Mackie Mayor, 1 Eagle St, Manchester M4 5BU.
VEGAN OPTIONS: Listed on Menu
CUISINE: Mexican
ATMOSPHERE: Casual, relaxed, after work drinks, brunch.
PRICE: £££
Pico’s Tacos can be found freshly nested for Spring in the corner of Mackie Mayor, a vast and shiny restoration of a 1850s market building that was reborn into a hugely successful grotto for gluttony. Modelled in the same vein as Altrincham Market and many other food halls across Europe, the building is home to 10 traders selling food, booze and coffee. There are none of the gaudy stalls flogging wrinkly sashimi and stale baguettes to tourists that you find in some lesser continental canteens, just the very, very, good stuff. Perseus holds the head of Theresa May on the wall, there are plenty of dogs to stroke and lots of good wine to drink – Mackie Mayor has always been worth a visit, but with a taco joint opening up in the middle of such good culinary company, my trip this time is an urgent one.
The team behind the taqueria, Luc Egret and Laura Howells, serve up several taco options at £5 a hit. At the top of the list are the usual meat and fish stuff you’d expect from this type of gaff, but as you read further down the chalkboard menu above the counter the two vegan options are listed crystal clear as ‘Sweet Potato & Toasted Corn’ and ‘Battered Avocado & Pumpkin Seeds’. The vegan sides and sharers are ‘Guacamole & Tortilla Chips’, ‘Tortilla Chips & Dips’ and ‘Toasted Corn’. If you consider the other limited vegan options offered by Mackie Mayor traders and the wider vegan dishes at Mexican restaurants within Central Manchester, this is a very reasonable menu for any tortilla starved diner swerving animal products. I order the two taco options with the chips & dips on the side because I can never resist new salsas.
The dips and tortilla chips rock up first. The amber coloured salsa is the special one: not a mole, but stacked up in a similar way with flavours of smoked almonds; dry spices; corn and salt. It kicks and it smacks of all of the quintessential Mexican flavours that belt you leagues away from the childhood memories of soggy Old El Paso fare that people named Luc and Laura might have served you at a restaurant or dinner table through the 2000s. The delightful piquant green tomatillo salsa holds itself very well as a foil for the other two dips: it’s very sweet, almost like a chutney served in a pickle tray. The more traditional red Pico de Gallo has all of the satisfying crunch of fresh onions and zap of lime that you expect and crave – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
The taco plate arrives soon after. My first impression: finally, some tortillas made from masa in Manchester! I’m very happy. The Sweet Potato and Toasted Corn is first down the hatch and the flavours are straight to brass tacks – blazing heat from the smoked almond salsa and chilli, then chomping great pieces of crispy corn plastered in spiced salt. The subtlety comes later in the tangy caramelisation leeching out from the sweet potato and the white onion to balance out the sodium content and set off the more fragrant elements of the plate. The only downside is that the potatoes were a little too big to be folded up within the tortilla, making it an even messier affair than the usual finger food experience.
There’s more of the smoked almond salsa on the Battered Avocado taco, but if you’re going to get sick of this versatile ingredient – it certainly won’t be on your first visit. The avo plate is just as well rounded as the other dishes, with red onions in pickling liquid that develop the creamy avocado flavour into something three dimensional. Pieces of crispy kale and batter muscle through the smoothness and add a very pleasing texture in amongst the tortilla, the pepitas offer further textural contrast and flavour. Every bite is sharp and exciting.
It’s easy to see how the menu at Pico’s Tacos has a lot of scope for excellence, the nearest to a criticism I can offer is that with four to five dishes containing shared ingredients it would be easy to run the risk of getting burnt out on the same flavours with too many repeat visits. But I for one could happily eat at this tacqueria again and again. Pico’s also have a margarita menu that can be ordered from behind the bar which could really liven up the end of the meal.
LINKS:
NEW VEGAN ORDER 
