Salsa’s Fresh Mex Grill, Highpoint, 120-200 Rosamond Rd, Maribyrnong. Phone: 9317 4623
After expressing our somewhat surprising – to us – affection for the works of Guzman y Gomez, a friend suggested we check out Salsa’s, housed in the very same shopping centre.
So I did.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to resist making a direct comparison between the two fast-food Tex-Mex outlets.
For starters, while Guzman y Gomez is set up in such way as to at least make a handy grab at sustaining its own vaguely groovy ambiance, Salasa’s has no such luck.
It’s situated right out there, just another outlet in a giant, circular shopping centre food court of little or no soul.
As well, the menus of the two places are remarkably alike.
Corn chips and guacamole ($4.50) are OK.
The corn chips may be crisp, but they are about as bland as corn chips can get – one extreme of corn chippery, with the toxic likes of Doritos at the other.
The guacamole is of the smooth, blended variety with some texture from red onion and a little tomato.
But it’s not as swell as the chunky stuff at Guzman y Gomez.
My original beef burrito ($8.95) is a stodgy disappointment.
My fault – the use of the phrase “Texas beef” should have alerted me to the use of ground meat; I should have opted for a burrito that had real meat and black beans.
As it is, my burrito is very heavy on the rice with no discernible cheese element. I can see some fresh stuff like tomato and onion but can’t taste or feel it.
The “Texas beef” is OK – a bit like a cross between chilli con carne and bolognese – but just seems a little weird in a heavy-going burrito that goes unfinished.
consider the sauce 
As a Seppo, I feel qualified to opine on Tex-Mex food, because I’ve certainly eaten a lot of it. So I second your emotion about Guzman vs. Salsa’s (and every other Mexican place I’ve eaten Down Under.) Guzman y Gomez is like what you’d get at a decent, middle-of-the-road Tex-Mex chain in the U.S. Salsa’s, the execrable Taco Bill’s and every other allegedly Mexican joint I’ve made the mistake of trying here, they’d be laughed outta business even by taste-deficient, bloat-bellied ‘Merkins. The spicing is just not right here at the other places I’ve tried (aside from Guzman). I think Australian cooks are scared of producing the “ring of fire” disease if they add too many chiles, cumin or hot sauces. Guzman gets it as close to correct as anyplace I’ve encountered. I’d go back to them. I’ll go hungry before I go to Salsa’s.
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You need to try this place:
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Looks cool! Like California taco truck style. Next time I work a morning shift at the psych ward in Broady, I’ll hop off the train with my pushbike and hit this joint. Or if I am smoked out by those “late-night munchies” (heh-heh) in the middle of the arvo one some day when I don’t have work. It’s always fun to ride through the back streets and railroad bridges of North/West Melbourne when the all the colours look so colourful, man…
The Meskin jars and cans you photographed are enticing, too. I’m restocking my pantry with 6 months’ worth of disaster preparedness foods, as I always do for a “starvation insurance policy.” Some tomatillos, salsa verde, etc. will go nicely in the mix. La Tort. will save me the trouble of tramming out to the Hispanic grocery zone in Fitzroy.
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