Wo the retail trade is struggling and things are getting harder and harder in the city centres, many expectations rest on the gastronomy. Restaurants, cafés and bars should enliven the city, or even just a property, depending on whether politicians or investors express their hopes. The owners of the area, which has been the “Club Social Mexicano” restaurant in Frankfurt since September, were obviously lucky: Madjid Djamegari, who also runs the Gibson music club, opened it six months ago, and from day one the restaurant, serving Mexican food and drinks, a large following.
If you stood in front of it, at noon or in the evening, the 400 square meter establishment seemed like one where the tills rang louder than the music could play. It’s still jam-packed, but now, probably due to staff shortages, it’s only open in the evenings, six days a week. The eatery occupies the base of an extended-stay Marriott hotel, part of a project called Flare of Frankfurt on the former Rundschau site. The building, which stretches across corners with a honeycomb-shaped white façade, was designed by the architect Hadi Teherani.
Six months great, not anymore
It was controversial before construction began, and anyone who feared that it would be anything but beautiful after completion was not mistaken. But the facade is one thing, the interior is something else: The “Club Social” is beautiful, with furnishings that feature wood and stone and wicker lamps. The seating and dining facilities in the open glass front, designed like train compartments, are particularly beautiful.
The offer is structured differently than in many Tex-Mex restaurants, where the mushy consistencies predominate and a lack of finesse is drowned out by a more or less unspecific good taste. Dishes such as tacos de carnitas, small, circular corn tortillas topped with pork shoulder confit, or small diced steaks, are examples of this. To begin with, it was exceptionally well-made, almost elegantly presented food. Unfortunately this is different at the moment.
On two visits in the past few weeks, one plate looked as if an untalented non-chef had had to help out and did it with roughly chopped onions and dry meat, another time the look was better, the taste hardly at all. Where there used to be chili and jalapenos, fresh cilantro, wafer-thin rings of red onion, none of that was. A sauce that used to be fine, such as the mole, which goes with many meals, was gritty and sour, the steaks were of the best quality, but, contrary to what was advertised, they were cooked sous vide and had absolutely no signs of being grilled, which is a pity.
Just as the years of life of humans and dogs are supposed to represent different lengths, one obviously has to calculate differently in gastronomy than in the other life. And take it for half an eternity if the “Club Social Mexicano” was top for a good six months, no matter what you ordered on which day of the week. And should not expect that a path once taken will be continued, probably the culinary advisor of the early days has left the boat. But one can also be annoyed, not least because, no matter what a restaurant offers, the same thing is always expected of the guest: that he pays, and never with Monopoly bills, but always with real ones.
Still good: the guacamole, the pollo a la diabla, a corn-fed chicken breast marinated on the bone and skin then grilled with avocado mousse, pepperoni and jalapeno rings, and pomegranate seeds. The Patrón tequila-based margaritas that are mixed behind the bar still taste great, the service tries hard, and the atmosphere is good. Conclusion: still worth a visit as an overall experience.
Club Social Mexicano Stiftstraße 41, Frankfurt Telephone: 0 69 / 91 50 14 30. Monday to Wednesday from 6 p.m., Thursday to Sunday from 6 p.m. www.club-social-mexicano.de