The Flying Burrito Brothers (North Shore City, New Zealand)

Nowadays our dining out became really irregular due to that pandemic putting us in an out of New Zealand COVID Alert Levels, this means I am running out of restaurant reviews but hopefully it will go back to normal again. Having said that our review days of Tuesday and Thursday might not be regular at the moment but will try to fill it up with other contents if possible, so please bear with us until things get back to normality again. Our review today is one of those rare occasions during the lockdown and it’s one of those places we wanted to try for a long time but since its Mexican, my wife have some doubts since she cannot take really spicy food. During lockdown me and my daughter tried to train her palate by introducing spicy dishes in our menu to bring her up to speed since one of the places on our to visit bucket list are South Korea, India Mexico, and these countries are popular for their spicy food.

Once in a while our daughter cooks Tteokbokki and I had started to introduce stews and soups that are spicy like Jjigaes and dishes where Kimchi are added. With that it increased my wife’s tolerance to spicy food and this restaurant is a bit of test for her. At first, she was quite hesitant to go in since almost all of the menu items have flame drawn on its side and we know what that means.

As we ordered we asked if its Asian spicy or Kiwi spicy, this is how we rate spiciness in New Zealand. Kiwi spicy means it has a touch of chillies, that can easily be consumed by non-trained palate and Asian spicy, I guess you know what this means. The one who served us said it is somewhere in between, so I think we are safe.

First order was Macho Nachos (NZ$18.00), this one has two flames, prepared with Braised beef, chicken or vegetarian. With black beans & jalapenos, grilled with chilli con queso and served with corn chips. We chose the beef and it was delicious and wife loved it, in fact she did not think it was that spicy at all, so her training paid off. In fact she did even added hot sauce and she loved it even more. The corn chips was perfect, crispy with a good corn taste, quite bland in a good way since it was a good vehicle for that amazing braised beef served on the side. Serving it this was a genius; this means your chips will stay crispy all the time. It was cheesy, mildly spicy and very tasty, we loved it. While it may look like the serving size was small, this was a good to have entree which filled up early, that meat dip was hefty.

We also had some Chicken Quesadilla (NZ$24.00), Pibil braised chicken, cheese and topped with poblano pesto served on a folded flour tortilla grilled to perfection and served with rice and salad. Again this has two flames beside the name on the menu, but this time around it’s not spicy at all and she loved it. It was cheesy, meaty and we loved the touch of salad and spiced rice.

For our third dish we order a dish named after the restaurant, definitely it will be their special. The Flying Burrito (NZ$25.00), grilled flour tortilla parcel drizzled with coriander oil & served with sour cream, salsa, guacamole and salad greens then filled with Hot Adobo Beef, again this has two flames beside it.

Honestly this one we the best of the bunch, it was creamy, mildly spicy, melt in your mouth goodness, this made our visit here worthwhile.

We really enjoyed our dinner and to top it all up we had this Sangria (NZ$10.00/glass) on the side. It was made with Red Wine, fresh fruit, apple juice, sour mix & Triple Sec.

This was one of the best, if not the best Mexican restaurants we dined into date. Everything form the experience, food and location was perfect. Everything was delicious, way much better than expected, we highly recommend this place and will definitely be back here soon.

The Flying Burrito Brothers Albany
Address: 270 Oteha Valley Road, Albany, Auckland 0632, New Zealand
Website: flyingburritobrothers.co.nz