First look: Cartel Belconnen. Get ready for a taco addiction.

Posted on 27 December, 2024

Finally, at long, long last, Canberra has a Cartel Taqueria.

After two years of crossing the NSW border (admittedly just to Queanbeyan, but still…) to fill up on the addictive Mexican food served up by Anna Petridis and her mum Gina, we now need only head to Belconnen.

Cartel’s second store is located on the foreshore of Lake Ginninderra, on Emu Bank, and given the general hysteria surrounding the Petridis style of tacos (enormous, drenched in cheese, and fried before being liberally doused in toppings and served with a dipping sauce), its opening is not one moment too soon.

“Yes, I know people are excited, and I have been bombarded with texts and DMs and calls and everyone wanting to know when it will be ready,” says Anna.

Well, skip breakfast this morning, because tonight, orders are up!

Under the stewardship of Colombian-born head chef Milly Hererra, Cartel Belconnen will serve the exact same menu that has made Cartel in Queanbeyan so consistently popular since it opened its doors two years ago.

“I mean, I knew I could make a decent business of it based on projections of taco sales at Patissez (the Petridis’ first café in Manuka) but honestly we had no idea it was going to be what it is today,” says Anna. And that is, in one word, pumping.

Of course, Cartel does not serve strictly Mexican cuisine, more a hybrid of Mexican-inspired flavours put together in a way only this daughter-mother cooking duo know how. Which is basically involving a lot of cheese, a lot of sauce, and a lot of whatever floats your boat in the middle.

“We have always set out to cook the sort of food we love to eat. So it’s not strictly authentic, but it’s delicious. And isn’t cheese just a general source of happiness?”

Anna had her eye on the Belconnen site for years and almost opened up there before settling on the Queanbeyan location.

But she is grateful Queanbeyan has been such a perfect spot to establish the brand with the hero restaurant.

“It has been amazingly popular and busy and we couldn’t ask for more.

“I think things always turn out as they are supposed to be, and this site ended up coming back into the picture and we knew the demand was there. Both spots face the water and in a way, they really complement each other.”

Belconnen will have room for 120 with 30 outdoor seats and picnic blankets and chairs to take food closer to the lakeshore.

The interior of the restaurant is wall-to-wall dramatic Mexican vibrancy, with a feature hand-painted wall tile mosaic created by Hunter Valley artist Elisa Krey, who also created the feature mosaic for Queanbeyan.

Because the two restaurants have relatively small kitchens given the quantity of food they need to pump out to feed the masses, Anna and her mum have moved prep operations into a central kitchen in order to streamline everything for the team.

“We have had to look at logistics and this way we can now cook 500 kg of meat and send it out to both locations.”

And she also has plans for a food truck to take Cartel tacos to the coast in summer and the snow in winter. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

Between setting the kitchen up and dealing with the inevitable stresses and strains of fitting out a new restaurant, there has been a lot going on for the family in the lead-up to Christmas.

It is such a blessed relief to open the doors now.

“It’s been like climbing a mountain, but the good thing is people are impatient for us to start serving, and now we are opening at a time of year when everyone else will be closed for the break!”

So for those who were sadly envisaging eating leftovers between Boxing Day and New Year’s, things just got a whole lot cheesier. Olé!