Sonora

Sonora is a Mexican restaurant and mezcal bar inspired by the thriving restaurant scene in Mexico's City's cool neighbourhoods of Roma and Condesa. It's from the team behind Bondi's Taqiza and Carbon.

The menu is inspired by the cuisine of Sonora, a coastal state in Mexico’s north-west that shares a border with the US (the states of Arizona and New Mexico), where flour tortillas are preferred over corn tortillas. Executive chef Juan Carlos (Three Blue Ducks) is originally from Baja California (the state just west of Sonora), and uses his grandmother’s recipe to make flour tortillas on a special machine brought back from the US.

Sonora is all about the Tacos Chingones (literally “bad-ass tacos”) menu, which has options ranging from flat-iron steak to wild mushrooms with zucchini flowers. The dish we predict will ignite interest is the New-York-meets-New-Mexico-inspired Wagyu-pastrami burrito. The tortilla is loaded with layers of pastrami from Belmore salumi-maker Quattro Stelle, plus house-made coriander-and-cabbage sauerkraut, chipotle mustard and black beans.

You won't see any sugar skulls, sombreros and Frida Kahlo's here. Sonora deliberately steers away from cliched iconography in favour of an experience that's truer to what you might find in Mexico itself. The interiors by Guru Projects (Reign, Went to See the Gypsy) are designed to look rough: unfinished, but also elegant.

The bar seats five and is framed by mezcals and tequilas. The bar menu hinges on four kinds of Margaritas. All other cocktails come with a Mexican twist, such as the Tamale Negroni: it's made with Four Pillars gin infused with corn, butter and vanilla, and sprinkled with dried pasilla chilli. The wine list follows a natural and organic theme, with a focus on Australian-owned companies, while all the beers are from Mexico.