Si, senor. There's something muy bueno happening to Vancouver's culinary compass.
Thanks to a steady increase of Mexican immigrants, the city has recently seen a swath of cheap taquerias open off the beaten track. Ay caramba! The Dish's Great Tortilla Taste-off puts three new cantinas to the test.
DONA CATA MEXICAN FOODS
5438 Victoria Dr., 604-436-2232
" Hola," we say to a smiling young woman after stepping into this tiny restaurant, where the walls are covered in sombreros and bright, childlike paintings, while a Mexican flag flaps proudly out front.
" Hola!" she replies, then dives into a flurry of Spanish.
We don't understand a word, but the greeting certainly bodes well for the joint's authenticity.
Owner Brenda Cortez de Castrejon, who opened her restaurant eight months ago, comes from Villa de Ayala, a small town in the state of Morelos, where her grandmother (a distant relative of Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata) ran a taqueria and meat shop for 45 years. A stately portrait of Senora Cata dominates one wall, and the secret recipes are all hers, passed down on her deathbed.
Tacos ($1.25 a pop, or $2 with cheese) are small, open-faced soft corn tortillas simply served with chopped cilantro, diced onion and a lemon wedge on the side. They come stuffed with chicken, beef, lamb or one of four kinds of pork.
We order one of each and fall hard for the pork: carne enchilada (marinated with chili); al pastor (roasted on a spit and sweetened with pineapple); longaniza (ground homemade sausage with lots of spice) and carnitas (tender pork butt, braised and pulled apart).
The meats (available for purchase by the kilo) are precooked off site and kept moist in covered steamers at the front counter, where you'll also find a magnificent lineup of salsas. There are about 10 in total, ranging from a mild avocado to the fiery green-chili macha, all temptingly displayed in help-yourself bowls.
Dona Cata also serves nachos (topped with diced tomato, mozzarella cheese, a light crema and runny beans), burritos, quesadillas, combo meat platters, corn soup and flan for dessert. They even sell Mexican soaps, cornstarch, candies and other sundry items.
This cheap and cheerful hole-in-the-wall won Best of the Americas at last month's Vancouver Magazine Restaurant Awards. I can't disagree. Dona Cata serves the best local tacos I've tasted so far. Shame the place isn't licensed and doesn't serve beer.
CHILO'S TAQUERIA
1351 Richards St., 604-909-7500
The original Chilo's, still running strong, is a full-service restaurant located just a few doors down from Dona Cata. This new Yaletown taco shack, which opened last month, has a more limited menu and no liquor licence. But boy, it certainly does pack 'em in.
The first time I walked by, on a Saturday night, I thought a new nightclub had opened. There were dozens of young Mexicans spilling all over the sidewalk, smoking with wild abandon and cheering loudly. As it turned out, the crowd was there for a hotly contested soccer game being shown on satellite television. I'm sure the food was part of the lure, as well.
Chilo's serves soft corn tacos ($1.50 each), quesadillas ($6.50) and gringas (two for $5), the latter being a fusion of taco and quesadilla, consisting of two small corn tortillas stuffed with meat, cheese, onion and cilantro, and grilled.
The open kitchen is a simple affair - just a counter, fridge and grill - as the meats are all cooked at the original restaurant. Fillings include asada (cubed steak, a little dry), pastor (marinated pork), carnitas (shredded pork) suadero (moist beef rib), pollo (chicken, kind of bland), camaron (shrimp) and lengua (a nice fatty tongue).
I've returned several times and my favourite meat, by far, is the al pastor. Mmm, so tender and spicy and dripaliciously good.
As at Dona Cata, the tacos are prepared authentically, with nothing but onion, cilantro (no cheese, except on the shrimp) and your choice of two salsas, a tangy tomatillo-based green version or hot and spicy dried-chili red.
Elias Padilla is the friendly young owner from Guadalajara. He's so friendly, in fact, that when I dropped by once and was $5 short (they take cash only), he simply shrugged it off and told me to pay him back later.
On a recent visit, I noticed that he had added a regional specialty to the menu: torta ahogada ($7.50), a fat bun stuffed with carnitas and drowning in mild salsa.
"It's for when you're really hung over," Mr. Padilla explained.
I wasn't so crazy about the carbohydrate-heavy sub, but I'm sure it will be popular with the young bucks stopping in after the clubs (Chilo's is open until 1 a.m. on weekends). And I'll definitely be back, probably sooner rather than later. Mexico is playing in the finals this weekend.
TACO SHACK
3143 West Broadway
604-737-8227
We walk in on a rainy weeknight to find the manager sitting in the middle of the empty restaurant - eating sushi. Not a good sign.
This second Taco Shack location, which opened a few weeks ago, is owned by Gerald Tritt and Noah Cantor (of Vera's Burger Shack fame), along with former B.C. Lions' linebacker Daved Benefield.
Benefield, who grew up in Los Angeles, where he learned the tricks of the trade from a veteran taco-truck operator, says his influences are more SoCal than Mexican. Still, that's no excuse for soggy tortillas, rock-hard refried beans and rice that smells like wilted socks.
Tacos ($2.79 apiece or three for $6.99) are prepared two ways - with pico de gallo and guacamole or with cilantro and onion. The small tortillas are corn and made in-house, but come only one per serving (instead of the usual double), which may explain why they nearly liquefy when loaded.
Fillings include marinated chicken thigh, grilled skirt steak or fried basa fish (the latter is served with shredded cabbage and chipotle-spiced crema). The green salsa (an optional side) is bland, but the red has a nice smoky kick.
A quesadilla ($6.99) is stuffed with a gringo-style Monterey Jack and cheddar mix. The guacamole lacks garlic, and a side of rice and beans ($2.29) is so awful we barely touch it.
The Taco Shack might have impressed when the only tacos to be found in these parts were bright yellow and brittle, but not any more. Save your money and go get a California roll.
Alexandra Gill