New restaurant flexes its Mex muscle

Enchiladas shimmer with the green, white and red colors of the Mexican flag. [Photo by Eric Jou/China Daily]

Designed in the style of a house of Xalapa, the restaurant features a lot of decoration brought from that region. A mosaic of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of largely Catholic Mexico, graces a pillar near the entrance, and the luminous bar features a selection of tequilas among its cocktail-hour offerings. Mangos deliver one of the sweetest kisses of tropical Mexico, and the mango margaritas here are particularly good.

The restaurant is located in Xintiandi Huguo, a newly developed street of shops and restaurants that seeks to be Beijing's next hipster haven a la Nanluoguxiang.

It's a lively spot with new enterprises opening all the time, and Xalapa is likely to entice the new waves of visitors to keep coming back.

If you go

Xalapa 1/F, Huguo Xintiandi, 85 Huguosi Dajie, Xicheng District, Beijing. 010-6212-1218.

Average cost per person: 75 yuan ($12).

Recommended: Chicken Mole, Tacos al Pastor.