OUR search for Ipswich’s best Mexican food took an unexpected detour, ending at a South American barbecue restaurant with a seriously loaded plate.
La Parrilla is not a Mexican restaurant. It is a proudly South American restaurant in North Ipswich, with a menu built around Colombian-inspired flavours, smoky meats and plenty of food designed for sharing.
But when the brief for this week’s Roamin’ Rowan adventure was to find the best Mexican food in Ipswich, I wasn’t about to let a little matter of geography get in the way of a good feed.
With a grill lovers section sure to please any carnivore, the Pork Shoulder (Asado) is a must-try – slow-cooked for several hours over hickory wood, giving the meat a smoky flavour and a wonderfully tender texture. Served with garden salad, French fries, lime and salsa aji, it is another example of the restaurant’s ability to make relatively simple ingredients work incredibly well together.
One of the things I enjoyed about La Parrilla is that it doesn’t try to be something it isn’t.
There is no pretending this is a traditional Mexican restaurant.
La Parrilla means “the grill” in Spanish, and its identity is firmly rooted in South American food, with grilled and slow-cooked meats sitting at the heart of the menu.
Which makes the result of our Mexican hunt all the more amusing.
We went looking for Mexican, but we found South American.
And we still found a plate of nachos good enough to take the title.
That is the beauty of Roamin’ Rowan.
And on this occasion, La Parrilla proved that sometimes the best discoveries are the ones that don’t quite fit the brief.
The verdict?
Roamin’ Rowan rating: 7/10
La Parrilla is located at 14 Pine Mountain Rd, North Ipswich.
