El Cantaro — Restaurant in Monterey

El Cantaro offers good vegan fare but I wouldn't give it the universal praise that other reviews have posted. The location is quite good with a few dedicated parking spots and good street parking. Inside, the space is clean and well-kept, although there aren't enough tables to accommodate everyone during busy hours. The employees are not rude contrary to other reviews, but the restaurant is understaffed, leaving them in a permanent scramble to take phone orders, manage the line of customers, give food to couriers, cook, prep, and clean. This is what hurts the experience the most, and I really hope El Cantaro can have an extra employee on hand to smooth things out during busy periods.

As for the food, I also didn't find it as good as the glowing reviews would suggest. When you one of their burritos or tacos, they indeed taste like Mexican food at first brush. If you're not nitpicky you can stop reading at this point and come by. For the choosier, there are a few flaws in their recipes. The meat substitutes aren't very flavorful, which can throw off dishes. The chickn' couldn't balance out the sweet, heavy flavors of the mole sauce nor could it carry the burrito's spices into flavortown. Some of the dishes rely heavily on flavors from cilantro, onion, etc. to the point that they will make bites taste like nothing else. And each of the vegan ingredients is still trying to imitate an animal product, so the cheese will taste nutty and the sour cream will taste unsatisfying. The best dishes avoid these pitfalls, and I enjoyed the potato tacos because they use potatoes instead of meat substitutes and avoided flavors that would...

Absolute must try Mexican food in the Monterey Bay area! Great food, though vegan - the food doesn't lack any bit of flavor.

Full Review: I generally tend to avoid vegan restaurants as I often find them lacking in flavor. However El Canataro is definitely an exception. Recently visited them for lunch with my fam while vacationing in the Monterey Bay. The pricing and ambience were great and service was decent. There may be some waiting involved during lunch hours and limited parking is available at the restaurant.

Food here was very flavoursome and simple, the portion sizes were great too. We loved the vegetable enchilada with green tomatilo sauce, the dish was great, packed awesome flavor and didn't feel too heavy which enchiladas tend to be with all the cheese and beans. The crispy potato taco was just fab with great taste and multitude of textures - this dish is a must try at this place. We also tried the vegetable burrito and found it pretty decent, it was just a simple good veggie burrito. The salsa and chips served when you get seated were great too. The salsa was nice and packed some punch.

There were a lot of dishes in the menu with imitation/faux-meat which might be worth trying. If you are a vegetarian like me who doesn't like imitation/faux-meat - I believe you still have a lot of options.

Recommendations: Vegetable enchilada with green tomatilo...

We are not vegan lol and we were hesitant on trying it out. So it is a very small place but has a lot of options. We went with some Steak Nachos, Combo #3 which is one enchilada, one crispy taco and one potato taco and an order of crispy potato tacos(comes with 4) with black beans. OK so the potato tacos were pretty good and super crispy but we didn't ask for like guacamole salsa so I was missing that little something. The rice was good and the black beans were bomb! The nachos were pretty darn good and the imitation steak was good with a good flavor. What really blew me away was the red salsa for the enchilada. That was the one of the best red sauces I have tasted from different several restaurants. It had a thick consistency, great color and the taste was great! Now it might not be for everyone as it was somewhat spicy for my husband but for me it was perfect! The taquito was pretty good too but the imitation chicken had a weird texture for me so I might have to go with just cheese filling or bean filling if it's possible. And of course can't complete the meal with a good Mexican sprite! We would definitely give it a try again if we are in the area but we do miss our meat lol and definitely give it a try if you're...