Tag: carnitas

Fantastic Mexican Food at Itacate

Published on by Michael NusairLeave a comment

Itacate
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.

Itacate

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.

Itacate

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.”

Itacate

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.

Tasty Sandwiches at Gus Tacos

Published on by Michael Nusair2 Comments

Gus Tacos
Location: 1546 Dupont Street, Toronto
Website: https://tacosgus.ca/

I recently had a couple of tacos from Gus Tacos; I enjoyed them enough that I figured I should come back and try some other stuff.  Well I just tried the carnitas torta, and yeah, this place is the real deal.

Gus Tacos

The menu describes the torta as coming topped with “beans, cheese, guacamole, chipotle mayo, onions, cilantro and your choice of protein.”  I skipped the onions, though if you can handle raw onions, I’m sure their crunchiness would enhance the sandwich.

Gus Tacos

It’s a top notch sandwich.  It’s served on a fresh, fluffy bun, and all of the flavours are exactly where they should be.  The carnitas (which is basically like pulled pork) is super tasty, with a nice porky flavour and a great texture.

I asked for the sandwich spicy, and it came with a little container of zingy hot sauce on the side.  Once I added this to the sandwich, things really came alive — it made a very good sandwich even better.

Gus Tacos

Torteria San Cosme, a thoroughly delicious torta place in Kensington Market, shut down during the pandemic, which seriously bummed me out.  I don’t know if the torta here is quite at that level of amazingness, but it’s close enough.