Pikanté — Restaurant in Edmonton

Visited their booth at a farmer's market and have to say, easily one of the worst meals I've ever eaten, and for a ridiculous price. Server was somewhat rude though I initially assumed it was due to having to yell over the live band playing at the venue. She also messed up our order despite having us repeat it twice, then told us it would be about 15 minutes. Took them 30 minutes to make the food which was 2 plates of Nachos Loco, and some chips and guacamole.

First off, 16 dollars for a plate of nachos is a little absurd considering the serving size. For what I paid total for 2 people I could go to Sherlock's pub and pay about the same for a plate of nachos that could comfortably feed 4 or more people. But worse yet, 10 dollars for a plate of chips and a small ramekin of some of the worst guacamole I've ever had. It tasted like bland Canadian made store-bought, not authentic Mexican homemade. I genuinely don't understand how there are still people who make guacamole without lime, given that lime juice is not only core to soul of guacamole, but also since its a natural preservative. Its so commonplace to forego the lime that we may need legislation in place so we can lock some of these food criminals up. And hell, I could have gone to Mucho Burrito and gotten a bag of warm chips with about the same amount of guac for $4.50. And theirs is better!

After waiting twice the expected time for our food, it was served stone cold. The meat was slightly above room temperature in the middle, beneath all the chips, but at serious risk of causing food poisoning. I had chicken on my nachos and my mom had pork. Fun fact: it is illegal in Alberta to serve potentially hazardous foods (which includes chicken and pork) that are meant to be served hot at a temperature lower than 60 C. As for the food itself, it was an odd choice. I'm not Mexican myself, but my family is from the lower Southern United States, and my mom in particular lived in Houston for quite a long time, and learned about traditional Mexican cooking from local Mexican people she knew while living there. I'm not against changing certain things and making a dish your own but I can not imagine why anyone in their right mind would put feta cheese on nachos.

I'm all for inauthentic if the food is good, but this was neither authentic nor good. Being cold was bad enough, but feta cheese on nachos is strange and doesn't help the flavor profile at all. Their "melted cheese" that they also used was like a runnier, blander version of Kraft Mac N Cheese, and they covered the whole thing in a light drizzle of a really watery sour cream out of a standard condiment squirt bottle, which I always find off-putting. On top of that they used pickled onions for whatever reason and pickled jalapenos instead of fresh in either case. Weirdly, the top of the nachos was garnished with pickled red onions, but there were pickled white onions throughout the rest of the dish. The pico de gallo was standard, being functionally identical to the pico you'd get at any fast food place, and to their credit they did use fresh cilantro.

Each of our plates were also served with a ramekin filled with an unknown brown liquid. I dipped a couple chips to taste it but it was ultimately quite bland, and the little bit of flavor it did have did nothing to help figure out what it was supposed to be. Interestingly, the entire thing felt refrigerated, particularly the chips. They looked like they were genuinely made in-house but they were quite cold. I also ordered a Mexican Coca-Cola with my meal and it was by far the best part, though even it was pretty mid. For those unaware, Mexican Coke is made with cane sugar. Its an interesting flavor, but paradoxically, the strange brown liquid in the ramekin was colder than my drink. I'd also like to recommend for anyone wanting authentic Mexican to try a drink called Squirt. Its a traditional Mexican soda, also made with cane sugar but it is far superior to Mexican Coke.

As an alternative, try Los Molcajetes in...

The tacos are fine but the service is bad lol. Every time I go here the front service girl is SO rude? It’s not always the same girl that’s rude, but for some reason when I go it’s a 50% chance I get attitude..

Whenever I have questions about the menu she would give an extremely dry answer with an annoyed face. Like yeah food is good, but not great.I avoid the service so much I’d rather order through skip so I don’t have to deal with the front counter.

I thought my experience was singular but reading the reviews it’s not. For the love of god if Pikante wants to open up an actual store outside of the farmers market, get a new front service girl. The other girl is really nice, but the other one sucks lol

I usually enjoy my food from here but her service literally sours it...

Had pikante at taste of Edmonton this past weekend ordered a few Tostados was really good with the birria. Went to the bountiful farmers market Sunday and had birria and fish tacos. the birria was really good. The fish tacos where over cooked pretty much burnt and had a really bad taste maybe the fryer oil. or the fish was spoiled. Took my mom out for lunch. We both had upset stomach's after having the food, to the point where we didn't eat after lunch for the remaining of the day and had to take Pepto...