El Nahual Tacos — Restaurant in Toronto

After eating a lot of great tacos in San Diego, the Toronto taco scene left me... a little sad. I tried a fair bit of downtown spots and each was not even as good as the average decent spot in SD. Well, turns out the best Toronto Tacos are NOT in Toronto. They're in the suburbs. Between El Nahual and Ay Caramba (Vaughn). I think I picked up my 2 best authentic Tacos in Toronto so far. As I said in the Ay Caramba review, a Toronto 5 star taco is probably a 4 or 4.5 in other places around the world. BUT for Toronto, this is as good as it gets.

Ay Caramba and El Nahual are very different and good in their own way. If you want to feel like you're welcomed into someone's home in a nice clean and decorated spot... Ay Caramba is your spot. If you want to feel like you're stepping into a tiny taco stand spot just off the streets in San Diego, El Nahual is your spot. El Nahual flavours strongly reminds me of the Baja Mexico style that I liked a lot in San Diego.

The place is tiny. We're talking only 6 stools at most and there isn't much more room other than that. It's clean but very very sparse. You're not really there for the atmosphere. You're there for the food! Service here is quiet, polite, and efficient. There's really no interaction. Prices are very fair.

As for the tacos... I want to say their grilled shrimp taco is just as good as I remember in San Diego. Really. They don't double wrap their tacos but that's ok. Ay Caramba really brings the heat up in their sauces and tacos compared to El Nahual. I think they're more of a central Mexican style with chillis playing more of a central ingredient. El Nahual is more focused on on variety of ingredients in the taco but lets the natural flavours shine instead of dousing it with too much sauce. El Nahual's hot sauce is quite mild... I would dare say super mild.

Grilled Shrimp Taco - This is the real deal. Baja style where the shrimp is cooked tender and still have that juicy bounce as you bite through. It's wrapped in the crispy grilled garlic cheese that just compliments the shrimp really well. Topped with cilantro, cabbage, and a tiny bit of onions, it's more of a nuanced flavour instead of super bold. The avocado salsa adds a creamy texture that contrasts the crisped cheese. This was so good and shrimp were plentiful and a good size. 5/5

Al Pastor - The large chunk of grilled fresh pineapple was the nice sweet flavour contrast to the rich pork that has been roasted with chilies, spices, and achiote. Similar to the Shrimp taco, it had the drizzle of avocado salsa, cilantro, and a tiny bit of onion. I found the pork super tender and the grilled pineapple had the right sweetness to it. 4.5/5

Carnitas - Another great pork taco but this time, it had a more meatier pork taste as its was braised slow in it's own fat. Even more tender than the Al Pastor... if that is even possible. I found this very flavourful and liked how they used pickled daikon to break up the richness of it. 4.5/5

Veggie - I loved this one and I think it's cause of the crispy cheese! The crispy cheese almost became a second taco shell as it curved around the cooked mushrooms, peppers, and onions. There was a good flavour of umami from the mushrooms. The addition of the pickled carrot and daikon was nice... could have used more for my preference but overall, very good vegetarian one! 4.5/5

Before I forget, you can check in for a freebie of chips and dip. The dip is super mild in flavour (avocado salsa?) but the chips are a good crunch to get you hungry.

I was completely surprised on the flavours and how authentic it was to my memory of San Diego and Baja style tacos. I think this is a hidden gem in plain site but seeing that it has a growing number of 5 star reviews, you can't keep a good place down. If you love tacos, skip the downtown spots and head north... you'll find...

This is a hole in the wall Mexican joint that serves some tasty tacos. Their menu has several taco options as well as chips, burritos and a few other items. As opposed to other popular taco places which use two tortillas, this place uses one, slightly thicker, tortilla. I found my tacos held up well, but my friend's fell apart a bit. Not a big issue though. I ordered 3 tacos (fish, shrimp, and chorizo), a horchata drink, and used a yelp check-in deal to get a free order of chips. The tacos were all made to order and came out piping hot. Out of the three, my favourite was the fish taco. It was crispy and the cilantro aioli went perfectly with it. I would recommend skipping the shrimp taco however. Despite other reviews saying this was a must order, I found it to be quite bland and you mostly just taste the peppers. The chips are also a skip in my opinion (unless you're getting them free). The sauce that comes with it just seemed like a watered down gauc with a bit of citrus thrown in. The horchata was very tasty and a good alternative to your usual soft drink.

The place itself is very small and seats only about 6 people. Service was friendly and since they make the tacos fresh, it took about 10 minutes for me and my friend to receive our order which was pretty good.

The price of the tacos here are $3.75 for one or three for $10. Three taco types (shrimp, steak, gringas) are an extra $1 though. But the value here is amazing! Although they aren't huge, three tacos are probably enough to satisfy most appetities, so you can get a great meal for around $11. They also take credit cards here which is always a nice option to have.

Overall, this is a great little taco spot in an area with seemingly not too much else. The food here is tasty and offers great value. I will definitely be back sometime to try their...

The food was tasty and the owner seemed very nice but the service was a huge problem I payed 45 ish dollars for a steak/barbacoa burrito with guac inside and I would pay extra for it, and a steak/barbacoa quesadilla without mushrooms because my my brothers allergic to some mushrooms and we wanted to be safe with a ginger ale. After ordering we were informed the food would take 30ish minutes which was a dealbreaker but I decided to come back in 30 minutes. When I got back I was informed that they hadn’t started the food and that they didn’t have barbacoa and that I could either have chicken or nothing for the same price (13$) with cheaper meats/ nothing. I waited for another 35-40 minutes. They offered me a beer or a pop for my wait but I’m underaged and wasn’t able to get a beer and I didn’t need another ginger ale and my family didn’t want one either. When we got home we had a chicken burrito without guacamole (which I payed extra for), a chicken quesadilla with mushrooms which we specifically asked to remove, and no ginger ale . This was probably 10-12 dollars of food I payed for and didn’t get. The chicken quesadilla with mushrooms could have been dangerous for my brother so he didn’t risk it and put it in the fridge for me to eat tomorrow. The food I did get was very tasty and would be a good deal for the amount I should have payed. In the end I lost way more money than I should have and I feel like I got scammed 10$ more. Very good food but after an hour wait with one other person in line 40 minute after closing doesn’t make sense to me. Nobody else is ordering and I’m forced to wait for who knows what. If their service doesn’t improve I’ll never come back. They have the right idea but a very...