Chorizo Burger, Seafood Jambalaya Pizza Look to Be Standouts on Q Mex's New Spring Menu

Now that we're done enduring Beijing's seemingly endless winter, Q Mex is hoping to help us celebrate the warmer season with a range of hot new Mexican eats. The Courtyard 4 restaurant's new spring menu, launched this week, features new items like the new chorizo burger (pictured above, RMB 65), a double-grilled beef chorizo patty and bun, fiery jalapeños, sliced tomato, mayo, and cilantro aioli as well as a side of potato wedges and coleslaw.

That uncommon chorizo twist is also featured on the restaurant's new chorizo pizza (RMB 72 for thin crust or RMB 78 for regular). The creative seafood jambalaya pie (RMB 78 for thin crust and RMB 85 for regular) is likely to be another spring hit, made with shrimp, clams, squid, cuttlefish, and topped with mozzarella cheese and jambalaya sauce. There's also an option to combine that jambalaya sauce with chicken and chorizo on the same pizza (RMB 75 for thin crust and RMB 80 regular).

Chef Marcus Medina, who is clearly excited to roll out the new menu, says: "The two new pizzas were inspired by the success of our Mexican pizzas; we found that the jambalaya sauce was selling well so we combined that sauce with our other top sellers: seafood and chorizo," he says, adding: "Besides jalapeño tarter sauce for the calamari, we added a lighter beer sauce to complement and offset the creaminess of the tarter."

But most promising of all might be an item that even those with scant familiarity of Mexican fare will know well: burritos. Q Mex's new take on this classic gut-buster is a meat and potatoes burrito (RMB 78), which can be stuffed with meat of your choice and also features french fries, sliced marinated red cabbage, pico de gallo salsa, and garlic sour cream.

"The biggest difference regarding the new California burritos are that we added meat, giving a choice of steak or pulled beef, chicken or carnitas," Medina says, continuing: "This has been happening in the California market for some time and we felt that it was time to bring it to Q Mex."

The new menu is rounded out by a double burger (RMB 68), Australian beef ribs (RMB 188), an oven roast lamb shank (RMB 168).

"The lamb shank is a northern Mexican dish from the state of Nuevo Leon, is the Kansas of the Mexico. The best beef and lamb come from its large flat plains, which are covered with oregano and sweet grasses," Medina says. "The meat is braised for hours and then finished with a flash grill. The beef rib is served with a side of chimichurri sauce, a combination of cilantro, pine nuts, queso fresco Mexican cheese and olive oil, green chilis."

He adds that the chimichurri is "originally from Argentina but has since been adopted as Mexico City's own, plus we added chili, which the original Argentinian version does not have."

All in all, the new additions look to bring a creative twist to the type of solid, filling Q Mex dishes that we've come to expect and should rightfully quell your stomach's rumblings for sunny Mexican flavors as the weather continues to warm up.

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Photos: Q Mex