El Trompo Taco Bar & Cactus Grill

El Trompo Taco Bar
http://www.eltrompo.ca/menu.html

Food: * (Met expectations)
Service: * (Met expectations)
Ambiance: * (Met expectations)
Recommended: No
Price for 2: $35 (2 apps, 2 mains, 2 drinks)

Honestly, there was nothing offensive about El Trompo. It had a colourful, authentic vibe and an interesting, affordable menu. Our server was also really friendly.

But the food, while being 100% edible, was just not anything worth going back for. Here’s what we tried:

• Chicharron de Queso- described as “crispy grilled cheese-this is not a sandwich”. You know when you cook nachos in the oven and the cheese sometimes melts off the nachos and makes a kind of lacey, crispy thing? That’s what this is.
• Black bean soup– which was heavy on the ham and salt so it was pretty satisfying if you like that kind of thing.
• Tacos al Pastor– a “house specialty”- pork meat on corn tortillas with cilantro, pineapple, and onions. Although the portion size was good (5 tacos) the meat was kind of dry and tough, and the toppings weren’t fresh enough to give it any kind of zing.
• Corn quesadilla with zucchini flowers- nothing noteworthy.
• To drink we had the Tamarindo (a tangy drink made with LOTS of sugar) and the Horchada (much like a little glass of milk that tasted like sweet rice pudding with cinnamon). It was cool to have something a bit different, but both were too sweet for us.

If you have a hankering for average (and I’m thinking pretty authentic) Mexican food, the El Trompo might not be a bad place for you. But I’ll take my dining dollars somewhere else next time.