El Pueblito — Restaurant in District Municipality of Muskoka

A few dishes feature their fish-of-the-day, which was pickerel for the ceviche and tacos during our summer visit. Marinated and cured in an acid of lime and tomatoes, the fish takes on a pink hue in the ceviche ($16) and has the taste of a lighter Arctic char. It’s wonderfully fresh, either by itself or scooped onto a crispy thin tortilla chip, the citrus acid nicely balanced with a hint of heat.

The starter just needed more salt. In fact, all their dishes need more seasoning. Perhaps El Pueblito is trying to respect an ingredient’s natural flavours or cater to Bracebridge’s older demographic, but everything needed an extra hit of salt to finish the dish – maybe they should just leave some at each table.

The same pickerel tasted completely different in the fish tacos ($20), once lightly grilled and topped with pineapple salsa. Since the fish isn’t deep fried and there’s not a typical slaw topping, the tacos are soft; I wish there was a crunchy element to provide textural interest – even some finely chopped bell peppers and red onion would be great.

Still, the tacos were tasty – the corn tortillas chewy and fresh, and the spicy mayo and tomatillo salsa great condiments for the dish. The refried beans were rich and smooth, lovely on its own or smooshed into the rice. The grains get even better once you add in consommé and chopped onions (from the birria tacos). In the end, the fish tacos are a little soft but at least they’re not messy to eat.

Consequently, the complete opposite experience of having a birria taco ($20). Stuffed with beef and deep fried, these arrive blistering hot and need to be wrapped in a tissue to dunk. Having seen many people have the dish at food trucks, it’s a wonder how anyone isn’t covered in consommé and grease without a proper table and dishware. If you’re ordering these, it’s best not to wear white.

The slowly cooked beef was plentiful and tender, but because under seasoned meat and consommé, we couldn’t help feel that the birrias were missing something. I was waiting for a flavourful explosion to erupt, only to be met with a slow-moving stream of lava. The flavours improved once we added tons of the raw onion, cilantro, and avocado into the crispy hot taco, a few sparks in the lava stream.

Saving room for churros ($10 for 6) is essential. When our server asked us whether we wanted six or ten of the pastries, I thought it must be a rehearsed question as why would two people need more than six? One bite into the hot hollow logs of fried dough and we were hooked. Dusted with cinnamon sugar they were already delicious, but a dunk into a creamy thick not-overly-sweet caramel and the dessert was absolutely sublime. Yeah, so maybe we could have...

Try the Main St. Delicatessen across the street. See the difference and make your own judgement.

El Peublito was an absolute disaster of service and a serious food safety concern. We waited 45 minutes for 3 Carne Asada Burritos and 1 Crispy Chicken Flautas only to receive the wrong food, which contained a severe allergen (beans) we had specifically warned them about. When we pointed out the mistakes, the female server was argumentative, blamed us, and later brought more of the allergen. We tried to get the order corrected 4x. The server refused. I have never witnessed this before.

Beyond the unsafe mistakes, the service was disorganized and rude, including being told to wait when trying to order. Highly inattentive and dismissive. Avoid this location. This is unfortunate as we have been coming to this location for many years and the family owner was very friendly and food (previously was tremendous).

The new staff was beyond bad. Seriously a bad hire. No reason to dismiss folks and insist on forcing the product. Not recommended. The prices listed on the website and on google are not current and are at least 25% more expensive. The cost for four folks to eat hear without beverages (alcoholic or not) is more than $100. When the staff argues with you and makes it uncomfortable to order and eat a decent meal you make a decision to cut and run. I asked some of the other patrons if they were happy. They were equally frustrated having to serve their own water, waiting 15-20 min for cold mediocre coffee (I will take them at their word as I could not get to order a beer or coffee). The server was that un-attentive.

When we requested the bill the server it took 10min to delete the product that was sent back due to the food allergy. Bill came to over $100. Considering there were only three tables being served it was clear she had not clue what she was doing.

Pity about El Pueblito it was popular during the summer periods with great ice cream but a different server. I think it may be a bad hire (indicated she was new by 3-4 weeks) but I have been coming here for many years and am appalled at the overall decline in food quality and price hikes.

In the past the patio was popular and the mexican cocktails (Margaritas) and take out ice cream were fantastic. Since the pandemic hurt their business El Pueblito never recovered. More is the pity. AVOID AVOID AVOID. NOT WORTH...

First time at this restaurant, as part of a first time travel to Canada. Came in a large group with seniors. Teenager 1 confirmed, the waiting time is 30 minutes for two tables to be joined together, but there is a table for 4 empty, and the seniors in my party can sit on that whilst waiting for the other table to clear. Teenager 2 came out and advised the seniors cannot sit there and have to wait for the other table to become available.

I then asked a lady with an accent if she was the manager and she completely ignored me, and started shuffling menus. Asked the same question again, and she told me to speak to the host. I said no, I am speaking to you about the misinformation provided to me. She told me to lower my voice and walked away. 45 minutes later, we were seated. And I came to understand that the lady was in fact the owner.

At the end if the meal, a 20% gratuity was added without any prior knowledge and without any note on the menu.

Absolute shambles of a place, service was so poor and the lady who owns the place, hats off to you for setting a great example - you should be embarrassed of yourself and your wait staff.

I can only assume that the local Canadian population have low standards with regards to service! Will never recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada.

PS. Instead taking ownership for the ridiculous service, the owner decides to reply with an implicit defence. Also, the food is not even real...