Grand Electric, A taco fiesta with a hipster twist.
December 18th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
My buddy David has been dying to check out this new place since it opened…reviews have been good and apparently line ups are pretty intense if you don’t arrive before 7pm, otherwise it can potentially be a very long 2hr waiting list.
Bff and I decided to meet up around 4ish to grab some Nadege and then make our way over to Grand Electric to grab seats. Just as we were beginning our journey it was side tracked via shitty TTC as one street cart broke down, meaning we weren’t going to be able to ride the cart to where we needed to go. So we decided to walk as far as we could…our starting point was from Osgoode subway station to far Queen West.
With wind chills hitting our faces at -12, we never looked more Chinese in our lives, with our mouths cringing and eyes squinting at the bitter cold…the walk seemed pretty damn impossible, but my encouraging words (not really) gave Jackie hope and so our frozen toes trekked onward.
It was pretty hilarious, the adventure took forever, roughly every 5-7 minutes we couldn’t stand the cold and ran into whatever store was in sight…to absorb as much heat as we could and went back outside to continue. We did check out some stores we never been to before so the walk wasn’t too too bad, though when the street carts were finally running back up, temptation to catch the cart struck our cold brains pretty often.
We finally made it to Nadege, like 1.5 hours later…we grabbed a pepito croissant (delicious) and some mini madelines and walked onward to find the next Starbucks to get a latte.
Finally, it was time to head out to the restaurant and yes we took the street cart our toes couldn’t take it anymore, we had enough…we saw the street cart and waved that driver down like it we were on the sinking Titanic and he was our savior.
The place is very small, I don’t think it can even hold any more than 30 patrons…it has a very thrown together design but it seemed to work, very hipstery but alas I am in their territory, at least me and Jackie mesh in with everyone else me thinks.
Luckily for us, we did get the last big table situated right by the window. It was a nice spot until people start opening doors…
While we were waiting for the boys to arrive, we ordered Guacamole & chips, delicious and simple a good app to start.
Dave ordered some beer and a weird egg white bourbon sour cocktail, it was really strong otherwise tasty.
Let us move onto the main event…tacos!!! Grand electric sells fancy tacos for a very reasonable and good price. $3.50 each or 3 for $10. We ordered 3 of each off the menu :)
Fish taco
Pork and pineapple
Beef cheek
Spicy chicken
I’m not going to review each taco on their own because well…they are all fantastic..!!! I have no complaints what so ever with any of the tacos, all the meats were nicely flavoured, juicy and tender. These 3-4 bite (for a girl) tacos are sooooo delicious, I will definitely return for just the tacos.
The tacos are a bit small, but it will add up if you have one of each 4 tacos can definitely fill my tummy and easy on my wallet.
Shrimp Tostada, a citrus and creamy the shrimp is raw-ish and fresh so it leaves you without a fishy aftertaste.
Tuna Cheviche a tuna tartar dish where the raw fish is soaked in a vinegary lime juice that cooks it slightly. While we were having those spicy chicken tacos, we cooled down our palettes with this refreshing dish.
Pozole Rojo $12
So far everything is fantastic, no complaints…except this dish. The soup was bland and had no interesting kick to it, kinda reminded me of a watered down korean kamjatang, which while I was having this soup…really made me craved for some pork bone soup. I would not order this dish again.
This little pie in a jar was the finisher to our meal, of course it was a lime themed dessert, very refreshing and sweet, we were way too full to have our own individual desserts and having one spoonful each was perfect.
The bill for the night was very reasonable, we had our fill and the staff were all very friendly. The food came quickly and music was all over the place but it suited the place anyway.
Oh a funny of the night, since we were right by the window, we were graced with watching the many patrons struggle and be baffled by the door entrance. The door is a PUSH in, but trickery lies in the design as it has a long vertical bar that people will naturally assume it would be a pull to open. So after a few frustrated pulls, people think the restaurant might even be closed…but eventually their brain starts working and they decide to try another option and push their way through. haha.
Anyways, I want to go back already…I really wish they had lunch hours :(
Good Afternoon Scott
November 8th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
Walking around Queen street west sunday afternoon, this was my favorite photo of the day…actually I think this is the first image I shot while we were outside…the flare gave the photo a grainy and retro kind of feel to it.
My test subject only likes to be photographed when in the mood apparently (was not in the mood). I took them anyways hehe.
