The Best Mexican Restaurant in Toronto
La Carnita (ranked #1)
Location: 130 Eglinton Avenue East, with three other locations at 106 John Street, 501 College Street, and 780 Queen Street East
Atmosphere: Eclectic urban industrial
I love tacos. One of the best trends to happen in recent food history—as far as I’m concerned—was the surge in popularity of Mexican food. I’m old enough to remember a time when going for some tacos meant mystery meat in a hard shell at Taco Bell. Or maybe if you were lucky, some kitschy Tex-Mex restaurant that served margaritas made with sour mix (barf) in giant novelty glasses. That was all I really knew until my taco epiphany, which happened eight years ago during my first year of working in a restaurant. One of our prep cooks was from Mexico City, and one day she brought in some homemade lengua and corn tortillas for us to try. I had never tried beef tongue before so I was a little hesitant at first, but those tacos, garnished only with diced white onion, cilantro, and a squeeze of lime juice, were melt-in-your-mouth heaven.
La Carnita at Eglinton doesn’t serve lengua tacos, unfortunately, but it’s okay because the tacos they do serve are amazing. My only quibble with blogTO’s decision to rank La Carnita as the best Mexican restaurant in Toronto is that I’m not entirely sure if it is actually a Mexican restaurant. When I think Mexican restaurant, I would assume there’d be some big entrees like mole poblano, enchiladas, pozole, etc. La Carnita is more of a snack bar than a restaurant. It is, more appropriately, ranked on the blogTO list of best tacos, second only to Seven Lives, which I haven’t been to because every time I go to Kensington Market there is a massive lineup and I am very impatient. One day.
Quibbling aside, I love this place. At least at the Eglinton location, it manages to be cool without being pretentious, the cocktail list is phenomenal, and the fact that the menu has an option where you can buy the kitchen a beer is extremely close to my heart. I can definitely understand some people being annoyed by this place—as per the Yelp reviews—by the fact that the old school hip hop can get loud, it’s often packed leading to poor service (at least at the downtown locations), and the tacos are actually spicy. If these are things that would bother you, may I suggest Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville instead.
On this visit I went a little later on a Thursday in order to avoid a wait, which was a great call as we were sat immediately and the service was excellent. We started with the chips and guacamole and the mango avocado salad. The salad was good—fresh, light and crunchy—and the chips and guac were to die for. They sprinkle ancho chili powder over the freshly made tortilla chips and seriously, if I had that stuff at home I would sprinkle it over everything. The guacamole is also garnished with queso fresco, which reminds me to give a quick warning about this place to my vegetarian and vegan friends: without requesting some serious menu modifications, it would be difficult to eat here. I’m pretty sure the only thing a vegan could eat is the mango avocado salad, and there is only one vegetarian taco.
All of the cocktails on the menu are riffs on hip-hop artists or song titles, and I’m at the age where seeing a drink called Bonita Applerum makes me nostalgic enough to think that this is charming. I ordered a Who Shot Ya?, a bourbon-based drink with hibiscus grenadine, ginger syrup, and lemon juice. It is well-shaken with a nice froth on top and the combination of sweet, sour, and Wild Turkey blends together perfectly. My partner ordered one of the micheladas, a beer cocktail with jalapeno brine and pineapple juice. Micheladas normally have tomato juice as an ingredient, but I noticed that at La Carnita it’s Clamato instead, reflecting the Canadian preference for Caesars over Bloody Marys. It’s a nice touch.
There are six tacos on the menu plus a daily special, which range in price from $4.95 to $6.50. We decided to order five tacos off the regular menu plus the special. I will list them below in order of preference.
In Cod We Trust: a fried fish taco garnished with pickled cabbage, apple and lime crema. They’re basically taco perfection, and every time I come here, I wonder why I don’t just order twenty. I love the way the sourness of the green apple and pickle balances the richness of the fish, and there’s not too much going on so that any of the distinct flavours get lost.
Butter Chicken Taco: this Indian-Mexican fusion taco was the Thursday special. We were both surprised at how well the Indian flavours of the Butter Chicken came through—I was expecting it to be on the blander side, but you could really taste the spices, and it worked well with the Mexican accompaniments, perhaps because both cuisines feature cumin and coriander heavily.
Tostada de Ceviche: this isn’t a taco at all but a crunchy tostada topped with guacamole and tuna ceviche. I liked this more than my partner did, who complained that the flavour of the tuna is completely overwhelmed by everything else. While true, it still tastes amazing and fresh, and I love the spicy kick from the habanero.
Crispy Cojita: the vegetarian taco, made with fried cojita cheese, cauliflower, pickled carrots, chipotle sauce, and pinto beans. This was one of my favourites last time I was here, but this time, the taco was missing cauliflower as far as I could tell and there was way too much pinto bean mix. This is the spiciest taco on the menu, second to the Beef Cheek and Tostada.
Pollo Frito: fried chicken with a peanut mole sauce, garnished with cabbage and salsa. Again, the last time I had this taco the balance of flavours was much better. Unfortunately, this time it was overstuffed and more or less exploded at first bite. Also, I find the salsa to be a bit much here. Still tasty, though.
Beef Cheek: I ordered this taco again because I wanted to give it a second chance. It sounds like something I would absolutely love, and being a taco de cabeza (head taco), it is the most similar to the lengua taco of my dreams. But both times I’ve had it, it has fallen short. Despite all the garnishes, I find that the braised beef is all I can taste and it weighs the whole thing down. Maybe some lime wedges (or the salsa from the Pollo Frito) would help.
It’s worth reiterating that even the tacos I found somewhat disappointing are delicious and better than most other tacos I’ve had in this city. I’ve also noticed both times that I tend to like the tacos I eat first more than later ones, which can get soggy as they sit, so my advice is to skip the Instagram photos and just dig in. Since the people who own La Carnita also own Sweet Jesus, there is usually soft serve ice cream and paletas in the same building if you can handle it after binging on tacos.
Cost for an appetizer and three tacos (excluding drinks): $25.40 + tax + tip
Service: 4.5/5 Dean Sossins
Food: 5/5 Dean Sossins
Value: 4/5 Dean Sossins
Overall: 4.5/5 Dean Sossins