You're reading: Food Critic: Sadly, new Kyiv eatery Tex-Mex in name only

Back in 2010, then-Mexican ambassador to Ukraine Berenice Talavera told the Kyiv Post that she ate her country's cuisine at home because Kyiv lacked the proper ingredients.

Five years later, that still shouldn’t be an excuse for why the city’s newest self-declared Mexican eatery, Poco Loco, served what were clearly store bought corn tortilla chips whose spiciness ruined what was a lovely, fresh Pico de Gallo sauce (Hr 40). The heat from the highly salted chips overwhelmed the taste of minced cilantro, chopped tomatoes and onions, and citrus. The only way to marry salsa Mexicana is with plain, preferably homemade, tortilla chips – flour or corn – but not seasoned, that’s the sauce’s job.

Also a riddle was the gummy, not gooey, melted white cheese on top of the chips. They certainly weren’t the Mexican panela, queso blanco or even Chihuahua cheeses that are often used in Mexican cooking. In fact, I’m still struggling to guess what the low percentage of dairy content was in the cheese.

Opening its doors on Aug. 25, the restaurant’s proximity to authenticity convincingly ends where Tex-Mex begins with only two traditional Mexican ingredients, cilantro, and jalapeno, discerned in the food my companion and I ordered.

That’s a gratuitous remark. Granted, celebrated Mexican cuisine chef Rick Bayless included the American Southwest as one of the seven culinary regions of Mexico in the draft of his first cookbook. Then again, he grew up in Oklahoma (on Texas’ northern border), eating fare like enchiladas, two or three times a week.

So expect flavor profiles, except much blander, that resemble what the kitchens of T.G.I. Friday’s deliver, nothing more adventurous or closer to what’s found south of the border where there are more than 100 indigenous chiles from which to choose and experiment.

Applying that unsavory culinary standard, the veal fajitas platter (Hr 180), the quintessential Tex-Mex dish, didn’t disappoint. The meat was perfectly grilled and tender and came with fried bell peppers, without even a simple Mexican poblano, as well as onions, jalapenos, plenty of Spanish rice on the side, plus sour cream, guacamole and a runny tomato-based sauce with a tinge of cilantro.

The warm flour tortillas turned hard fast, a testament they weren’t fresh. More had to be ordered for that reason and eaten immediately after they were presumably removed from the microwave oven.

Less exciting were the three chicken tacos (Hr 90). Toppings included shredded Chinese cabbage as far as I could tell, not iceberg lettuce, pinkish pickled onions, and chopped tomatoes. The meat was also tender but I couldn’t tell if it was grilled or fried, and what spices were used, if any, because the taste was dull, just a notch above dishwater.

We washed down the faux Mexican-inspired Ukrainian food with a classic Margarita (Hr 85) and a non-alcoholic Mojito (Hr 40). It was a pity that the restaurant owner and chef couldn’t take advantage of the wonderful opportunity that Mexican ingredients offer to liven the palate.