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Repeat Offender answers Elwood's thirsty call

Dani Valent
Dani Valent

Margaritas, including these frozen lime and blood orange cocktails, are a repeat order at Repeat Offender.
Margaritas, including these frozen lime and blood orange cocktails, are a repeat order at Repeat Offender.Paul Jeffers

Mexican$$

Sometimes the people tell you what they want. When Repeat Offender opened in autumn 2021, the good burghers of Elwood let it slip that they were thirsty, very thirsty indeed.

They didn't exactly say, "We have a powerful need for margaritas", but they expressed this desire in enthusiastic cocktail ordering and – as winter rolled in – lots of lockdown walk-and-sips and – when spring sprung – lubricated taco picnics in the reserve across the road.

The Latin-inspired restaurant responded to evident neighbourhood dehydration with an expanded margarita menu, setting the current wave of in-house diners up for delicious anguish as they try to choose between the spicy Tabasco-spiked margarita, say, or the frozen version with tart blood orange and Aperol, or perhaps the house marg with Damiana, a Mexican herbal liqueur with purported aphrodisiac qualities.

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Located on a corner, Repeat Offender has an open indoor-outdoor interior.
Located on a corner, Repeat Offender has an open indoor-outdoor interior.Paul Jeffers

May it always be that the hardest part of a day is selecting a margarita. And it's actually the case that everything else at Repeat Offender rolls out easily.

The corner restaurant was presciently built as an indoor-outdoor space with most seating on a COVID-safer wrap-around deck.

The menu is a snacky, approachable Mexican-ish jaunt with a big focus on dietaries: everything is gluten free and there's plenty for vegans.

Grilled sweetcorn with corn puree and popcorn.
Grilled sweetcorn with corn puree and popcorn.Paul Jeffers
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Sweetcorn is grilled, seasoned with chilli salt and chimichurri, and plated with corn puree and popcorn in a fancy version of an essential finger-licking street snack.

The "truffle" mushroom taco is threaded with huitlacoche, a fungus that grows on corn: it's funky and flavourful.

Fried jackfruit nuggets are dusted with sweet, peppery achiote spice, pickled jalapenos and fresh chilli. The jackfruit flesh takes on a shredded texture, almost like pulled pork, and this bright golden tumble is as satisfying to eat as it is to look at.

Jackfruit fritas.
Jackfruit fritas.Paul Jeffers

And with the tripleplay of spice notes, you might just need another margarita to help it all go down.

Rating: Three and a half stars (out of five)

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Dani ValentDani Valent is a food writer and restaurant reviewer.

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