tacos – Tiana Feng

Wilbur Mexicana

November 22, 2016Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I went to Wilbur Mexicana recently, home of a hot sauce and salsa bar. Apparently, it is temporarily closed at the moment to prepare for kitchen repairs, but I went before that happened.

I was unwinding for the evening so I had a Paloma with Tromba, Aperol, grapefruit and soda.

My choice of tacos were: Carne asada with pico de gallo, crispy onions and queso fundido; and the Baja Fish taco with beer battered mahi mahi, cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle crema. Both were very flavourful and delicious but I loved the crunchy texture of the onions in the Carne Asada (steak) taco.

I can never resist grilled corn so I had to order the Mexican street corn which had chipotle crema, cotija cheese and guajillo chilli powder. It had just the right balance of spice and cream.

I found the price of everything very reasonable and the portions just right. The place always looks like there is a line-up but in reality it doesn’t take very long to get a seat. Plus people will eat these things fast!

King’s Taco

October 12, 2016Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

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Nash and I went to the newly opened King’s Taco recently on St. Clair West. It’s a very traditional, non-hipster place. When we placed our order, they gave us free nachos with various hot salsas, limes, onions and cilantro.

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I had a refreshing Agua Michelada to drink. It was like a lemony soda with liquor.

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Both Nash and I ordered plates of taco stuffing where we had to make our own tacos. I had the Ya Vas which was green & red peppers, onion, ham, cheese and avocado.

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Nash had the A la Mexicana: beef, jalapeno peppers, onion, tomato, chorizo and cheese.

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We had fresh corn tortillas to make our tacos with.

Everything was super flavourful and delicious. Plus the portions were so big that we probably could’ve just shared one thing! We had plenty of leftovers and were happy to eat it again the next day.

Tacos @ Campechano

April 23, 2016Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Excuse my dark phone photos in this post

After an event, 5 of my friends and I headed over to relatively new Campechano. It’s tiny space, so we had to wait around 20 minutes for a seat, even at close to 9pm! I don’t recommend this place if you are a picky eater or vegetarian (some of my friends were) because they have a very tiny menu of 9 tacos, 1 guacamole and 1 dessert.

I began with an order of guacomole. It was fairly simple to the eye but there was definitely an unexpected heat.

The first taco I had was the Tinga de Pollo, a morita chili stewed chicken breast with a green salsa on top.

One of my favourites was the Prescano, a beautiful deep fried branzino taco with a hint of chipotle.

The Bistec, a sirloin cap taco with onion, grilled green pepper and crunchy flakes of some sort was my favourite taco texturally.

Lastly, I went for the Chorizo (pork sausage) with potato. I was completely stuffed at this point (I don’t recommend that one person actually eat four tacos).

Somehow I still had room for their delicious flan with caramel drizzle. I wanted to lick the plate.

Oh yeah all this I washed down with a Paloma which was tequila, bitters and Squirt. They were generous with the alcohol, so definitely felt a little funny half way through.

I enjoyed all my taco selections. I found the meat very tender and spice not for the faint of heart. Everything was super flavourful and is definitely wroth the visit if you’re in the mood for cozy tacos.

La Carnita

September 23, 2015September 23, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

For my friend’s birthday, we went to La Carnita‘s College Street location. It is tapas style so everything comes out together in shareable plates. For example, if you and a friend ordered tacos they would often come together in the same serving plate. This was slightly confusing since we were in a group of more than 15 people. I opted for 3 tacos. The first one (pictured above was the) was the Tostada de Ceviche: Albacore Tuna, guacamole, coconut milk, habanero, tomato, cucumber. It was very fresh and light tasting.

I had a bite of the In Code We Trust, a fish taco, with Cod, Voltron sauce, lime crema, pickled red cabbage, green apple & cilantro. What I totally forgot to take a photo of was my Crispy Cotija taco with crispy cotija cheese, cauliflower & pinto bean, pickled carrots, chipotle sauce, green onion & cilantro. I can’t resist fried cheese.

My third taco was the Pork Belly Al Pastor Taco, a daily special with roasted pork belly, guajillo BBQ sauce, pineapple salsa, coriander crema and mache lettuce.

All three tacos were flavourful and fresh and would’ve filled me up on their own but I felt like splurging a little so I got a few extras.

