Mexico Lindo in Whitby and Ajax

We were in Whitby late afternoon, and suddenly a desire to taste something Mexican rose. Ajax has a Mexican restaurant, but we wanted to check out Whitby. Fortunately, we were told there is one simple, but a good restaurant.

After some effort we found the place. It turned out that it is Mexico Lindo whose Ajax branch I had visited earlier.

And like the Ajax branch, one gets the feeling of being in a Spartan restaurant more common in southern countries. There was a lot of colour – in terms of Mexican artefacts.

 

There is always nachos with two types of sauces: the sour variety and the spicy-sour variety.

Appetizer

Grilled Calamari. It is always interesting to challenge the chef’s knack to make it spicier, so for the sauce I chose the Calientes (hot) way.

The squids were fresh in a rich, red tomato sauce. I have to agree that this was not that caliente after all, but then I am used very spicy dishes; for many of their customers this might be too spicy. The bread was great – warm, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Main Course

Steak a la Nayarita, which is New York steak topped with shrimps in a green tomatillo sauce, and Camarones Tampiquenos, which is shrimps cooked in a spicy green tomatillo sauce with cactus.

Tomatillos are called the green tomatoes, but they are only related to, and not the green variety of, the red one we are so used to seeing and using. They all belong to the nightshade family.

It was only when the dishes came did we realise the mistake: usually we go for dishes with distinct tastes, but here we had ordered two dishes with tomatillo sauce.

So, we ended with two quite sour dishes.

The steak was great – not too raw or soft, and full of juices.

Shrimps in both dishes were also fresh and not the small, tasteless ones.

The sauce was also rich, with peppers and lots of tomatillos. It reminded me of sour mango curries I used to have as a kid.

There was rice, salad and the ubiquitous refried beans as sides.

Mexico Lindo is a bright spot in Durham region with simple yet tasty dishes.

Price was moderate: between 50-65 dollars for two.