The Great St-Henri Taco Crawl 2016

Okay, fine, the title’s a bit ridiculous, because there couldn’t have been a St-Henri taco crawl in 2015 – there weren’t enough taco places! But like I said when I threw the “1st Annual Volk/Watson Christmas Extravaganza,” there will obvious be more years of this awesome event to come.

Here’s how the St-Henri Taco Crawl 2016 worked

Mission: To test three taco places
Locations: Burrito Revolucion, Café Frida, Tacos Victor and Tequila Bar.
Method: One to two tacos at each place, preferably the same or similar at each
Cost: Frida is dirt cheap, the others are slightly more expensive, which is why sharing is good.
Challenges: Not to fill up on guac or rice and beans.
Drinks: Optional margarita or Tequila shot at Tequila Bar
Graded Categories: Style (e.g. San Diego with fries, Mexican street style, TexMex), Taste, Price, Salsas, Experience.
Patience required for invited guest taco crawlers: Average. I knew I’d be asking about everything from the corn tortillas to whether the beans are from a can or cooked fresh with lard and whether they use Maggi cubes in the Mexican rice.
Transport: Bike. Walking would also have worked. Driving would be fine as long as you don’t overdue it on the margaritas.
Menus and descriptions: Le Tequila Bar, Cafe Frida, Burrito Revolucion, Tacos Victor
Goal: Victory!

Note: I actually did this crawl twice and this is a compilation of the two trips. Twice was necessary for fact-checking. Also, Grumman, which is known for its tacos, didn’t have any tacos on the menu the night I went. The only things gluten free, dairy free me could eat on the menu were the turbot ceviche and a little vegetable salad. And other Mexican places didn’t make the list because they didn’t serve tacos.

The Results

Tacos Victor: Best shrimp taco

4376 rue Notre-Dame West
Hours: 11:30am-9pm Tues-Sat
Cost: $6 a taco
438-947-9936

I loved the style at Tacos Victor. They do double corn tortilla wrappers and a generous amount of flat-top sizzling fillings that come topped with French fries. Don’t think this is awesome? I do. Sure, it’s $6, but it’s a meal in a taco. My favourite is the shrimp version. They used to have giant, hollowed out gourds of AYCE cucumbers and radishes, but now they just add a few to each taco and you can ask for them (because who wants to all-they-can-eat of those besides me?). They fortunately kept the giant, hollowed out gourds of salsa: three house-made versions that are miraculously not too salty. There’s a mild version, a thin tomatillo version and a very hot version. After the shrimp version, my fellow crawlers told me the version with sausage and beef was the best. The rest of the menu is odd bits of tongue and things, which theoretically sounded amazing but didn’t get great reviews from crawlers. But that shrimp…

Close up shrimp taco with three salsas, double taco shell, fries, radishes and cucumber

Cafe Frida: Best street-style taco and best owner

4412 Rue Notre-Dame O
Hours: 12-9pm Mon-Sat
Cost: $2.50 a taco
514-553-2040

 

Café Frida is bare bones. There are three tables where you’re super cramped and most people therefore order takeout. But it’s hard not to hoover these large mouthfuls of grilled corn tortillas and meat. It’s purist here – just meat and then you add homemade salsa (there’s just one) from a squeeze bottle. No fancy vegetable slices or (heaven forbid) cilantro garnishes and tacos are dirt cheap, accordingly. And while my fellow crawlers loved these three-bite meat and tortilla bombs, I got bored flavour-wise and texture-wise after bite one-and-a-half. But, the tacos are cheap, accordingly.

We agreed that the more-grilled tortilla (crunchier) was nice, and the guacamole was really good (but expensive and dependent on avocado imports being good at the time). The other place we agreed was the lady who owns this place is the best. She really cares if you love your taco. She’ll give you extra chips for your delicious guac if you ask. She didn’t mind that I asked her what was in the chicken marinade while there was a five-person line behind me (just spices and chilies – no gluten or dairy or bouillon cubes or junk) and for a tiny kitchen, service was pretty quick. And you can order tacos by the unit instead of having to get two or three.

