El Atino Es Que Rico!

Bridge Road in Richmond has been gifted with El Atino & Co., a spacious new café and food store that brings so much more than just good vibes and Latin American culture. Intentionally, the vibrant and inviting space does not look ‘Latin’ at first glance. As owner Alfredo explains, it would be impossible to look ‘Latin’ as the nations and cultures within Latin America differ so greatly. Instead, Buro Architects have created an a warm, modern and exciting space out of what was once a Video Ezy store, free from stereotypes and kitsch decorations we too often relate to Latin America as a whole.

El Atino & Co.’s tagline is “sharing honest Latin food”, and they do just that. Not only do they serve it fabulously in their café, they also want to share their knowledge of Latin food by making suggestions and sharing tips on how to best use the products available in their food store. It doesn’t stop there though; El Atino & Co. have plans to hold cooking classes in the evenings. These will be taught by part owner and head chef Martin and are planned to start in December.

The food store will have you running around as giddy as a kid in a candy store if you know and love staple Latin American ingredients, or even if you don’t. There are plenty of wonderful items which are easy to use in your cooking and considering they are mostly imported and almost impossible to find elsewhere, the products are very well priced. Just think; chili sauce of every variety, arepa flour, homemade chimichurri and pickled jalapenos, oh my!

El Atino & Co.’s café, or “The Food Laboratory” as they call it, is open for all-day breakfast and lunch seven days a week. The unique and authentic menu contains dishes inspired by Mexican, Peruvian, Argentinian and Colombian/Venezuelan cuisine which you will have to try before you go home with all of your new treats from the food store.

If I can give you one piece of advice in life, it is that anything containing dulce de leche is a must do! Dulce de leche is simply cooked condensed milk… need I say more? As a result, the French toast dulce de leche jaffle with berries, walnuts and roasted banana ice cream comes highly recommended (duh!).

If you’re in for lunch, the 5 Chiles prawn tacos are a great choice. The prawns are marinated in a smoky sauce of four different types of chili and then served with a spicy pineapple salsa containing a fifth type of chili. If the idea of five chilies scares you, don’t be afraid of this smoky and flavoursome marinade as surprisingly, it is not overpowered by heat.

If you love Latin American food or are interested in trying something new, the friendly team down at El Atino & Co. tick all the boxes!

El Atino & Co.
366 Bridge Rd, Richmond
elatino.com.au