Disclaimer: In light of COVID-19, I just wanted to say that I am doing my part and social distancing. This is a review based on contact-less delivery.

I know that you may want to go out and have fun, but it is crucial that we distance ourselves to slow the spread of the virus and flatten the curve before it gets worse. Yes, you may feel fine but you could be passing on the virus to someone who is immunocompromised or elderly that may not survive this virus.

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For the fiance’s birthday, we had plans to go out for dinner but coronavirus said otherwise! Sal Y Limon is one of the fiance’s favourite restaurants, so we ordered delivery here instead and he was very happy with it.

I wrote a review on Sal Y Limon three years ago when we first tried this place, so I thought I’d write a revisit post. We’ve been here countless times since my first post!

Pierna: The pierna is the slow roasted pulled pork burrito, and the fiance’s go-to burrito. The burrito came jam packed with tender seasoned pulled pork, rice, beans, cabbage, jalapeno, sour cream, and aioli. It was delicious as usual!

Shrimp burrito: For myself, I ordered the shrimp burrito! I’ve ordered this in the past many times, and it is consistently delicious. Again, the burrito was jam packed and bursting with deep fried shrimp, rice, beans, cabbage, jalapeno, and aioli. The menu said that sour cream is also included, but I couldn’t taste any.

The deep fried shrimp in the burrito was fresh and crunchy as well! Meanwhile, the shrimp itself had a snappy bite to it and wasn’t overcooked.

Fish burrito: The fiance also ordered another burrito for the next day, because why not? After the pierna burrito, the fish burrito is his second favourite. The fish is deep fried with a black pepper batter.

Sal Y Limon is consistently delicious and very filling. It is a decent spot to get your Mexican craving fixed. The tacos are really good here as well! When this whole pandemic is over, I would recommend getting take out or delivery still because it gets quite busy here, and it is hard to find seating as you have to seat yourself.

Brown Bites is a new mini series on my blog featuring places the boyfriend has tried without me, so it wouldn’t be my own review. Why the name Brown, you ask? It is named after the Japanese LINE character, Brown. Brown is a cute, shy, emotionless cartoon bear but secretly full of love, and we adore him to pieces! 

One day for lunch, the boyfriend came across Patron Tacos and Cantina. After passing by a second time, he decided to go and satisfy his burrito craving and to see if it was any good.

Patron Tacos and Cantina is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver. It was quite busy and lively during the lunch rush, but he was able to find a spot after ordering and paying at the front.

Chips: While he waited for his burrito, they gave him some free tortilla chips and salsa! They were a nice snack for him to munch on and made the wait feel a bit shorter.

Beef burrito, $16.80: The burrito was more expensive than what we’re both used to, but that is to be expected due to the central location of the restaurant.

It was a pretty filling burrito, but he has had better, taste and price-wise. For the price, it didn’t feel worth it. To compare, the burritos at Sal Y Limon are about $10 and more flavourful. The burrito we had at Vallartas was at the same price point as Patron, but Vallartas already included guac and was much larger.

Overall, he was quite excited to possibly have another delicious Mexican restaurant to go to, but the price was not worth it. There are other places in the city which are tastier and cheaper, but Patron is a good option if you’re in the area and wanting some Mexican food.

But, it has a lively and fun atmosphere so come here if you’re looking for that!

Meh.

 

Back in the summer while planning a catchup with J, she suggested that we go to Bandidas Taqueria. Bandidas is one of her favourite restaurants in Vancouver, and she is not a vegetarian/vegan either!

Bandidas also seems like it is one of the staple and classic restaurants along Commercial Drive. I’m always down to try new places for my blog, so off we went one summer evening.

Almond horchata: I’ve had horchata at 3 different restaurants now (Sal Y Limon, Vallarta’s, and now Bandidas), and have noticed that each restaurant has it’s own spin on horchata. So, I’m not too sure what traditional horchata is supposed to taste like at this rate, but I ain’t complaining because it’s been delicious at all three places so far.

I didn’t want too much milk because I never know how my stomach will react to it, so it was a safer choice to get the almond milk. It was not as creamy which was expected, but there was still the familiar cinnamon and other various spices in there. There was a lot of ice which took away from the value of the drink, so I would recommend getting it with less ice (for better value and flavour).

Mix and match tacos: The first plate of tacos – I can’t remember or distinguish who’s plate this was. Also, I don’t remember which tacos I ordered. However, I will say that they were enjoyable and tasty even without meat. I can tell why J likes coming here as a non-vegetarian!

They were quite full when you wrap it up, and it got a bit messy. But no regrets.

Mix and match tacos: The second plate of tacos. J has 3 go-to taco types here, which she ordered.

If you’re a fan of vegetarian or vegan food, I would recommend checking out Bandidas. They have a great and unique selection of tacos, and also other Mexican food.

The one thing I did not like was the service. The staff were giving off a pretentious vibe and were also standoffish. It was a struggle to order, ask for more water, and get the bill. So, you have been warned if you come here! J has also mentioned that the only thing she doesn’t like about this place is the service.