Le Tequila Bar: Best taco meal deal

4401 rue Notre-Dame West (there’s also one on St-Laurent, but this is a St-Henri taco crawl)
Hours: 5pm-3am Mon-Sun (kitchen closes 10pm Sun-Wed and 11pm Thurs-Sat)
Cost: $12 for 3 tacos with salad or tortillas, $14 for shrimp tacos, $9 for 6 taco sliders without salad or tortillas
514-303-4401

I didn’t think I was going to like this place, honestly. I’d read that you come here for drinks, but the tacos are afterthoughts. I disagree. I didn’t think the beef, pork or chicken tacos were anything special, but the shrimp ones above were very tasty because of the salty flesh. I also liked the tomatillo salsa here the best because it’s blended with avocado like in San Francisco, home of taco supremacy. The salsa fresca wasn’t as fresca as Burrito Revolucion, the yogurt salsa is just a bit weird, and the fresca and tomatillo ones were a little too salty the second night I was here). The vinaigrette on the side salad that accompanies (you get a choice of tortilla chips or salad) was good, but who cares about vinaigrettes at a taco place? Me. That’s who. Because sometimes you want your three tortillas to come with something that makes the plate look full. Like you’re getting your money’s worth, which for $12 for three tacos, I felt like I was. You can’t order à la carte or mix and match your three tacos, though, which is a definite downside.

Burrito Revolucion: Best make-your-own taco

3532 Notre-Dame West
Hours: 11am-10pm Sun-Wed, 11am-11pm Thurs-Sat 
Cost: About $10+ tax for a small burrito or burrito bowl (both of which are actually very big) or two tacos (not so big); $12 for Nordic shrimp ceviche
438-386-6696

See that rice in the taco? Weird, right? This place is known for its burrito bowls, so when you come up to the counter you have to say what “base” you want in your flour (for burritos) or corn (for tacos) tortilla: pinto beans, black bean, white rice or Mexican rice. My fellow crawler didn’t want beans in his taco so he went for rice, which would be normal in a burrito but looks a bit strange in a taco. Still tasted fine. The highlights of these tacos, though, were the fact that you could load them up with pretty much anything from the counter display, including lettuce, tomato, pickled onions and a bunch of different salsas (guacamole was extra). These are the grilled fish tacos. They were actually really delicious. The fish doesn’t taste like much covered in all that sauce but the texture is silky and miraculously not overcooked. It’s also not breaded and deep-fried, which is important for gluten free-ers. The tomatillo salsa was salty but was made with fresh tomatillos and looks pretty, right?

If this were a ceviche crawl, Burrito Revolucion would win. Partly because its Nordic shrimp ceviche is sustainable, partly because it’s addictively salty (in a good way, not in a tomatillo way) and partly because none of the other taco places had ceviche (Le Tequila Bar doesn’t Thursday-Saturday, I believe, but I never went there on those days and threw my arms in the air in frustration both times they told me it wasn’t available). But just look at that bowl! There’s a whole basil coulis thing going on over a bed of homemade, super comforting black beans, Mexican rice (no Maggi cubes here, thank goodness), salsa fresca, pickled onions, lettuce, cilantro and juicy little local shrimps in lime juice.

Best margarita: Le Tequila Bar

We had the spice-rimmed version and the baller version here and both were delicious. They both use homemade margarita mix instead of commercial junk and the spicy version uses Triple Sec (and comes with cucumber) while the more expensive version uses Grand Marnier. I liked the spicy version for the burning, but the Grand Marnier was definitely smoother. You can also get it with your Tequila of choice from the extensive list, but it’ll cost you extra. Worth it for less of a headache post-crawl.

Overall Winner: We all disagreed!

I like Tacos Victor the best because of the different textures, the filling portion for the money and those awesome shrimp. But my friend who didn’t load up on cucumber or radishes and doesn’t like spice (so didn’t take any salsa), thought it was a rip-off. She and another crawlers preferred Café Frida because it’s quaint and good for the price. If I was going out for drinks with people, I’d go to Le Tequila Bar (next time on a day when they’re serving ceviche…) and for a quick, solo fill-me-up, Burrito Revolucion. There’s a time and a place for almost every taco, it seems.

 

Café Frida

Burrito Revolucion