Restaurant: El Trompo Taco Bar
Location: 277 Augusta Ave, Toronto, ON M5T 2M1
Price Range: $$
[wp-review]
Located in Kensington Market, El Trompo is a popular Mexican restaurant that has been consistently rated as one of the Best Mexican Restaurants in Toronto. Coming here for brunch on a Saturday, the patio was packed with customers and a little bit cramped, thus you should get here really early as there was a line up by the time I left.
Other than the patio, the inside of the restaurant was tiny and at best it can sit around 20 people.
Personally the drink was a tad too sweet for me but the flavor was really interesting! The horchata was milky, had a nutty taste and a hint of cinnamon. It was the perfect refreshing drink for a hot summer day so I recommend getting this!
So the reason why C wanted to go to El Trompo was for their Corn Truffle/Corn Smut/Huitlacoche, which is essentially a fungus and supposedly it’s very nutritious. Check here for a detailed description of what is a huitlacoche, and I don’t recommend you guys to search up for the picture of it lol.. This is my first time having this dish so I didn’t know what kind of flavors to expect. To be honest it tasted like a very earthy mushroom and the texture was a bit mushy, but I didn’t think the flavor was mind-blowing. C said it was decent but not as good as the one she had in New York.
My favorite! There were nice chunks of fish in the taco and they were cooked perfectly, not oily and it didn’t have too much batter either. Though the fish was a bit too salty for my taste, the spicy signature sauce overpowered the dish but that’s why there were fresh pico de gallo and lemon juice to help :).
You get 5 tacos for $10 which I think was a great value! Unfortunately the pork was really dry and bland so I inquired the server, which resulted into me receiving a glare from her and she dropped (literally dropped) the new order onto our table without saying anything. The new ones were incredibly fresh, pork meat was juicy and had good spices. The taco as a whole was not too spicy as the fish taco and the pineapple helped to ease the heat. Unfortunately while the taco shell was freshly made, it fell apart while I tried to eat :(.
While El Trompo has been one of the better Mexican restaurants I been to in Toronto, I felt there was something missing with the food and the price was a bit too expensive for what it was. Depends on how hungry you are, it’s really easy to spend more than $20 for snack-sized portions. Other than the glare I got from the server, the service was just average and honestly I think they just wanted customers to finish and get out of the restaurant quickly. Would I come back? Maybe if I’m in the area and my quest for authentic Mexican cuisine shall continue!