Yay for the food, nay for the service.

The boyfriend and I were feeling adventurous one weekend, and wanted to try some new restaurants. After trying Basil Garden, we saw an inconspicuous Mexican restaurant next door named Vallarta’s, which we have not noticed before.

We decided to try it for dinner the next day!

To be honest, I was a bit hesitant and started to regret it after we sat down and ordered. For a Saturday night, it was absolutely quiet and we were the only customers… I was really hoping we wouldn’t get food poisoning.
As well, the lady did not understand much English so when we asked for less spicy she didn’t know what we meant. So we decided to just say nevermind and go with full spice.

Horchata: Horchata is a Mexican drink made with water, milk, rice, sesame, cinnamon and other various spices. The boyfriend and some friends tried it once at Sal Y Limon and said it reminded them of drinking the milk after having Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.

Compared to Sal Y Limon, this horchata was a lot less sweet and more nutty. It has a strong sesame taste to it. This proved to be helpful with the spicy tomato sauce later on.
Beef burrito, $14.50: The beef burrito was absolutely ginourmous. It came slathered with a spicy tomato sauce and melted cheese on top.

Inside, the beef cubes were very flavorful and delicious! The burrito was really delicious and different than your usual burrito. We would definitely get this again.

Hand comparison for the burrito! HALF of the burrito is the size of my hand!!! =O
Chicken enchilada, $16.50: Our first time trying enchiladas! We weren’t sure what to expect other than reading descriptions from Google.

The enchiladas came slathered with the same spicy tomato sauce. It was delicious. The chicken was seasoned and very tender.

The side of rice was also nice and fluffy with some herb flavor. As well, the free guacamole on the side was very fresh although some bites were very spicy, if you had a spoonful with jalapeno seeds.
Tortilla soup, $10: Our first tortilla soup! I read a review with this soup which said it was good, so we wanted to try it too.

It was essentially a chicken broth soup with tortilla and avocado inside. I’ve never had avocado in soup so it was a cool experience! I didn’t really like the tortilla inside because it got very soggy.

Half way done the bowl, we discovered that there was melted cheese and shredded chicken on the bottom! It’s like Christmas came early haha!

We ended up packing half the burrito home. I was quite shocked because the boyfriend has a huge appetite for burritos, but this one was just huge (to compare, he can easily eat two burritos at Sal Y Limon).

I’m really glad we tried this place! It deserves more recognition because the food is delicious. I noticed a Door Dash guy come in so perhaps we will get delivery someone! (Update: We ordered take out and it was just as delicious).

It was Fairy Bread’s birthday last month, and a taco celebration was in store! Seeing as her and my other friends always rave about Tacofino, I was quite excited to finally try it and came with super high expectations! As well, Tacofino is just super popular in Vancouver and I’ve heard nothing but amazing things about it.
The boyfriend, myself and Jerky have never been here before… so after parking, we got a bit lost and almost wandered into a questionable alley. We saw a taco sign and actually ended up stumbling in through the back. Actually we weren’t even sure that we were at the right place, because we didn’t see any signage and the menus said “Tacobar” LOL.
Sadly, many of the items had dairy in it so I couldn’t enjoy the flavours to its full potential. That was probably one of the reasons I thought it was just okay.

Even though we had a party of 8, I only took photos of what I ate because I didn’t want to reach around everyone’s food to take a photo. That, and this post would be wayyy too long!
Steak taco, $7: The steak taco came with grilled Wagyu steak, pickled chayote, pineapple, and some sort of mayo sauce. The boyfriend was a bit reluctant to order this because Wagyu beef is normally $150+ per piece, so he wasn’t sure how good the quality of their Wagyu steak was. I should have listened to him because the steak was pretty dry and bland. The only thing that saved this dish was the sweet pineapple and mayo concoction.
Pork al pastor, $6: This taco came with spit roasted pork, pineapple, pickled onion, and cilantro. Unlike the steak taco, the pork was juicy and full of seasoned flavour! The pineapple added a nice touch of sweetness. I enjoyed this taco a lot more than the steak.
Wings, $10: The boyfriend and I decided to share some wings as well. The wings came marinated in chili salt and was served with lime and valentina. The batter was a bit alarming because it was so dark, meaning that the oil probably wasn’t that fresh or new. But, it tasted delicious! They were piping hot, juicy crispy, and crunchy.

I’m a bit sad that I couldn’t try the fish taco, I was told that the fish came breaded in a dairy batter. As well, I’ve heard really great things about the albacore tuna taco, so my friend was quite disappointed that the Gastown location didn’t have it!

Although I finally tried Tacofino, I don’t feel like I really tried it without trying those two signature and raved about items. I would love to go to the Hastings & Nanaimo location to try the albacore tuna taco. If I end up going there, I will be sure to update this blog post!

Perhaps it was too overhyped with everyone talking about it and not ordering the right items, but I found it to be just okay and would only go back if I found myself in Gastown and hungry. But everyone else in the world seems to love this place, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Meh…