La Taqueria Taco Shop

La Taqueria Taco Shop
322 West Hastings St
Vancouver, BC

Whenever a new restaurant is about to open or it opens, there is always that rush to try it. I won’t blame anybody, after all, there is that sense of “something new”. Of course, the bigger the restaurant, the better known the restaurateurs behind it, the most publicity, et al, makes that expectation higher. To a certain extent, there was such expectation in La Taqueria, a new taco shop in Vancouver – and that is despite the shop is a really small one. After all, the restaurateurs behind La Taqueria has some background with well known eateries like Nuba and Le Faux Bourgeois. But, to me, the question is: what is the end result? The only way to find out was to visit them…

Sorry about this dark picture – I went there after work and, since it is late fall, sun set relatively early…

It was a Thursday night when I went there and it was partially packed – Always a good sign, though I was also wary of what I mentioned above. The menu is quite straight forward: except for the quesadilla (which is almost the same as a taco) and drinks, everything is just tacos. In my books, that is a good thing – that means you are a specialist of what you are making. The question, however, would be: what about my bias against Mexican food? Yup, you got that right: I have no particular love for Mexican. Sure, I will eat them but they have to overcome a big hurdle for me to like them the same way a lot of people express their like for this cuisine. Blame it partially to the fact people mix it with Tex-Mex; blame it also because people think Mexican is representative of Latin American food. With that in mind, waited patiently in line…

Given their small size, an open kitchen ought to be the best way to go…

While I looked at the menu, they had their usual suspects, i.e., carnitas and al pastor. However, past those two, and things start to look more interesting. Beef tongue? Pork cheek? Pollo con mole? The question was instead: how many tacos was my stomach willing to accommodate! So, when it was my turn, I made my order… In Spanish…. In the end, I went for 5 (!) tacos (they have 4 tacos for $9.50; otherwise, $2.50 each; vegetarian tacos are slightly cheaper). Seated, it was a matter of waiting for them to appear in front of me. Which ones I ordered? Lengua (beef tongue), cachete (pork cheek), pollo con mole, pescado and the special of the day which happened to be ropa vieja, aka, shredded brisket.

I received all the tacos on the same plate and was told which one was which. Reality is neglected to take notes; instead, I was focusing on taking a good shot of each. While some were obvious, I am not 100% of two of them. So, let’s start sequentially. If I had to guess, that would be the ropa vieja, given the meat looks shredded. It was followed by the tongue and pollo con mole. The fourth one is, again, a question mark, most likely the fish taco and the last one is cachete. However, I could be wrong in the sequence…

While I got the tacos mixed up, I do recall some particular note of individual tacos. Particularly the tongue, as the meats were almost melt in your mouth tender and the pollo con mole which had some “interesting” sweetness to it. As for the rest, I won’t say there was anything that overly excited me. Knowing that Sherman and Kevin will accuse me of being over-critical, heck, I might as well say this: there were two major flaws in the tacos. First one was the unevenness of the “filling”. In some cases, I couldn’t fold it completely without making a small mess; in other cases, I could almost make a wrap out of it. The other issue I had was the temperature of the taco: it was lukewarm. I personally prefer my food hot (as in temperature), unless it was designed to be eaten room temperature or cold.

So, how does La Taqueria fare? Unfortunately, it did not sway me. Sure, it was good but not to the extreme people seem to point it to be. Would I come back? May be but, then again, is the question of if I am in the area. That brings the other major question: How does it compare to Doña Cata? I will say they are about the same. Doña Cata offers more options (specially if you are interested in salsas, as La Taqueria’s salsa options are really limited); but, La Taqueria offers other options Doña Cata does not. In the end, both complement each other. As for me, can I have some hojaldra now?

Tagged under: Downtown • Latin America • Mexican • Vancouver