Toloache Mexican Kitchen

It goes without saying that we have a lack of good Mexican restaurants in town.  In fact, many people in the Lower Mainland head across the border just to get some good tacos.  Shockingly, I'm not even referring to the Mexican border, I mean the US border!  Literally, there are great taco trucks in Bellingham that are better than the things we get here (and cheaper!).  However, we have some hope where I've had some good Mexican in town.  One of the newest is Toloache Mexican Kitchen in Downtown.  Brought to you by the same people at Maizel, Toloache offers something that I've not seen before in town, an AYCE Mexican brunch.  Jackie and I dropped by to see what it was all about.

Looking over the setup, it was pretty clear to me that they wanted to cover all the bases and offer up something substantial.  That started with their selection of meats.  They included Beef Ribs in Green Mole, Dark Mole with Chicken, Lamb Birria, Chorizo with Potatoes, Cochinita Pibil and Carnitas.  For me, I really enjoyed the birria as the meat was super tender with the fall flavours of cloves and cinnamon.  There was birria dip on the side too.  The ribs were quite tender and the green mole definitely tasted like its colour.  It was was bright and herbaceous while being creamy.  The dark mole also exhibited rich fall flavours but added some background bitterness and earthiness.  I found the chicken also to be quite moist.  If you wanted something richer, the cochinita pibil incorporated some fattier pork and had some citrus and spice.

Of course you can't eat these meats alone (well, you can), so adjacent to the meats, we found salsas, condiments, soft tortillas, tostadas and buns.  In addition, we found Shrimp Aguachile and Nopales.  I enjoyed the shrimp as they were delicate with a minor snap.  They were sweet and took on the spice of the green chilies.  The cactus was surprisingly non-slimy, which was texturally appealing.

So we could get full just eating the meats and making tacos, tostadas and mini-tortas, but there was a good selection of other dishes that included Huitlacoche, Garlic Mushrooms, Pork Tamales, Red Sauce Chicharron, Chilaquiles (Red and Green Sauce), Scrambled Eggs, Poached Eggs with Salsa, Poblano Rajas with Cream and Refried Beans.

The best item from this aforementioned dishes was the huitlacoche.  You don't find this dish normally anywhere and since it is a fungus that feeds on corn, I guess it isn't appealing to many.  I liked it and it was earthy and sweet.  Interestingly, I also liked the poached egg in salsa.  It was perfectly runny with a mild red sauce that was tomatoey.  The chilaquiles were pretty good with lots of cheese and sauce.  I preferred the red sauce due to it being just a bit more flavourful.  The tamales were tasty too with soft masa filled with pork and red sauce.

There were several drinks included with the buffet including Hibiscus, Passionfruit and Horchata.  I liked the passionfruit as it was fruity and tropical.  You can also go ahead and order some alcoholic drinks too (at an extra charge of course), including a Michelada which is a Mexican Bloody Mary where you add beer to it (hence the Corona).  Also, brunch screams out for Mimosas, and they got that too.

At the entrance of the restaurant, we found a fairly large Dessert selection.  It was a mish-mash of Mexican sweets along with Costco things.  For the non-Mexican desserts, we had cookies, coffee cake, donuts, sheet cake, toffee crunch, banana bread, mini-danish and palmiers. Mexican representation for this section featured Conchas.  We also had a selection of fruit featuring watermelon, cantaloupe, pineapple and grapes.  

The pre-packaged stuff was as expected and nothing to complain about, but I really want to talk about the conchas as they were colourful and pleasantly-sweet.  Rounding the corner, we had some more Mexican treats in the form of Churros, Tres Leches and Flan de Queso.  We found the churros to be a bit dense, but still crunchy. With the addition of cream cheese, the flan was extra rich and creamy.  This was so delicious with a caramel finish.  The tres leches was moist and sweet.  We enjoyed that too.  Overall, for $39.50, this brunch had enough substance to make it worth the money.  You won't go hungry and there is enough choice to keep things interesting.  Love that they include drinks as well.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post

The Good:
- Lots of choice
- Delicious
- Something different

The Bad:
- Should focus on their delicious Mexican desserts and get rid of the other stuff