Location: 998 Saint Clair Avenue West, Toronto
Website: https://itacate-toronto.com/

Itacate is a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant that serves some seriously, seriously tasty eats.  They only have a handful of tables, so I guess it’s mostly a take-out place, but it’s worth either waiting for one of those tables or eating in your car.  It’s so good.

I tried a couple of things.  I wanted to try at least one taco, and their menu is extensive, with almost a dozen choices.  I went with the carnitas, which comes with a very generous amount of ultra-tender pork on a double corn tortilla.

They asked if I wanted onions and cilantro, and I said no because I am a card-carrying raw onion hater; in retrospect, I probably should have said no to the onion and yes to the cilantro, but that pork was so incredibly tender and flavourful that it was beyond delicious with just a little bit of the zippy salsa that comes on the side.

I like corn tortillas, but they’re always a bit of a crapshoot, because if they’re not very fresh, they can dry out and become unpleasant to eat.  That definitely wasn’t an issue here.

I also tried the pambazo: “bread dipped in guajillo sauce with sausage and potatoes, with sour cream, lettuce and cheese.”

Man, what a sandwich.  Perfect bread (with a light crispiness on its exterior and some nice flavour from the guajillo sauce), tasty sausage, and some great texture and flavour from the lettuce and cheese.  Once you add some of the aforementioned salsa?  All-time great sandwich.  Crazy good.