Salt & Swine — Restaurant in Gibsons

The place looked very interesting and promising, with the catchy name, great reviews, beautiful art on the walls and the decor. The service is very friendly and welcoming. The place looks spotless clean. The food, however, doesn’t live up to the hype or the name. Everything - the salsa, the guacamole, the tacos, and the burritos were absolutely bland. The only thing that had any amount of salt in it was the chips. Everything else didn’t. The only salt source in the restaurant is the teeny-tiny salt shaker that you have to ask for at the till - between the 4 people we used up half the shaker (and would probably have used a bit more, but there weren’t any left in the shaker). It’s pretty pricey (but I guess, everything is now) - for 2 adults and 2 kids we spent a hundred on just the food and tips, no drinks. Kids burritos didn’t have any meat option included in it, so you’d have to order it. If you’re vegetarian, the veggie tacos don’t taste that great, and fall apart, as all the ingredients are just a mix of finely chopped pieces and some beans that are pretty tiny as well - the sauce is pretty runny and doesn’t hold things together. The fish taco smelled a bit off at first when we were just served the food, and was just a big piece of fish without much else there - not even much sauce unfortunately. I’d skip this place next time. Salt not found....

For fastest service, just pick up the menus at the cashier and place your order there as waiting for someone to bring you the menu & take your order can take a while even when they’re not busy. This is the only reason why I deducted a star. Eat in dining is available or you can do take out - ask for a take home box if you can’t finish it all and they’ll be happy to provide. Food is authentic and very good even though I never saw any Mexicans working there! I don’t know who prepares the food as it’s all white people working there but the food is authentic and is some of the best Mexican food I’ve had in Canada. They offer Mexican hot sauces at the tables or for sale. Beverages are water, Mexican pop (Jarritos), Mexican beer. Menu items are economical and there’s quite a bit of selection on the menu to satisfy anyone. Ample free parking out front. Restaurant accepts major credit cards (including American Express), debit and cash. Washrooms are clean and well stocked (toilet paper, soap, paper towels). Ate here twice in 24 hours and will return again in future! A nice little surprise - my travelling partner and I found this gem by doing a Google search and reading the reviews. No disappointment here!...

TL;DR: incorrect order, widely-varying portion sizes.

Hi! The owner seems lovely and the space is very inviting (I appreciate the pride rainbows). The food also had nice flavor and I could see enjoying it in other circumstances.

However, there were several issues with quality control and service.

First, we ordered 4 items—all of which ended up having the incorrect protein filling. Moreover, between the two burritos we ordered (both large), one had over twice the amount of meat as the other (both were the same filling). Real quality control issues, unfortunately.

Second, the meat fillings of all four items were incorrect—not a single one was correct as ordered. I mentioned this to the cashier upon pick-up, but she suggested that I had remembered my own order wrong. I hadn’t, but I thought it was better to avoid an argument in front of everyone.

Again, would love to come back and try again. If there had not been such serious issues with service, it would have been 4 or 5...