Restaurant review – Tequila Kitchen (Yaletown)
What can be better than having lunch with a good friend after having accomplished some of your own goals? Well, being treated to lunch by said good friend at a really good (and authentic!) Mexican restaurant. I was working on some of my own stuff at the SFU Belzberg library, and when I asked Rebecca (aka Miss604) if she had plans, she indicated she had none, so we agreed to meet up. Rebecca suggested Tequila Kitchen, which I have to admit, I had my reservations about.
You might recall a guest blog post I wrote for Rebecca summarizing my suggestions for good Mexican food in Vancouver. Tequila Kitchen hadn’t appeared on the food scene yet, so I did not include it there. However, since we were both downtown, and I had promised myself I would try it anyways and Rebecca wanted to try it, we headed there.
First of all, I have to say that one of the things I totally dig about Tequila Kitchen is that I can speak with the owners in Spanish. You’ll wonder why. Well, because when you speak in the same language, you can bring the nuances that you can’t when you speak in English (or any other foreign language). I mentioned to one of the owners that I was a bit scared about authenticity. She smiled at me and said “check the menu and tell me what you think“.
The lunch menu is really good, I got to admit. The names are actually real Mexican food names, and the food is as close as they can get to the real deal. Sure, they used a baguette for my torta de cochinita pibil (pulled pork sandwich), but that’s forgivable. I noticed that they included slices of red onion (which is one of the key elements of the torta de cochinita pibil. Rebecca ordered tacos de pollo (chicken tacos), which were also pretty authentic, and at four tacos per order, fairly decent size. You can upsize your order to a full meal (that includes small bowls of rice, salad and refried black beans) for an extra charge (not too high, $ 4.00).
Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr (for some reason, clicking on the photo doesn’t bring up the actual Flickr link, but you can click here for the original photo on Rebecca’s photo stream).
Admittedly, those who follow the Mexican food scene in Vancouver will unavoidably ask me how does it compare to Cilantro y JalapeNo or DoNa Cata or the other restaurants. The answer is simple – I don’t know (I will be able to tell you when I go there for dinner or lunch). What I do know and can tell you is that I do recommend Tequila Kitchen for authentic Mexican food. The portions are not huge, but I wasn’t hungry after lunch, and I have a fairly decent appetite.
Of course, the highlight of this lunch wasn’t as much the food as much as the company. Lunch with friends rules! Particularly when you can talk about geeky stuff and I think I’m starting to delve in the world of geekiness. I love that, I really do. As I told Rebecca, I have a great appreciation for geeks, and have a tendency to hang out with them (techno-geeks, enviro-geeks, and intellectuals).
Many of you dear readers will know that, in principle, I try to avoid Yaletown. Not because it is not a pretty location, but simply because I find some times it can be a bit pretentious. But Tequila Kitchen is a great restaurant, and the owners are really down-to-earth. I will definitely come back at night, I want to check out their dinner menu. And of course, we can do it a blogger and/or blog-reader evening out!
Spoonback right here 
Related posts:
- Rogue Kitchen and Wet Bar (Waterfront Vancouver)
- May 27th is World Tequila Day
- Restaurant review – Goldfish Pacific Kitchen
- Restaurant review – La Casita (Gastown)
- Restaurant review: Salsa and Agave Mexican Grill (Yaletown)
It was fun, thanks for messaging me
I love Mexican food! And I can’t wait to try it out next Friday with you, Rebecca and whoever else wants to come!
stoked about going with the crew next Friday…good eats and even better company…what could a girl ask for, really?
Sounds fantastic! I love Mexican food too! Sadly, I’m going to be out of town next week for work…but I hope to meet up with everybody soon!
Those tacos look awesome!
Thanks so much for the post about this. We’ll definitely give it a try.
Raul, you may be the only person in Vancouver whose advice on a “good and authentic Mexican restaurant” I can trust without worries.
Thanks for the kind comments, Matt! I’d be more than happy to provide recommendations on restaurants any time
Even better if you and Maktaaq join us for dinner!
see my comment at urban spoon……..im mexican……
How did you like it on Friday night?
Hi Mike,
There were moments when the service got a tiny bit slow, but personally speaking, I liked it. The waitress and the owner of the place were very kind and very attentive, so I can’t complain on those grounds. Now, bear in mind that this past Friday I was exhausted so I only had a cactus pear margarita (which was really good), but my friends seemed happy with their food, and one thing I can tell is that it was very authentic.
That was also one of the things some of my friends weren’t all that impressed with (and somehow understandably). Some of my friends are used to the Tex-Mex, burritos, enchiladas thingies (not authentic) so they were expecting the same kind of food. As I mentioned, it’s in Yaletown so it’s kind of upscale-ish and slightly pricier. I’ve been told that DoNa Cata is also very authentic and less expensive, but I would attribute that to the difference in locations. But I did like it. Like any other new restaurant, they’ll be learning on the go, but they are working really hard and trying to provide as close a experience to a Mexican restaurant as they can. And as I mentioned before, I have no stake in the restaurant (before these two visits, I had never even met the family who owns it).
[...] time I went to a Mexican restaurant, I left really positively impressed. I’m talking about Tequila Kitchen, which I reviewed before here on my blog. After a rather disappointing series of experiences eating out Mexican food, I was almost ready to [...]