Mary in Vancity

El Taco has three locations in BC: Davie St in Vancouver, White Rock and Nelson BC.

This was one of the original taco joints in Vancouver. They opened their Davie St. location in 2006. Committed to good environmental practices, they use  green packaging for their food.  They choose suppliers who are local and community-based wherever possible.

The food here is pretty tasty and fairly original. And cheap! Most meals are under $10. They have decent portions. We started with the nachos. For $11.50, this dish had plenty of toppings. Beans, jalapenos, cheese, pico de gallo, sour cream and guacamole. Pretty tasty way to start our meal.

Chicken Chilaquiles were next on the menu – tortilla strips in a roasted tomato sauce with chicken, covered with cheese, guacamole, tomatoes and sour cream… yummy. Each platter comes with spanish rice and beans, for $8.95 you can’t go wrong.

My favourite part of my meal was dessert – I had the flan. Holy cow – I was in Mexican custard heaven. Flan has a tendency to be a tad runny, but this one was thick and creamy and delicious. With a hint of orange. It was fantastic and an excellent way to end our meal!

I think that the food at El Taco is pretty good and also fairly authentic, but I gotta say, with places like Salsa and Agave and La Taqueria raising the bar, restaurants like this can’t rest on their laurels. They might’ve been the spot to go to for Mexican food back in the day, but not anymore. There are a lot of excellent Mexican food restaurants in Vancouver now, and we have more options than ever before.

That being said, they have a good menu, and their food is very, very affordable. There were five of us for dinner and our bill came to about $60. That’s unheard of in Vancouver.