El Centro Mexican Restaurant
Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Right now, one of the most “talked about” restaurants in Vancouver is La Taqueria. Personally, I am not in a hurry to visit them, as other fellow bloggers already have that covered, not to mention my bias against Mexican food and because it is a bit too far to be considered walking distance from my workplace. But, in some really odd twists, while walking in Robson Street, looking for a spot for lunch, I noticed a just-opened restaurant: El Centro Mexican Restaurant. I won’t go to La Taqueria yet but here is this other Mexican restaurant I can check. Oh, well… There it goes!
El Centro occupies a space were previously was an Indian restaurant. I never managed to go there and, given it closed, I am not sure if it is a bad thing or not. And, next to each other, we have a sushi restaurant, a Flaming Wok, Donair Spot and Minna no Konbiniya (where Bon Crepe is located). Restaurants abound, whether it is good is another question… When I walked in, I had to option to sit pretty much anywhere in the restaurant; however, that day was cold but sunny. As a result, I chose to sit right next to the window. Hey, anything for a good picture!
After seated, I was given the menu, which, to a certain extent, it wasn’t necessary. I already checked their menu outside before walking in, as I wasn’t sure of what to expect. In a way, the usual suspects are there, i.e., quesadilla, enchilada, alambre, et al. Still, I took a look around as there was still the issue of drinks. In previous visits to other Mexican restaurants, it would have been horchata but, this time, I took a small detour from the usual and went for a drink called Agua de Jamaica.
Yes, that is the drink, a transparent, ruby red beverage. According to the menu it is a “fresh hibiscus flower water”. I will admit, at first, I thought they were playing a prank. I mean, it looks just like a glass of Kool-Aid! However, when I took a sip, some wacky memories hit me and mumbled one word: saril. While hibiscus is more in line of the scientific name, in the Caribbean, it is usually called sorrel (which, as you can guess, got “corrupted” in Panama to saril). Its other “better known as name”? Roselle. To those who haven’t drank this, I will not necessarily recommend it. It does not have that much in the sense of flavour (think steeped tea without the tea dryness) but it is refreshing. That is, more suitable if you were living in the tropics were you are usually feeling a scorching heat.
What seems to be usual in a lot of Mexican places, some tortilla chips with salsa. I will have to admit, these were quite tasty, though, after looking closely (probably not that noticeable in the pictures above), it might be due to the oil still lingering on top of them. Could it be they make their own flour tortilla on site and then fry them? Regardless, the accompanying salsa was quite good. Sure, I was only given two types but it was tasty. As usual, do not let the colours fool you – the spicy one happened to be the green one! Best of all? Unlike most other places where the salsa tends to be on the watery side, these were almost to the point of being chunky.
I mentioned above that El Centro has your usual suspects. Given the popularity of Doña Cata and La Taqueria, they have to have tacos, right? Well, that is exactly what I ordered, starting with the pork (top one) and beef (bottom one). Size-wise, they are comparable to the ones from Doña Cata; however, that was almost the end of the comparison. While the ones from Doña Cata were juicy to an extent (from what they say, it seems the meat is steamed), the ones here were not as juicy. Now, they weren’t dry but did not provide much either. I have the odd feeling they might have lightly fried the meat…
The third taco I had was the shrimp taco. Yes, seafood! When it came on the plate, its size was larger than the other two which stroke me odd. Shouldn’t seafood be more expensive than beef or pork? Well, probably because they dipped it in a batter and fried it… So, I took a bite and, hmmm…, shrimp! But, after I ate half of it, that shrimp texture disappeared. I was wondering what happened. It was until I noticed this “dropped out” from the taco…
Yes, that is a piece of fried batter. What seem had happened was that the taco had only shrimp and the rest was “filled” with something else. The batter itself wasn’t bad, though just that it was not shrimp!
Overall, El Centro did not change my opinion of Mexican food. As a result, I personally do not see a reason to come back. But putting that aside, if I had to choose Don Guacamole’s and El Centro, that would be a difficult one. OK, actually, I would rather go somewhere else..
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Yum. Nothing says a good time in your belly like a huge chunk of fried batter. Did the beef come on a single taco, compared with the pork and shrimp that arrived on two?
Maybe my memories hold things dearer to my heart than my taste buds remember, but when you mentioned ordering Agua de Jamaica, I started craving this drink..
Raidar, all tacos came with two flour tortillas, probably the angle I used wasn’t too descriptive. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is a drink I would certainly drink. But not when the temperature is in single digits!
I’m not the biggest fan of Mexican food either. But there are some things I do like and that fried shrimp would probably not be one of them. I just visited a new Mexican restaurant near my place recently and it was alright. Not a big fan. Maybe if I ever make it to Chicago, I’ll try Rick Bayless’ restaurant and see if that can change my mind. However, it’s $$$ and Mexican food shouldn’t be $$$.
Sherman, could it be some of us are unconsciously biased against stereotypical “Mexican” food? If they could just stop serving stereotypical Mexican food, I think that would certainly change my mind. Las Tortas was a good start but the factor you mentioned ($$$) hits a sore spot.
I think you’re right. I just finished writing my blog on Los Compadres and I think we are force-fed stereotypical Mexican food. The things we eat here is probably not a good representation of Mexican cuisine. It’s really unfortunate that we see only tomato-based sauces here as opposed to the many different Moles. Alot of the Mexican cuisine we see here is so Westernized (ie. Tex-Mex). Once again, much like Indian cuisine is over-represented by the Punjab and how Chinese food is over-represented by the region of Canton, the same can be said about Mexican food. We haven’t even experienced a fraction of the traditional foods from Mexico.
@Sherman. I would love to hit up one of Rick’s locations. At least he offers a few restaurants, so the price is reflective of which one you dine at. Although Chicago has such a great Latin scene, that the taco trucks would be a great place to start.
Kim, I think that some of us are biased, but I think it’s for good reason. I’ve often wondered with our lack of street food scene in Canada (trucks/carts you name it)if we’ll ever get representational food. I say this, because in my experience, this isn’t the kind of food you eat with knives and forks or in a classy joint for that matter. Classic Mexican (see Puebla, Mexico) dishes are served in hustling food markets and street corners. Sitting on a stone bench, or plastic table with strangers…not something many people want to do here it seems. Maybe we’ll see it one day, but we need a connection to happen between street vendors and meat producers, and for the government to allow such things. How great would it be if your local butcher supplied his neighbour with tongue and tripe for the tacos…delish, no? Or if the neighbourhood bakery added some grinding stones to supply masa. I can always dream..
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