Food review: Chimichanga, Unit R1, Silverburn, Glasgow, G53 6AG

Chimichanga is one of the new chain restaurants to have opened recently in the expanded food court at Silverburn Shopping centre – along with Pizza Express, TGI Fridays, Five Guys, Cosmo, Handmade Burger Co, Carluccio’s and Zizzi (have we forgotten anyone?)

We weren’t familiar with them before we went but found out that they are part of the Prezzo group and have restaurants all over England and one in Edinburgh. The food they offer is Tex-Mex, so that’s another region added to the world of choice at Silverburn and they sell, amongst other things, chimichangas (of course!) and our server recommended the pulled pork variety…

…and it was a pretty good selection, it was a nicely presented parcel of tender pulled pork, rice, beans and sour cream and guacamole (of course!) – there was also a smattering of coriander which was strong enough to taste. It was filling but wasn’t very spicy though there are sauce bottles on the tables to get the dish to your desired heat level.

A fairly large crispy fried chicken breast with a buffalo sauce, lettuce, tomato, red onion and blue cheese sauce. It wasn’t dry and was pretty tender with a wee kick to it (without the need to add the aforementioned sauce on the table) and was pretty filling.

On the side we also ordered buttered corn on the cob (£3.25), sweet potato fries (£3.75) and seasoned house fries (£3.25). Both the fries were fine bu it would’ve been nice if the sweetcorn was marinated in something but then I suppose that’s when the sauce bottles come into play again.

They sell various cocktails but as they have a South American beer selection we decided to wash our meals down with one each. The Brahma on draught wasn’t on available we settled for a bottle instead, it cost £3.75 and an Modello Especial beer was £3.95.

A smooth, rich cheesecake blended and topped with crunchy honeycomb pieces coated in chocolate. A very sweet tasty cheesecake.

A banana in a burrito?  Chopped banana and cinnamon sugar wrapped ‘burrito-style’ in a tortilla and deep-fried basically equals a Mexican banana fritter! It was served with caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream and was again sweet and tasty.

Chimichanga is a standard chain restaurant, if you’ve been to one before then you’ll probably know what to expect. It isn’t going to win any awards for innovation but it achieves what it sets out to do, the food was fresh, well-presented and delivered quickly by staff who were friendly and polite. It’s family-friendly so nothing was too adventurous or spicy – if you’re unsure about Tex-Mex/Mexican food then this is probably a good introductory step and if you want some heat then lift your desired sauce bottle from the choice of mild, hot or hotter! The food is Tex-Mex but if you’re a connoisseur of Mexican food then you’ll probably want to stick to Bibi’s or elsewhere.

Toilets are located upstairs and were so clean and shiny that I thought I’d walked into a showroom! There are also disabled toilets at ground level. It’s easy to reach, located close to the bus station entrance at the food court – there is car parking just outside and plenty of buses stop here, shame there’s no train link though.

Open 12noon – 11pm all week. Menus and further info can be found here: http://www.chimichanga.co.uk/restaurant/silverburn.

TL;DR
+ Food was well presented and filling
+ Staff were helpful and polite
+ Clean toilets with accessible disabled toilet
+ Easy to get there, plenty of buses and car parking available

– Mexican food connoisseurs may be underwhelmed

We were invited along by Chimichanga and received a complimentary meal but Fred vouches this as a truthful review.