Izote Mexican

If you’re after your more traditional sit-​down Mexican joint then this is the place to go. Izote is a cozy little joint all the way up the north end of King Street. The décor makes you feel like you’re on a bit of a holiday and the staff are pretty good too.
My friend and I ordered enchiladas and you could probably feed a small nation with the amount of food on the plates! It was delish and thankfully they do give you that option of ‘mild or hot’ because I would probably die.
If you’re like me and are a fan of overfilling yourself to the point of no return then you won’t be disappointed!

I came here with such high expectations after reading other reviews and all the raves about this joint being the best Mexican in Sydney. Tough standards to live up to though. My partner made a booking for Valentine’s night promotion which looked amazing. To be honest there was nothing really wrong with the food, but the atmosphere and service left much more to be desired.
When shown to our table in the back room there were couples on both sides of us and we were smooshed between them. I could barely get in between the tables, and while I could be skinnier, I’m not obese… however, the girl and her partner next to us were much larger and we had to move tables back and forth for them to get in and out. Not only was it disruptive to the meal, being that close was a bit awkward and allowed zero privacy.
The meal was a 3 course meal with set menu options. We started with the cheese dip and tamale which were tasty. Our mains came out a bit later. I had the mole, and he had the enchiladas. Any places that can do an authentic mole deserves a try.
After that, we were expecting the churros and flan for dessert however, we were left waiting for a fair bit to the point we were wondering if they were just waiting for us to pay the bill. Now, at this point, I didn’t particularly want or need dessert, however due to the special, if we didn’t get it, they probably would have charged us for all separate items, so we kindly asked them for it. They then told us they were out of churros, no big deal, we’ll just have 2 flans, one of each flavor then. OK, so those come and we have a taste of each. For flan, I don’t think it was that impressive. A bit too eggy for my taste. I prefer a smooth custard consistency with a little jiggle. Anyway, after we finished, we got the bill, and guess what, they over charged us, so we went up to the register to sort it out. In the end all worked out, but it was a bit dissapointing. Perhaps on any other night I would give a bit more slack on poor service but on Valentine’s…I would have hoped the staff would up their game.

I rarely review anything unless my experience was exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Unfortunately, in this case it is the latter. The night started with the waitress sitting our party of eight on a table that was fit to accommodate six, so that the extra two seats could be used for another party. When she came back to take our order, she offered us the set menu which was $ 35 per person. When we informed her that we would prefer to order from the à la carte menu, she agreed and took our order. Some time later, the owner of the restaurant came to our table to demand that we do the set menu. Her reasoning was that we were a party of eight, but have only ordered six main courses, and that we had to order another two mains. She didn’t seemed too concerned that the food would just go to waste as long as she got her «$ 20 cover charge per person». Last I checked, this is a restaurant not a night club. She proceeded to rudely tell us that she was «not running a charity» and that she expects each person to spend the minimum amount. It was ridiculous that she was strong-​arming us into the set menu, as we would have probably ended up paying more than $ 35 per person when drinks and dessert were taken into account anyway! Not to mention the extra money that she made from taking those two seats away from our table in the first place! Unfortunately, I can’t vouch for the food because we decided to take our patronage elsewhere. But if you’re looking for quality authentic Mexican food in Sydney, you can’t go past Dos Senoritas in Gladesville and Crow’s Nest. Excellent food with a great atmosphere and staff who are actually polite to their clientele.

I thoroughly enjoyed my meal at Izote. The atmosphere is nice without being fancy, and is a good place for a night out with friends. Even though I came in as the last of the other diners were finishing their meals, the staff quickly prepared my order. The enchiladas verde with beans was excellent. After moving to Sydney from North America I have been a bit vocal about not being able to find great salsas and Mexican food. However, this place ranks as good as my favourite Mexican restaurants back home. I’m glad I found this gem.

