Location: 486 Front Street West, Toronto (inside Wellington Market)
Website: https://www.japantaco.ca/

Japan Taco started as one of those booths you see at various street festivals around the city, and eventually they were successful enough to open a couple of permanent locations.  They’ve got one on Queen Street, and now, this one in The Well.

So what is a “Japan Taco”?  It’s kind of like a cross between a poke bowl, onigiri, and a taco.  It’s interesting.

I ordered the Miso Salmon, which features a sizable piece of miso-glazed salmon, mashed avocado, pickled radish (I think?), sushi rice, and a bunch of other stuff (I can’t find a description of this anywhere online, so I’m not 100% sure what was in there — it was a lot).

The nori shell is what makes this really distinctive.  I sort of figured this would be similar to the lightly crispy nori in onigiri, but it has a hearty crisp-factor that I found to be surprising and delightful.  And the intense crispiness remained right until the last bite, never sogging up.  It has what appears to be panko on its exterior, so I guess it’s breaded and fried?

Otherwise, this was pretty satisfying, with a well-prepared piece of salmon and a bunch of other tasty stuff.  The flavour could have been amped up a bit (maybe you’re meant to add soy sauce or dip it in something?), but otherwise I quite enjoyed it.