Ottawa Foodies

Finally got a chance to try breakfast here. The breakfast menu is pretty diverse....standard egg and bacon, grilled cheese (?), pancakes with banana and chocolate sauce, huevos rancheros etc.

I had my heart set on having plantains for breakfast, there were 2 items on the menu that included plantains....one was a very large sounding plate that included italian sausage, eggs, beans and crema, plantains and toast and fries. Judging by the $10.75 or so price listed it was more food than I would eat that early.

The other breakfast (at $4.75) was just plantains, beans and crema. This wasn't breakfast-y enough for me, but easily solved by having them add a fried egg to the plate for only $1 more. It was really tasty and just enough food for me. I also had a hot chocolate and coffee (which wasn't bad.....which translates into english as better than diner coffee but not as good as cafe coffee).
The place was empty, only one person came in while I was there....c'mon people, PLANTAINS...for breakfast! What more could you want?

Saw a sign in the window here the other day advertising breakfast....if it's as good as the pupusas I'll be the happiest girl alive!

Brought my two daughters here for dinner tonight. The restaurant was about half-full while we were there, not bad for a new restaurant on a Sunday night.

My oldest daughter does not eat meat so I had the server go through the menu with her. Although there are pupusas without meat, there are no bean and cheese burritos or cheese enchiladas on the menu. She does eat seafood so she did have a couple of shrimp and fish options, but decided on cheese pupusas with a side of black beans instead.

My younger daughter had the same order as me, a combination plate of a tamale, a pupusa and a pastry filled with meat. She didn't really enjoy the tamale, but liked the meat pastry best of all.
There was a mistake, and the revuelta pupusas containing meat were accidentally put on the wrong plate. The sharp-eyed server spotted the mistake swiftly before they were eaten and the cheese ones brought out for Emma. He told my other daughter and I to help ourselves to the ones that she had been given by mistake.
Dinner for 3 with a drink each and an order of deep-fried ice cream for both kids came to only $35.06.
As Chimichimi pointed out to me, it is hard not to make comparisons to La Cabana, so here's my take on it:
curtido: La Cabana takes this round hands down.
pupusas: gotta go with El Tucan, they're the best ones I've ever had.
tamales: La Cabana again, the ones at El Tucan are a little moister and looser although they do have nice pieces of chicken in them.
Desserts: El Tucan comes out on top here.
Service: El Tucan takes this one too. The server remembered me from Friday, thanked me for coming in etc. and overall service is better.
Two things La Cabana has going for it...they offer plantains as a side instead of just dessert.
And they have a liquour license.

Chimichimi...you got your review in before mine :(

I don't really have anything to add to Chimichimi's review, he pretty much covered it well, except to add that this place is in my neighbourhood. The previous occupants of this address (Da Chicken Crib and before that a kareoke bar) did not fare well. If I become accustomed to food like this practically in my backyard and then they close down, I will become a cranky and bitter person. So eat here! Please?

Ate here tonight with my partner, they just opened shop by the look of things. Only one waiter, no liquor licence, no POS system set up yet so it was cash only. These minor opening hiccups aside, the food was excellent! The server was genuinely nice, the restaurant was majorly cleaned up by the look of things. We ordered chips & guacamole to start, the chips were made in house and the guacamole was good. I had a tamale, 2 pupusas and 1 pastel (or something like that, similar to a meat filled empanada). My partner got 2 pupusas and 2 tamales. This came with the perfunctory curtido, red sauce & chili sauce. All food was excellent. My pupusas were delish, the tamales had good quality meat inside, the curtido was very good and paired well with the pupusas. My pastel, or whatever it was, was delicious. Basically a corn meal pastry filled with ground pork & veggies. It was very good.

One note, the menu was quite varied and contained some mexican & tex-mex items. This would be a great place to introduce people to Salvadoran food since it has some more recognizable menu items (tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas too I think?)

If you're a fan of La Cabana, and more importantly an addict of pupusas, give El Tucan a shot!