Funny story about the corn. I looked at the menu and was like “who the hell would pay $9 for corn?” and then I saw a little kid eating it at the table behind us and it looked amazing, so I ordered it. I have no regrets. It was the best grilled corn I have ever had with Mexican crema, queso anejo, arbol & ancho chili powder. Who thought corn could pack so much punch?

The table also shared nachos with guacomole and corn salsa. Both were fresh and delicious. The chips themselves were lightly salted and could totally be eaten on their own.

To was things down I ordered a few of their sangrias that were infused with peach, mango and raspberry. I could’ve drank a pitcher of these (which was available).

It was my friend’s birthday so the waiter bought over some birthday churros with a candle. The churros were crunchy and served in a cajeta, a silky nutty sauce. These are the same churros that can be ordered over at Sweet Jesus.

I was super stuffed from ordering too much but I highly enjoyed my meal at La Carnita. Everything is fresh, flavourful and relatively inexpensive (if you don’t go overboard).

Playa Cabana Cantina

September 5, 2015Food, Restaurant Reviews4 Comments

Today for lunch we randomly strolled the Junction area for something to eat. We ended up picking Cantina, part of the Playa Cabana family of restaurants.

I ordered the Chile Rellenos which were Poblano chiles, Oaxacan cheese, seared in a rice flour batter with salsa roja, queso, crema, rice and black beans. The fried chillies were crunchy and delicious, the heat offset by the light Oaxacan cheese. The black beans and salsa were super flavourful too.

Nash ordered the steak cantina style burritos with guacomole, salsa verde, queso, crema, rice, and beans.

To wash it down, I ordered a sangria because it’s appropriate for every meal!

Nash had the Dark and Handsome.

It does match him right?

Anyways, we super enjoyed all the food we ate and were super stuffed. Despite it being a Saturday, it wasn’t too hard to get a table around lunch time.

Mexican Food @ El Trompo

January 9, 2015January 11, 2015Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

Back in August, I did some strolling in Kensington market with Nash and my friend Karol looking for a place to eat. We landed at El Trompo, a place that served authentic Mexican cuisine. We decided to order some things to share. Pictured above are the Spicy Tinga Chicken tacos.

We also had the Al Pastor tacos which are their specialty. They contained a lovely touch of onion, coriander and pineapple. We thought both tacos were very flavourful and the portions were generous. They were around $10 for 4 decently sized tacos, whereas most places you usually get 3 for the same price.

I couldn’t help trying the Chicharon de Queso, which essentially is a piece of crispy fried cheese. It was hands down my favourite part of the meal

The Pico de Gallo was simple but refreshing (for a summer’s day) and fresh.

We also split this cheesy Quezadilla. There was quite cheesy! It was around $4, but it’s smaller than most people would assume of a quezadilla, so I wouldn’t make this my only order.

Between the 3 of us, we actually thought we ordered way too much food. You do get the value for your money here. Everything was fresh, flavourful and authentic.

Tacos & Beer @ O&B Canteen

September 6, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

I stopped by O&B Canteen one day after a Jays game for their $5 Mill Street happy hour. I was a bit hungry so I ordered the Calamari Tacos ($12). After all, I was at a restaurant owned by Oliver & Bonacini! The tacos were nice and light and had a delicious mango sauce with buttermilk cream.

The Steady Cafe & Bar

June 22, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

We were having dinner with a vegan, so we decided to look up a place that served both meat and vegan options. Toronto has a variety of creative options, so I figured that it wouldn’t be a bad idea and we ended up at The Steady. There were a lot of gluten free options, but I wish there was the option to have ALL THE GLUTEN. For instance, the fish tacos ($7) I ordered, came out a weird unappetizing cardboard colour. The shell itself was hard and dry. It was unfortunate because the fish inside it was actually quite good.
Thankfully, I also ordered the Tequila Pine Burgerette ($7) with tequila glazed pineapple, apple slaw, and spicy mayo. It was tasty but I wished it was more than just a burgerette.

The others at the table tried the Portobello Pot Pie ($7), sweet potato skins and tostadas. The pot pie wasn’t worth the price as it was puny and contained what looked like frozen vegetables. My friends thought the tostadas were much better than my tacos (and were also gluten free). The loaded baked potato skin was less a skin and more of a baked sweet potato with beans.

There are a lot of great restaurants for vegan/vegetarian eats in Toronto but this is one that I don’t think I will be coming back to.

