Casa de Loco

Casa de Loco is crazy fun. The Stones play on vinyl and hanging bunches of dried flowers adorn this Mexican restaurant and bar where they serve more than 80 tequilas and mescals and can provide a tasting flight for those brave souls with no appointments the next morning. Or you can order a tequila-based cocktail like a Charlie Sheen or a Tommy’s Margarita, follow it up with a jar of red sangria or bottle of Argentinian malbec, or simply get a few Dos Equis lagers into you to help wash down some soft tacos that are $7 a pop. Braised beef, pork and cold prawn are super-tasty despite the lack of heat (the Casa prefer you to add your own chilli sauce – fair enough) but the winner is the tempura fish – crunchy, with a hint of wasabi. Share plates include tangy kingfish ceviche ($16) and an amazing blackened corn with chipotle mayo and a squeeze of lime – just about the best $4 you can spend in N-town. The fun continues with the $9 desserts: churros and dulce de leche, of course, or tres leches cake drenched in condensed milk with a nugget of toffeed popcorn on the side, like a meteorite of chewy sweetness. Casa de Loco’s menus proudly proclaim “We love to eat” and “We love to drink” – and it shows. If this is madness then we don’t ever want to be sane.