We came here with a few friends recently for a catch up over some Mexican food and a Beer or three.
We’d been here several times before so we knew that the food was amazing, and predictably the same. Perhaps the only thing I can fault Izote on, is the unchanging Menu. But Hey, if it aint broke dont fix it, right?
Order the Cheese dip with Chorizo, Get into the entrees with gusto. In fact order all of them if you have enough people at hand. But most of all order the Barramundi Ceviche. Fresh Australian Barra, cooked by the juices of lime blended with a crunchy salsa of tomato, coriander and onion. Absolutely awesome. You can actually order this as either a main or starter.
Your usual suspects are on the menu. Burrito, Nachos, Guacamole. Salsa.
If youre a Tex Mex fan, and not used to some of the very rich tastes of real Mexican food, youd be forgiven for thinking that the Tequila prawns was too full on. This dish is my favorite and I will order it every time.
Perfectly cooked prawns swimming in a tart but rich Tequila and tomato sauce, Accompanied by rice, guacamole and salsa and a huge pile of salad. It easier to share something like this than a Burrito or Quesadilla.
You should definitely try the Chicken Mole. Chicken in Chocolate. Spicy spicy rich and not how you would imagine chocolate could taste, It’s no Cadbury dairy milk. No Sir! This dish is extremely rich, and I find that sharing it between the table is a better experience. Honestly, if you’d had the entrees it is hard to eat the entire meal yourself. I wasnt complaining about the amount of condiments for that reason.
I had no qualms with the staff. If anything extremely attentive. The restaurant owner was chatty and friendly and we had a joke or two .
BYO wine and Beer. Bring your appetite.

Easily the best Mexican food I have ever had. The burritos
are amazing, tortillas are homemade as ar the chips and excellent guacamole. My wife and I recently left Australia to return to the UK
and still talk about this place. We always felt like part of the family and actually
feel genuinely sad that we won’t be back. Go if you can, order everything on the menu and enjoy!

We ordered the bean nachos, beef fajitas and chicken enchilada. The nachos and fajitas were quite bland but the enchilada was OK, although a little too spicy for me.

I came here as a group of ten for a friends birthday party.
The older lady who stayed behind the till all night (who I’m assuming is the owner) was lovely. When we rang to make our booking she was very accommodating, so pleased that we’d chosen her restaurant for out celebration and seemed as if she was genuinely looking forward to meeting us.
When we arrived, the restaurant was quite nice. A member of our party had recommended it, as it was her favourite Mexican haunt in Sydney. The place was really busy and we sat in the front room, watching as people spilled out to the courtyard and to the restaurant’s top level.
It took a long time for the wait staff to take our order, despite continuous efforts to catch their eye. When contact was finally made, the staff then said they would leave to get a pen and pad, returning 15 minutes later. They took our entrees order (three serves of guacamole with corn chips) before leaving and taking another 15 minutes still to take our order for our mains. Our mains then took another 50 minutes to arrive. I understand that for a group of ten, it can take a while for the food to arrive, however 50 minutes still felt like a considerable wait.
So clearly, my point here is that service was slow. The food, however, was mostly pretty good. I had the chicken fajitas and the chicken, searing Szechuan style, was delicious — tender strips of saucy delicious chicken with sautéed onion and capsicum. The only downfall here was that my corn tortillas were cold, stiff and tough, as if heated up too early. The corn chips for our entrée were also disappointing, stale and tasteless.
When we went to leave the owner came and farewelled us all individually. We were all thanked with a hug and a kiss and her smile was so gentle and genuine that you felt she really meant it when she said «It was lovely to see you,» between hugs and kisses. «Have a lovely night. All of you. Have a lovely night.»
The venue was nice, the food was both delicious and occasionally disappointing, the menu was pretty expensive compared to other Mexican favourites and the service was slow. And yet, the owner was so warm and welcoming it almost made up for it all.

My BFF & I were planning a bit of Guzman Y Gomez before going to see one of our favourite bands at the Vanguard. We spotted the more up-​market looking Izote’s and it’s inviting BYO sign right next door to the venue and spontaneously decided to treat ourselves to some slightly more fancy Mexican. So we grabbed a bottle from BWS and headed on in. Every table in the place was booked out but our friendly waitress said we could have a table out back if we were done by 8– perfect because we were actually concerned they may not be fast enough.
As we were seated we spied BFF’s # 1 crush and member of Favourite Band sitting at the next table. Bonus points right there. We both ordered the veg fajitas ($ 22 each). The fajitas were steaming sizzling bowls of deliciousness. But more than a little light on condiments. We literally got 3 jalapenos each with our dish, so we asked for a few more & were given a ramekin to share which as we discovered when we paid the bill, we were charged $ 4 for. The dish was also furnished with, again literally, a teaspoon of guacamole and a teaspoon of refried beans. Check the pic if you think I’m exaggerating. WHO SERVES A TEASPOON OF GUACAMOLE?
Poorly proportioned portions aside (the fajita part of the dish was massive and rice was perfect) it all tasted great and the service was fine but unless any of my friends are on the stalking wagon I’ll stick with the far less stingy Guzman in future.