We don't want to limit your Buckin' Mex dining experience to simply mouth-watering dishes and tastebud-waking drinks. In Mexico that's just a starting point. On the southern side of the Rio Grande, the people turn their meals into celebrations. Dinners, in particular, start late and finish very, very late. Along the way everyone indulges in copious amounts of good food and drink, lively music, stimulating conversation and warm fellowship.

That is the kind of atmosphere we have sought to create for you at Buckin' Mex.

Consider the good food and drink a given. Whatever your tastes, we're sure we can provide a meal that will have you smacking your lips. After all, the Lunch Menu runs to eight pages and the Dinner Menu ten. And the Tequila bar offers dozens of different tequilas and lots of individual margarita recipes. (Check out Los Menús.)

Adding to the special Buckin' Mex atmosphere is the music, an authentic and somewhat eclectic collection that we chose on a recent trip to Mexico. On Friday and Saturday nights we have a very talented flamenco guitarist playing live.

Then there are the people who look after you, all of them cheerful, personable and helpful. And while the costume your waitress wears will be authentically Mexican, the wireless POS she uses to instantly send your order to the kichen isn't. We believe that an enjoyable dining experience should be not only friendly, but fast (as in, rápido).

To help tailor your Buckin' Mex experiencia to your needs at the moment, we offer three separate dining areas, each with its own attributes.

Main Dining Area
When you walk into this spacious room, the first thing you'll probably notice are the vibrantly coloured, adobe-like walls, complete with a mural painted by local schoolkids. Hanging from these walls, sitting on the floor and ensconced in wall niches you'll see a collection of genuine Made-in-Mexico artifacts. Some windows are also covered with semi-transparent photographs of Mexico. All intended to help get you in the right spirit.

The large, solid wood tables and matching padded chairs also seem just right for a Mexican restaurant.

You'll notice we've resisted the inexplicable trend in other new restaurants to bare wood, tile or stone floors, which results in a rather cool and discordant ambience. In the main room we're after warmth and harmony.

The Balcony
You could think of the Buckin' Mex balcony experiencia as a kind of North Queensland-style sidewalk cafe, except that it's one floor up and sheltered from blazing sun, tropical showers, gawking passersby and the bane of so many sidewalk cafes: exhaust fumes.

Along with the fresh air, you enjoy the same buckin' great food, drinks and service that you'd find inside. As well as the identical wooden tables and comfortable chairs. And although you won't be able to see any of the large-screen TVs, you can still hear the music, even the live flamenco music on Friday and Saturday nights.

A cautionary heads-up. The Balcony has proved so popular, we urge you to make any al fresco reservations well ahead of time.

The Tequila Bar
The Tequila Bar offers una experiencia unlike any you're likely to find elsewhere in this country. Especially if you're into tequila. As we mentioned above, you can choose from an amazing line-up of different tequilas, including dozens of fruit-infused versions and several that have been wood-matured.

The Buckin' Mex Tequila Bar also has an extensive margarita menu made exclusively with Olmeca Gold tequila, in a variety of flavours including original, strawberry, mango, coconut and pineapple, midori and blue curacao. All margaritas are made using fresh ingredients and come either shaken or frozen to suit individual tastes. For the true connoisseur, the bar offers the especial margarita with 1800 tequila and Grand Marnier.

And for the non-tequila drinkers, the Tequila Bar also provides a wide selection of beer, wine, cocktails and non-alcoholic mocktails.

To go along with your tequila - or any drink, for that matter - you can choose from a variety of hot and cold Mexican dishes, available each afternoon between 2.30 and 5.30. On Friday evenings between 5.30 and 7.30, we invite you to relax and kick-start the weekend with the 'Thank Buck It's Friday' (TBIF) special featuring free tapas.

While you munch and sip away, you can also watch your favourite sports shows on the two large-screen plasma TVs.
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The Story of the Margarita
The year is 1938. The location is Rosarita Beach, Guadalajara, Mexico. A showgirl named Rita de la Rosa, known for having lips as red as a rose, would frequent an after-hours joint called Rancho La Gloria. Rita loved to drink, but all hard liquor - with the single exception of tequila - made her fall asleep...and miss the wild parties. Since drinking tequila straight wasn't considered all that ladylike, she prevailed upon the bar's owner, Daniel Herrera, to come up with a more acceptable way for her to enjoy tequila.

After catching Rita's act earlier that night, Daniel improvised a drink that was inspired by her electrifying performance. Here's the original recipe and the reason for each ingredient:

Starting with the requisite jigger of Tequila in a shaker, Daniel mixed in

• Lime juice (to match the lime green colour of Rita's dress)
• Triple Sec (for her sweet voice)
• Shaved ice (to reflect the gleam in her eyes);
• Then came the shaking (Rita was a girl who knew how to shake);
• And the final touch: he crowned the rim of the glass with salt (not unlike the halo that sat upon her angel head).

Naturally enough, Daniel named the drink after its inspiration: Margarita.

And so the starstruck girl from Guadalajara, an area famed for its stunningly beautiful women, captured the heart of the world and became an international star. Or so the story goes.
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