Margo & Rita at The Beagle, Chorlton: Mexican Street Food, but with SITTING DOWN

A few months ago, I had my first encounter with those purveyors of superior Mexican street food, Margo & Rita. This took place at the lovely Levenshulme Market and unfortunately, whilst I very much enjoyed my burrito, my almost entire lack of ability to consume food in an elegant manner whilst standing up means I have little natural affinity with street food - much of my burrito ended up in my hair, with the remainder evenly distributed between the front of my dress and the floor.

The good news for incompetent eaters like me is that whilst Margo & Rita continue to sell from their lovely purple van at markets and festivals, they are now also resident chefs at The Beagle pub in Chorlton - where they have tables, and chairs, and cutlery and everything. They've been there a few weeks now and I've already been in a couple of times, but last Tuesday saw them bravely open their doors to a hoard of hungry bloggers and distribute Monopoly money to be exchanged for exciting spicy goods. The lovely Lady Sybil and I arrived quite late, having already been to a wine tasting at Didsbury Lounge (more of which another time), but were quickly provided with a tray of Mother Clucker Chicken Suckers: fried buttermilk chicken wings served with tortilla chips and salsa. These lasted about fifteen seconds, they were so good.

For mains, we pooled our ten pound Monopoly notes and went for a Burrito with ground beef and beans, and a Pasadena Mother Clucker Chicken Burger - spicy fried chicken in a brioche with chilli mayo and jalapenos. The burrito was just as good as I remembered it being, although with the added advantage of being consumed sitting down, with cutlery, and therefore remaining almost entirely out of my hair (almost - you have to acquire these kinds of skills gradually, after all). The burrito itself was a large, satisfying affair, properly crispy on the outside and packed generously with beef; the accompanying refried beans and crema salad also went down well. I preferred this dish over the chicken burger which, although tasty and pleasingly lavish with the mayonnaise, just seemed slightly less substantial and, at £7.50, definitely needed the side order of seasoned fries at an additional two quid.

Still, this remains an excellent menu that I would be happy to eat pretty much anything from - especially the Fish Tacos, which were on as a special but which I resisted because I had them recently at the Indy Man Beer Con. I include a picture of them here so that you may admire the full gorgeousness of Margo & Rita's food in daylight, and as an apology to the lovely Mark and Diane for taking such murky photos of my dinner last week. One day, we will have it all - clean hair AND bright photos; for now, I can but dream...

Margo & Rita can be found at The Beagle, Chorlton every day except Monday - you can lust over the full menu here. We were not asked to pay for our food (well, we were, but with pretend money that we had been given) but would have done so, gladly.