Don Guacamole’s

Don Guacamole’s
1333 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

I have expressed my bias towards Mexican food previously. Sure, other might like it, not necessarily me. There might be reasons I can’t elaborate; or it is simply because with Tex-Mex passing as Mexican (nachos, anybody?), you simply do not know what you are actually getting. Sure, there is Doña Cata which serves mostly tacos but, c’mon, I am sure they will eat other things on a day to day basis… So, when Don Guacamole’s opened, I decided to recruit a Mexican friend. But, here is a caveat: Previously, I asked him what Mexican restaurant he would recommend. His answer was on the lines of “nothing is really authentic here as you can’t get authentic ingredients”. But, I was determined and it was just a matter of when…

Notice, this is a stock picture!

It was a sunny day and just like in my lunch in Daruma, we chose to sit outside. However, that create a really odd problem: since we were seated in a section it was partially shaded. For regular customers, that should not be a problem; however, when you are taking pictures… Oddly, I know one of the “solutions” to this problem but, in an epic-fail way, I completely forgot to use it. However, I also blame the fact I was wearing sunglasses while trying to take the pictures… ^_^;;;

It took me a while to decide what to order. One of my problems is the (mis)conception of Mexican food, which might unconsciously create the bias I mentioned at the beginning. For example, whenever I hear tortilla, it is the Panamanian version that comes to my mind (think a puck made of cornmeal). Likewise, whenever I hear tacos, it is the Taco Bell iteration that comes to my mind and so on. In the end, I decided to order something that you would not find normally. Anyway, after making our orders…

The complimentary tortilla chips. While places like Doña Cata will give them to you in a small plate and you would then choose the salsa you like, here, they bring this to you. The pico de gallo (literally rooster’s beak), aka, the tomato/vegetable medley was acidic enough yet was not overpowering. The red salsa started as something slightly bland but then the heat kicked in. It was painfully good. The green salsa was not hot but, instead, it was slightly refreshing. My only odd comment is… While I do appreciate they serve all this, I can’t help wonder what do they do with the leftover salsa? I mean, it would be such a waste if you barely touch it… I am sure if they served just half of the salsa (with an option to refill), nobody would complain.

We both started with Sopa Azteca, aka, tortilla soup. Not noticeable from this picture is a red dried chili stuff with cheese. And, yes, the yellow/green slits are avocado. The tortilla was still crunchy (i.e., it just added) and, interesting enough, it remained crunchy for a while. I made the “mistake” of biting into the chili which triggered my one problem with spicy food: I started to sweat. Sure, it was painful but it was a “good” form of pain. As for the broth itself, well, I will skip that part as it is difficult for me to describe it. In general terms of soup, it would be halfway.

My friend ordered enchilada (if memory serves me right). Except for one question (more on that later), I did not ask how the food was. Sorry about that…

As for myself, I ordered alambre. In Spanish, alambre literally means wire but, for some reason, what came to my head was shish kebab (you know, skewer -> metal wire). I know I could have asked but I was a bit too busy talking to my friend rather than paying attention to this (again, my fault). But, regardless, I will have to say my dish disappointed. Sure, I don’t mind if in the end it was something like a stir fry with onion and peppers. However, it was simply not really manageable. That is, both the peppers and onions were, in my opinion, a bit too large to be wrapped by the flour tortilla, not to mention they still had a bite, again, making it difficult to wrap. Even if I put that aside, there was no redeeming quality, probably with the exception of two pieces of pork that ended up being cooked almost to a bacon consistency.

Overall, I was not impressed; however, this might be because I ended up ordering the “wrong” item in the menu. Would I come here again? On my own free will, probably no, as there are still other places in Robson Street I would rather go. However, here is the opinion that I think matters: the one of my friend. And this brings the one question I asked: What thoughts he had about the food? He found it was good enough. Given my bias, I think this is the opinion that matters.

Tagged under: Downtown • Latin America • Lunch • Mexican • Vancouver • West End