The best Mexican restaurant in Berlin, run by a proper Mexican, called Maria Peligro (Skalitzer Strasse 81, 10997 Berlin), part of the year-old Maria empire of awesome Mexican restaurants, starting with Maria Bonita, in Berlin. Next, opening next Wednesday, I think, at 6-8, is Santa Maria on Oranienstrasse. On Facebook you can become fans of Maria Peligro and Maria Bonita as well.
I wanted Mexican food last night and since I was grabbing coffee at Nollendorfplatz in Berlin after dropping by the Winterfeldmarkt Schöneberg to pick up Mark Harrison’s letterpress business cards from Buchdruckwerkstatt Christian Schöppe I invited Frank, a life-long Berliner, to a Mexican dinner. Where?
I knew about the tiny Maria Bonita, which was delicious, but Frank told me that the same guy who opened Maria Bonita recently opened a sit-down restaurant named something which was somewhere in Berlin-Kreuzberg. Well, we locked out bikes up at the Nollendorfplatz U-Bahn and jumped on the U1 and Frank used his ESP superpowers to divine where the restaurant was — and he hit it in one: Maria Peligro at Skalitzer Strasse 81, 10997 Berlin — U1 at Schlesiches Tor.
We sat down outside and ordered a couple Corona beers and a plate of very fresh guacamole. Fresh avocado, sweet lime, koriander, and serrano chile. Beautiful start. We then ordered our meals. I just checked the menu and our meals aren’t on there but I ordered Tacos Adobo.
Then, when it got cold, we went inside to two new fresh and cold Corona beers with line in the mouth. When the order arrived (sorry, I forgot to take pictures, I was too hungry and it slipped my mind!), the Taco Adobo was basically three marinated meat tacos in soft, coaster-sized, corn tortillas. Very savory and the cuts of meat were perfect.
Frank had something else, but it was more like a proper taco, and I think it was chicken but the 3 taco tortillas were crispy and flat, rather than a typical American envelope-style taco shell. His tacos had more stuff on them and we traded our last taco and it tasted a lot more complex, with I think cheese and a sauce and I think shredded lettuce, maybe.
Both were delicious — until I asked for some hot sauce. The waiter — and all the wait staff are generous, responsive, friendly, and very cool — brough me a salsa dish with a lot of salsa in there. He warned me that it was hot so I put only half a demi-spoon of the stuff on my taco… and after biting down, chewing some, heat exploded in my mouth, my face turned beet red (according to Frank) and tears started streaming down my face. Awesome. I would recommend that Maria Peligo maybe not serve so much in the salsa plate because I only used, total, one demispoon-sized 2 Euro-cent sized dollop and I almost died. It must have been pure pureed and spiced habanero chiles.
We stayed on well past our meal — our waitress was cute — and had more beer and then ordered a couple margaritas, which smelled strongly of tequila — good tequila — and then the owner dropped off a couple shots of some very high-end tequila, wich we prosted to and drank gladly.
All of the folks who ate there alongside us were expats. Most were American hipsters. They all had the same desire that I had — that both Frank and I had — which was to find some awesome authentic Mexican food to replace a steady hipster diet of döner, noodle boxes, lentils and wurst. If you come to Berlin and miss English and American and home-spun foodstuff, Maria Peligro is a perfect thing. Oh, that and I made some videos of the Saturday nightlife at the bar at Maria Peligro…
