New Daytona Beach restaurant serves up authentic Mexican street food favorites

Daytona Beach recently welcomed a brand-new restaurant that's serving up the vibrant flavors of Mexico City.

Mexico City Street Food and Bar soft-opened on Mason Avenue late last month, with a grand opening right around the corner.

For owners Henry Benitez and Alfonso Arias Alba, who also owns Poncho’s Tacos and Mexican Ice Cream on Seabreeze Boulevard, the new eatery was created in hopes of offering locals a one-of-a-kind culinary experience inspired by the flavors, culture and arts that fill the streets of the capital city.

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Restaurant, Bar and Bakery: What to expect at Mexico City Street Food

“(The vision was) making it a little Mexico City style, like not so street or not so fine (dining), but just like a family home,” Benitez said.

The authentic new spot pulses with hospitality and tradition, from its custom wall art, featuring classic Aztec pyramids and Dia de los Muertos touches, to the vibrant Latin instrumentals filtering throughout and the incomparable attentiveness of its class-act staff.

“We want everyone to leave happy, and we want to treat everybody good, you know?” Benitez said. “Its (like) family … . With every customer it’s ‘Welcome to the family.’”

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Carefully curated to replicate the indulgent, bold and spiced flavors of Mexico City, the vibrant eatery’s menu will offer guests a homemade variety of elevated, street food-inspired dishes with “homestyle cooking” and freshness at the forefront.

“(Alba) brings all the recipes over from his hometown — the ingredients, the ideas — so most of the items on our menu, they may be similar to other restaurants, but our ingredients are different,” Benitez said.

“We use a lot of spices, but mainly traditional spices. And our sauces — we make everything from scratch. We don’t buy broth or anything. We make the broth to make our sauces. So, it’s a big difference.”

According to Benitez, the duo wanted to do “something different” for the area — a triple threat — fusing a sit-down restaurant and bar with an ice cream shop that boasts over 20 homemade flavors, as well as a bakery.

Though the bakery is still it the works, the restaurateur plans to open it by mid-April, offering guests a medley of homemade treats, from churros and tres leches to pan dulce — described as “a sweet Mexican bread” — and an original dessert beverage, noted as the eatery’s take on a frozen slushy, made with homemade syrups and freshly sliced fruit.

What’s on the menu at Mexico City Street Food

In homage to the culinary paradise that is Mexico City, the new restaurant showcases a limitless menu bursting with breakfast selections, seafood, vegetarian and vegan dishes, as well as burritos, tacos, steaks and other classics.

“People like steak around here, so we try to do steak dishes but also put the Mexican style in there,” Benitez explained, using authentic Mexican spices and homemade marinades to reflect the true "taste of home."

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Several “Mexico City favorites” include the chicken and spinach enchilada ($14.99); the chargrilled chicken or steak fajita quesadilla; and chimichangas; with other dinner plates ranging from the chile verde ($15.99) — pork ribs simmered in tomatillo green sauce and sautéed onions; to the camarones chipotles ($17.99) — shrimp sautéed in homemade chipotle sauce, served with pico de gallo, sour cream, guacamole, rice, black beans, lettuce and tortillas; and the Mexico City steak ($28.99) — 12-ounce T-bone steak, grilled lobster tail and six shrimp, served with white rice and veggies.

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Recent favorites of mine include the Steak a la Mexicana — spice-saturated, juicy ribeye steak strips sautéed with grilled onions, tomatoes and serrano peppers and served with rice, beans and homemade tortillas; the beef tip flautas — fried rolled tortillas, packed to the brim with tender beef and layered with shredded lettuce, queso fresco, avocado and sour cream; and the wide array of tacos with meat options ranging from classic steak or grilled chicken to al pastor (roasted pork), lengua (beef tongue) and chicharron (pork belly).

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Mexico City Street Food also has a full bar with a 3 – 7 p.m. happy hour Monday – Friday, offering imported and domestic beers, margarita pitchers and specialty cocktails, like the frozen Latin Lover — banana rum, coconut rum, piña colada, raspberry and pineapple; and Whitexican — horchata, coffee liqueur and vodka.

“We wanted to make something that reminds us of what we had living there,” Benitez said. “Something very authentic. We want to come as close as we can to a true, authentic Mexican restaurant, and I think we’ve achieved that.”

Mexico City Street Food and Bar is located at 855 Mason Ave. in Daytona Beach and is open 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Monday – Thursday, 11 a.m.  – 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. – 9 p.m. on Sunday. It's grand opening / bakery opening is in the works for mid-April. For information, call 386-236-9126 or visit mexicocitystreetfoodandbar.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Mexico City Street Food restaurant opens in Daytona Beach