Beef Tongue Tacos @ Rebozos

January 27, 2014Food, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a Comment

The CMT show Taco Wars did an episode in Toronto putting Playa Cabana Hacienda, Rebozos and Milagro against each other. Personally, I think there are many more great taco places in Toronto and trying only three to crown the best is a little bit dumb. Anyways – upcoming spoiler alert – Rebozos ended up winning with their beef tongue taco. Naturally, I was curious and was eager to try it when I happened to be in the area.

All the tacos came in threes (for $10). I ordered the Lengua (beef tongue of course). It was presented with a side of two different hot sauces. The red was too spicy, so I put just a dab and the green one was a mild green tomato salsa, which I used up completely. The beef tongue was very tender and flavourful. I was surprised. I had ox tongue before at Korean BBQ, but I always found it stiff. This was meaty and tender.

Nash ordered the beef enchiladas which came with refried beans. He cleaned the plate. I took a bite and I actually think I preferred the tenderness of the beef tongue to the regular beef!

To drink, we both had Sindral Mundet soda in apple flavour. I thought it was funny that the bottle purposely advertised that there was less than 1% Apple Juice and artifically flavoured. Do people prefer those qualities? It was a refreshing soda.

We were happy with our meal but whether or not it is the “best taco in Toronto”, I cannot say. We still have many places to go and we’ve enjoyed a lot of the places we have visited so far. All are very different in style and taste. What I can probably say is that Rebozos probably does have the “best beef tongue taco”.

Fusion Tacos @ Barrio Coreano

December 7, 2013Food, Restaurant Reviews, VlogsLeave a Comment

Last night’s food adventure took us to Barrio Coreano, a fusion taco place in Koreatown by the owners of Playa Cabana. It was not difficult to find as you could see the flashy inside which stood out from the mom and pop Korean restaurants that surrounded it. The décor was in colourful and bright. Lights flashed. The music was loud but it wasn’t difficult to have a conversation. We were seated instantly. The place went a lot deeper than most places in the area.

The menus were written on large chalkboards on the wall. We had to stand up to read them, but it wasn’t that awkward. I liked the informal feel of the atmosphere. It was very inviting and everybody seemed to be enjoying their time. Our waiter took her time to welcome us and get us acquainted with the famous Playa Cabana hot sauces. Food was made fresh and to order so everything didn’t come together, but that was okay because it gave us breaks to recover.

As a starter, I ordered the Salmon Ceviche ($9). I thought it would come in a dinky little glass to be eaten with a spoon. That’s how much ceviche you usually get for that price at other place. I was surprised when we got a bowl of ceviche with tortilla chips. They are very generous with the portions. The ceviche was fresh, and it wasn’t fishy at all. Even Nash (who doesn’t normally like Salmon) was enjoying the dish.

I had a Soju Sangria ($9) to sip on. Soju is plum wine and it was mixed with unknown fruits. A starfruit sat on top as a decoration. It was sweet but just what I needed on a Friday night.

Two of Nash’s tacos came first. One of them was the Chihuahua and Tofu Taco ($5). Before our waiter explained it as a cheese from the province of Chihuahua, I actually thought they might have put the scrawny dog on the menu. The cheese had an interesting taste. It was a sort of like blue cheese, strong at first, but without the after taste. I liked it.

The other taco was the Korean beef taco ($5). The beef was marinated in Kalbi sauce to give it the Korean twist.

I was already getting full on the ceviche and bites of Nash’s tacos when my two tacos came. I always make a habit of trying fish tacos everywhere so I ordered the Yuzu Tuna ($5) and Chipotle Kambungki Chicken. The fish was nicely cooked and topped with a slaw that also had kimchi. I really enjoyed the Chipotle Chicken taco.

The chicken was battered (but not heavily) and flavoured sweet chili sauce. There was also jalapenos, radish and onions which made a crunchy and delicious taco.

Nash’s third taco was a Grilled Octopus Taco ($5). It was served with wasabi salsa which I thought would be empowering but totally wasn’t. The octopus was nicely cooked and not chewey at all.

We ordered a lot of food, but next time we know that it is unnecessary. The food is very well-priced and worth every cent. With delicious places like this in Toronto, I don’t know why anybody would want to wait 2 hours to get into Grand Electric. The service at Barrio Coreano was friendly and pleasant, food was exquisite and we got our money’s worth in portions. I’m already planning my next visit back with friends!