Mexica Chinese is rated among Herts' top 10 - review

The Mexica buffet, just a stone’s throw from Rickmansworth underground station, is the highest-rated Chinese restaurant in this area on Trip Advisor.

Mexica Buffet in Station Road, Rickmansworth (Image: Watford Observer)

Sitting halfway up Station Road, given the road system in the town it would be easy to miss, and it you were passing in a car and just saw the name you’d be forgiven for thinking it serves tacos and burritos.

However, it is indeed a mighty fine Chinese buffet and puts to bed some of the misconceptions that serve-yourself food is often large bowls of different coloured gruel containing mysterious meats, fish and vegetables.

What Mexica offers is freshly cooked, it’s piping hot, tastes and looks wonderful, and the choice on offer makes it extremely good value.

On a Friday night it cost £35 for two of us, plus a couple of soft drinks – it’s even cheaper midweek or at lunch time.

I’ve managed to get this far without mentioning that other criticism of buffet dining: eat all you want.

There were no signs of anyone trying to recreate Mount Everest in noodles, chow mein and chicken balls.

An absolute must - crispy aromatic duck pancakes (Image: Watford Observer)

In fact, there were so many different delicious things on the menu that it leant itself to trying a little bit of each and popping up to the buffet a few times, rather than piling it all on at once and then hunkering down for a man v food challenge.

Indeed, on a busy Friday evening a lot of the diners appeared to be regulars, as they were greeted very warmly by the staff who seemed to know them very well.

And everyone gravitated to doing the same thing: pop a little bit of a few dishes on their plate, head back to their table and take their time.

Of course, if you are the sort of person who wants table service, then Mexica won’t be for you – but then nor would any buffet dining experience.

The quality and breadth of choice of the food on offer certainly makes this one worth trying though.

There was huge choice at Mexica. (Image: Watford Observer)

All the things you’d expect are there: aromatic crispy duck with pancakes, satay chicken skewers, even prawn crackers.

The spare ribs Peking style were particularly popular as a starter, and the battered chicken balls were huge – and each had a very large piece of tender white chicken breast inside.

The shredded chilli beef was something I’d not tried before, but it turned out to be my revelation of the night: it had a small kick to it, but was sweet as well and the battered beef was delicious.

The sweet and sour chicken was particularly good, and the roast duck in plum sauce was another winner.

Egg fried rice and two different types of noodles were there to sit alongside the mains, and there were plenty of more adventurous dishes to try – salt and chilli squid for example.

The garlic broccoli was superb, lots of flavour but with the vegetable itself still bright green and crisp, not soggy.

Once you've had all the savoury dishes you want, look at the sweets . . . (Image: Watford Observer)

Once you’d had your fill of the savoury, Mexica also offered an extensive sweet offering for dessert.

Profiteroles onto which you could drizzle chocolate sauce yourself, ice cream, fresh fruit, cheesecake, jelly and even crumble with custard.

A special mention for the toffee bananas: think toffee apple, but smaller and with a chunk of soft banana inside. Regularly topped up so they were still warm . . . perfect with a bit of ice cream.

Toffee banana was hard to resist . . . (Image: Watford Observer)

Overall, it’s easy to see why Mexica ranks where it does on TripAdvisor.

The food is excellent, it’s hot, fresh and tasty, and there is something for all tastes with the option to try some new dishes.

It’s friendly, cosy and bright, and at less than £20 a head represents great value.