OH FOR a chance to get away from the grinding permanent grey of a dreich North-east January.
Who wouldn’t want to swap, even if just for a while, the drizzle and dark for a bit of colour and warmth?
Well, judging by the way Chiquito was heaving early on a Friday evening, quite a lot of folk – including my wee family.
Like everyone else, we were drawn by the promise of a bit of fire in our bellies, a buzzing atmosphere, upbeat tunes, and the warm colours you would find down Mexico way.
Not that family-friendly Chiquito is all chilli and salsa. But our littlest one was more than happy to munch on her strips of golden-fried chicken and fries (£4.75) without a spice in sight. The rest of us, though, got off to a fiery start with the Sloppy Jose nachos (£7.78). A mound of tortilla chips was shot through with rich chilli, smothered in cheese, peppers, guacamole, salsa and sour cream.
It was the perfect antidote to the winter weather ... even if there were a couple of spats over who was taking the “juiciest” bits.
We all ignored the burgers, wraps and grilled stuff on the menu to keep going with the Tex-Mex theme. Although my beloved and I did have a quick murmur about the costs of the mains. Steepish for what is family dining, we felt.
The boy had his much-loved chicken fajitas (£11.89) that arrived in a sizzling cloud of spice-rich smoke.
The loon has fajitas-building down to a fine art, with the gauc, soured cream, salsa and cheese going on the tortilla and tender chicken and veg in a specific order. The end result was a thumbs up and a “can’t talk, eating” session from him.
Which left the grown-ups to tackle the chicken burrito (£9.74) for her and beef chimichanga (£9.74) for me.
The soft flour tortilla on my beloved’s plate barely contained the mound of gently-spiced chicken. Her serving was also heaped high with spiced rice and the fixings. No chance of her going hungry.
I was a bit nonplussed when my chimichangas arrived without rice, before I realised it was inside the fried-tortillas. And fine it was too, blending well with the chilli we had first encountered on the nachos. My only complaint was there could have been a higher beef-to-rice ratio.
By the time our friendly waiter cleared up, we were enthusing about our feast. Finally, we had a bit of warmth, if not on our bones, at least in our bellies.