there is no BYO, which was odd seeing as most websites we’d seen said there was a corkage fee, we later found out there is no BYO for large groups (shame we’d bought bottles of wine already).

We were lead out to the back courtyard as we had a group booking. The same drab unimaginative feel was in the outdoor area, with the only Mexican items, 2 throw rugs draped over the back fence. How the side of a 40 foot shipping container was Mexican authentic I’ll never know. I realise we have a great nation of multiculturalism, but to be greeted and served by a young American guy wearing a T-shirt with Texas printed on it seemed a little odd.

The menu was priced above average, and well above the guides set in all reviews we’d seen, entrees at 20 bucks mains at 30 bucks etc. We ordered nachos to share whilst we waited for others to arrive. The portion was small, hard to split, and definitely not worth $19.50. One of the group ordered a mock-tail, which looked very impressive, but tasted like mouthwash.

The mains started to arrive, and the waiter (who we later found out to be the senior staff) brought out 3 plates, one of which was a mango chicken which no one had ordered. He said “well someone’s ordered it, I’ll just leave it until the end to see whose it is then” but it never re-appeared. Another dish was the goats cheese quesadilla which looked like it had 2 large burnt sheets of blue cardboard wedged in the meal. When asked why is the quesadilla blue, which was only an observation rather than a criticism, the senior staff’s blunt response was along the lines of “that’s’ just the way it comes”, with no explanation of why, and walked off.

During the meal we noticed a large piece of paper hanging on the wall, written in an pale blue or green ink, that could hardly be read even when it was still light, let alone when it had gone dark. It turned out to be the specials menu, which we weren’t told about. In regards to the food in general, I’d say 80% of the meals were well above average, and, therefore, the saving grace of the night. It was extremely upmarket and creative for Mexican food, good variants on a traditional menu.

The service was mixed, the American waiter polite, in contrast to the senior staff.
The atmosphere was driven by the clientele only. With no music and little decor, we could have been eating in any street cafe. It’s a shame we won’t be making a return visit, because even though the food was over-priced, it was good.

Feb 07, 2009 

5.3 Average

Food  5      Ambience  8      Service  4      Value  4     

Fresh food, but not very "Mexican". A kind-of "dumbed-down" array of flavors. FYI: "authentic Mexican food" is served by people who are authentic. When asked, these guys admitted that no one from the kitchen staff had ever even been to Mexico! Trust me, as someone who gets to Mexico City at least once a year, it would make a huge difference.

Jan 21, 2009 

7 Recommended

Food  10      Ambience  8      Service  2      Value  8     

The food is great and authentic mexican not like the disappointing reheated "old el paso" stuff that you get at most places. The service is extremely slow no matter what time of the day you go to eat.

Jan 05, 2009