ottawa foodies

There are sandwiches on the menu???

New User 5714 Although I feel bad for the poor service and beverages, and although I have never seen a sandwich without bread, could you elaborate more why you did not like this place? Otherwise it sounds like a review written by a disgruntled customer...

I was expecting better than what I got! Tacos are good but service and drinks just awful !!!
Now I know why there's no people. We order a sandwich from the menu, they were out of bread!
It's a shame......

it's probably a good thing i was out of the country when this happened.

Rumour has it they are offering All You Can Eat tacos for $20 this weekend (Oct 19-20).

Calling ahead is likely a good idea! 613.562.9756

Greatly enjoyed our meal here! The service was friendly and prompt. My mother adored the coffee (and she's a picky one). As a family of four we split four lamb tacos, four carnitas tacos, the chicken mole and a slice of tres leches cake for dessert. In all, we were more than stuffed!

The tacos: perfectly moist, hot and flavourful! the meat is fantastically seasoned and pulled, and the green salsa was everyone's favourite.

The chicken mole: My mother has travelled to Monterrey and Mexico City frequently for business, and found the chicken mole comparable to what she had on her travels. The chocolate mole sauce is rich, flavourful, and with just the right amount of heat. The rice was also fantastic.

Tres leches cake: creamy, creamy, creamy! Absolutely delicious, though we were very glad that we split it between the four of us as it was very heavy!

All in all, a delicious and enjoyable meal. We'll definitely be back.

I've eaten here several times, and like it a lot. It's muy authentico, right down to the little bowls you get filled with onion, cilantro, salsa etc. I find the decor to be a little weird in the daytime. but the food is good the price is right.

Was in tonight and just had to post because my experience was great. Despite the location being a little tricky to find and the entrance way a little sketchy, once upstairs my two friends and I were rewarded with some tasty eats.

The waiter was really helpful and friendly, even helping my friends decide between the lamb and pork tacos by giving them each a combo of both. I had the special, which was a braised pork shank with an amazing smokey sauce that included pineapple of all things. My sides were rice and beans and I'm not much for either generally, but the rice was fantastic. The taco accoutrements were also excellent (I had to test those too, of course) and plentiful. Our meals also came with a choice of salad or soup. The salad was great (no iceberg lettuce sadness - there were real chunks of tasty ingredients like cucumber and avocado) but the soup was a miss - I didn't taste it but my friend didn't eat very much. A lot of food for $9 (the special was $11)!

We each tried a different dessert and the corn cake was amazing and definitely my favourite... not such a fan of the flan (but I think that's just me and not the flan itself). The tres leches cake was also tasty but I wouldn't want to eat a whole piece.

For a total of $20 including tax and tip I left super happy and will definitely be back.

Wow, after reading the various reviews, we have to say this was a seriously disappointing experience. From the smell of Moth balls upon entering this establishment, to the bland, heavily blended and likely store bought guacamole and straight out of the can cold refried black beans this was an utter disaster!
The lentil soup was ok, chunks of plantain were a nice touch, but the pork crackle tacos were inedible...literally. After spitting out the first half-chewed bite the smell of it was making us nauseous and it had to be taken away. There was literally 0 seasoning, and there was an overpowering taste and odour of rancid meat. Even dousing heavily with the provided onions, coriander and salsas did little to benefit this failed meal.
As for the Carnitas tacos, a staple that can't possibly be messed up, they were down-right nasty, flavourless and provoked certain gastric responses...
Having visited many authentic Mexican restaurants including El Rey del Taco in Montreals' Jean Talon Market, Corazon de Maiz and Ahoras's in the Byward Market and other much more South Western locations, we have a hard time understanding how this restaurant generated any positive feedback (friends and family maybe).

PS: A Disco Dance-floor and mirror ball (though Kitchy) does not enhance the quality of the food, but it is a great reminder of those days gone by, which in our opinion is where this restaurant belongs....

We had a quick supper here the other night and the dance floor with disco ball was definitely a hit with our toddler and children from other tables! The food was good but I didn't find it as good as the short-lived El Porton that used to be on Montreal Road, which I loved. Maybe it was just an off night as it's the same Mauro. They were out of soup and all the sandwich options so we had the chicharron, lamb and carnitas and a chicken quesadilla for the little one, with salads on the side. I really liked the salad dressing. Chicharron was tasty but not what we were expecting - slippery soft with no crispy bits - and it probably wouldn't agree with some given there was no illusion about the fact we were ingesting pure fat, which crispy chicharron kind of manages to get around. The rest was fine and good and satisfied our craving for Mexican but didn't blow our socks off. Also, I'm not entirely convinced about the food-cost ratio given the set-up. But my husband and I are big eaters and, as another poster noted, it's not necessarily a bad thing to have reasonable portion sizes imposed, especially during the holiday season. Their tamales are available frozen for takeaway for $3/pop and we had these for a lazy new year's breakfast this morning and they were yummy, especially the mole ones. We'd probably give this place another go at some point when we're in the area looking for a quick and healthy meal. Note that they don't take credit but have an ATM on premises.

This was wonderfully done! A nice big slice, moist and comforting. It comes with coffee or tea, and the coffee is unfortunately just nasty -- I think it has some kind of flavouring. Skip it in favour of tea!