where jess ate

After hearing so much about La Taqueria, I knew this was a place I had to check out when I went home. Located in Gastown, Mike and I dropped by to start our lunch off with some tacos before heading over to Meat and Bread for our main meal.

While waiting in line, I noticed that they have a little condiment counter. There were some bottles which looked like they contained hot sauce but they didn’t appear to be labelled. They also have a bowl of jalapenos and pickled red onions if you want some extra toppings on your tacos.

The tacos here are $2.50 each or four for $9.50. We just shared a plate of four tacos, since this was our “appetizer”.

Everything on their menu sounded delicious so we had a tough time narrowing it down to just four tacos. In the end we went with the Pollo Con Mole – maple hills chicken with chocolate mole sauce, the Pescado – grilled seasonal fish with pico de gallo, the Al Pastor – Chilliwack pork marinated in chile, achiote & pineapple and the Carnitas – pork confit with pickled red onions. The tacos had a double layer of fresh corn tortillas, which was nice since they didn’t get soggy. Not that they would anyways, since the tacos were quite small and we were able to finish them in a few bites – 2 bites for Mike, four for me!

I’ve never actually had mole before and thought this one tasted okay. The sauce was quite thick and rich and had a little bit of a kick to it. I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but maybe I just don’t like mole sauces in general. Mike really enjoyed it though.

I have a thing for fish tacos, so one thing we had to order was the Pescado taco. The fish was slightly charred, flaky and tasted quite fresh. It came with a light tasting avocado sauce and had a bit of cabbage (I think) in it which added a nice bit of needed crunch to the otherwise texture-less taco. Although it all tasted very light and fresh, I didn’t find the taco to be very flavourful. Guess they didn’t want to overpower the taste of the fish itself.

The next one I tried was the Al Pastor taco. The pork had a nice bit of a kick to it and was quite flavourful (making up for the fish taco). I particularly enjoyed the pineapple included in it which gave it a nice sweetness. Mike and I both enjoyed this one the best. The only complaint Mike had about this was the generous amount of cilantro sprinkled over it as he’s not a big fan of cilantro.

The last taco we tried was the Carnitas. The pork was incredibly moist and the pickled onions actually went quite well with this as I wasn’t quite sure about the combination at first. I think I should’ve added a little something to this from the condiment counter. I just felt something was missing…

Overall, I thought the tacos were decent but I was expecting to have my mind blown since there was so much hype for this taco shop. So, I left feeling a little disappointed. Luckily, Meat and Bread down the street made up for it!

At a glance:

Went to the original Hastings location; another opened up at Cambie & Broadway

Tacos are $2.50 each; or 4 for $9.50

Limited stool seating

Ratings (out of 5):

Food: 3 stars

Service: N/A

Atmosphere: 2 stars