Sunday Brunch at MEXICANO

With Mexican food having enjoyed a steady climb in popularity over the past few years, terms like burrito, tortilla and cilantro are now a part of the local foodie lexicon.

It is only fitting then, that MEXICANO Restaurant, The Rembrant Hotel Bangkok's Elder Statesman of Mexican dining, would create a Mexican Sunday Brunch that summits new local heights of culinary excellence for this exiting and diverse cuisine.

The man behind it all is MEXICANO Head Chef Carlos Bravo, who has composed a wide-ranging menu that includes internationally known Mexican favourites, border-spanning adaptations and esoteric, deeply authentic delicacies common to his native Mexico City and inspired, he says, by his own grandmother's cooking.

Starters are many and varied: fresh seabass or shrimp ceviche plus assorted seafood on ice and corn tortilla chips in three varieties--plain, spinach and rose-infused--with traditional dipping sauces, plus Chipotle-infused fresh cheese and fried tamarind chicken-stuffed taco rolls.

A row of clay pots tempts with spicy pork meatballs, soups, stews and jalapeno pepper rice that goes perfectly with all of them. Our favourite is the Chili Relleno--a large chili pepper stuffed with egg, cheese and dried fruit in a walnut cream sauce.

There's also a menu of cook-to-order mains and share dishes, led by imported BBQ lamb roast and beef ribeye cooked to tender perfection, along with heavenly-tasting Mexican burgers. The grilled seabass is impossibly tender and flaky, while the huge sections of grilled cuttlefish have that firm, just-out-off-the-hook bite. The remaining à la minute options delve deeply into the mysteries of the cuisine, like Chilaquiles, crunchy corn chips smothered in choice of red or green sauce and topped with a fried egg, and Tamales, steamed cornmeal buns stuffed seasoned chicken. And then there's the Molcajetes. Served in a huge stone mortar-like bowl, this massive portion of mex-licious goodness comes overflowing with beef, chicken, prawns and cuttlefish bathed in an intriguingly flavourful house-blend Diabla (she-devil) sauce, then topped with cheese and baked. The sizzling, bubbling melange arrived in its hewn-stone vessel like some offering to an Aztec god which somehow got diverted to our table.

There's also a taco cart station which showcases the cuisine's street food facet. The three filling options includes the classic carnitas pork, which Chef Carlos prepares as a confit rather than traditional "pulled" treatment, giving it a tender, almost creamy texture. Across the room, the quesadilla station offers a tantalising spread of meat, cheese and veggie fillings which are slathered between two flour tortillas and grilled crispy-brown while you wait.

Nestled amid the principle bites are assorted nibble-dishes like tangy smoked chipotle salmon and salad, prawn cocktails, along with mole and habanero sauces which guests can use to pep-up their plates as they choose.

Authentic afters include chocolate cake with flan custard topping and traditional fruit ice-lollies.

At the lavishly presented free-flow "cantina" you'll find fruit juices as well as adult beverages like assorted-fruit Margaritas in authentically salt-rimmed goblets, or the fruit-infused, red wine drink known as Sangria (Spanish for ‘blood-like'). ¡Salud!

While Chef Carlos' buffet menu manages to cover the well-known and the obscure, haute and everyman's examples of Mexican cuisine, it's the small, non-ethnic extras like fresh jumbo cherries from Japan and roasted, herbed miniature carrots at the salad station that give this buffet its broad appeal.

A tip of the hat to Rembrandt for their what you see is what you pay net-pricing policy and sparing us the dreaded plus-plus "check-bin" shock that is the bane of hotel buffet enthusiasts.