Superchido

Daniel Pineda used to be an engineer. Now he’s the executive chef and restaurateur at the helm of Seddon’s Mexican diner, Súperchido.

The career change may seem unlikely, but for Pineda, it made perfect sense. He fell in love with the cuisine on a trip to the Americas and has been enamoured ever since. Back home he began recreating Mexican dishes, eventually developing his skills enough to launch a corporate catering company. Hospitality remained a side hustle until May 2021, when he left engineering behind to open Súperchido with his sister, Sarah Pineda, and partner Beatrice Nacor.

The earlier catering gig proved a handy way for Pineda to test his dishes and find the real crowd-pleasers. He calls the menu a ‘best of’, with each dish’s region of origin called out alongside it.

You’ll find several kinds of regional tacos, including Mexico City’s famous al pastor: pork belly marinated in earthy achiote paste, then roasted on a vertical spit, a method originally introduced to Mexico by Lebanese immigrants.

Vegetarian options might include a Mexico City-style taco containing queso añejo and fire-roasted pumpkin; a Baja-style barramundi taco, and a carne asada rendition from the north of Mexico. Unlike the others, this one’s served on house-made flour tortillas, rather than La Tortilleria’s corn tortillas.

Larger dishes might include Black Angus birria – a slow-braised beef stew created in Jalisco and recently popularised in southern California. Get it by the bowl, with a side of corn tortillas for dipping. Then there’s the Yucateco dish, cochinita pibil – here, pork ribs and pork belly marinated in citrus juice and slow-roasted inside banana leaves – and a Pueblan peanut and seasame mole (sauce) paired with seasonal roast veg.

The restaurant’s front bar is stocked with an extensive range of Mexican beers and spirits, the latter mixed in a handful of original and classic cocktails and mocktails. Think house-made cashew horchata; a lavender Tommy’s Margarita; a Sloe Gin Fizz; a mezcal Paloma spiced up with chilli salt; and La Pineda, a house creation of tequila, pandan, ginger, lime and cream, which nods to Pineda’s Filipino background.