Bar Bacan — Restaurant in Toronto

I'll start by saying I think is a great spot for a quick bite at the bar (the plantain & beans arepa is fantastic) or a snack for take out (can't go wrong with the empanadas). But this review is specifically for the "parrillada" which I'm sorry to say it just nowhere up to par.

This may come across as snobby, but it's coming from my own experience having lived in South America for two years.

First of all, a traditional proper Argentinian parrillada is ALWAYS charbroiled on a charcoal grill, and at the very least grilled on cast iron over flames. This is the signature of a parrillada dish. At Bar Bacan they simply take the meats, oil them up excessively, and try to cook them in a pan at high heat to replicate the taste and flavour - and it simply pales in comparison.

The chorizo was decent, although they use a sweeter chorizo sausage when parrillada usually uses a spicier chorizo. This sweeter chorizo that seems to be the norm in Canada is simply not to my taste after having had the more authentic spicy chorizo while I lived in South America.

But the beef ribs and steak were simply not good. Tough, chewy, stale tasting meat that is stored frozen so it really just has that freezer burn kind of taste embedded in every bite. Frankly unacceptable for a restaurant of this calibre, although I suppose this is why they charge $58 for two whereas a proper Argentinian restaurant that grills fresh, never-frozen, high quality meat over charcoal would charge closer to $90.

There is no real flavour or marinade to the meat at all - it just tastes like old, stale, freezer burned, chewy, dry, hunks of meat.

It is served with Yuca fries and coleslaw which are just okay. The star of the dish is supposed to be the meat and it fails.

They also serve the platter for two with an embarrassingly tiny amount of chimichurri sauce and we would have asked for more but the server never came to check on us again until we chased them down to finally let us pay our bill.

All in all, I will not dine in at this restaurant ever again. I would safely recommend it as described at the beginning, but save yourself the money - this is Toronto and $58 can take you way, way further than this. My recommendation to the owner/kitchen would be to simply stop serving this dish if you're going to deliver it...

Food Quality: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Price/Value: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Service: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

All I can say is WOW was this place a surprise. Came here for the first time and was delighted by the overall atmosphere/ambiance with the Latin music played throughout the restaurant really setting the mood. The staff were great as they immediately greeted and seated us while giving us some time to order. 2 glasses with a jug of water was quickly served and after spending 5-10 minutes trying to figure out what to get due to what felt like an overwhelming amount of options, our kind waitress suggested we try the "Arepa Combo For Two" for $36 to which we agreed to try with the following selections:

1.) Empanadas: 1 Beef & 1 Chicken. 2.) Arepas: 2 Pabellon. 3.) Sauces: Chipotle & Wasacaca.

The food was prepared very quickly, almost within 10-15 mins and when brought to our table, was extremely tantalizing. The yuca fries were some of the best if not the best fries I've ever tasted while the empanada and arepa were delicious! Almost ended up going to heaven half way through the meal haha. Our waitress kindly checked on us a few times to fill our jug and to make sure the food was to our liking. Overall, I would HIGHLY recommend trying this restaurant out and specifically the "Arepa Combo For Two" as I feel it is worth the money for the amount of food you get. Will definitely be back to try more items...

We went in the last day of summerlicious. And decided to be inside as we have two kids. Air conditioning was not working well. Washrooms are clean. We are vegetarian so we ordered the vegetarian arepa and one mushrooms and cheese and one spinach and bechamel empanadas. Also one of each deserts and two papelon. It took long time for the waitress to take our order and then to be ready another while. However she was kind and asked us if everything was going well couple of times. Papelon was disappointing. Small portion and wired after taste. Not sweet or lemony. It supposed to be melted panela (pure cane sugar) with lemon. Usually makes me smile this drink because it reminds me Venezuela. But not this time. Arepa is in the small side and only with a small tajada (fried sweet plantain on top) beans were seasoned with sugar (as expected) and cheese was ok. The dipping sauce taste just like in Venezuela 👍🏻. Yuca fries were the best. And the open Argentinian empanadas were delicious. Also in the small side though. Deserts not that good. The fried donut are tasteless and dense even with the dulce de leche sauce. And the alfajor was ok. I had high expectations, since I don’t get to eat often Venezuelan food and I miss it quite a lot. And I was a bit...