El Taco De Oro and La Latina – authentic Mexican fare right here in Lowertown
By Dave Bowen
It may seem like a given, one of those things that’s always been around, but there remains an ongoing debate about the origins of Taco Tuesdays. Luckily for us, we needn’t worry about the history and can just take advantage of the offerings at El Taco De Oro, our local taqueria. According to co-owner Valeria, this family-owned restaurant not only has the most affordable tacos in the city, but also the best tasting.
El Taco De Oro (the Golden Taco in English) at 303 St. Patrick Street has been owned by the family since 2019, after they took over the space that had previously been Angelos Pizza. The two-storey building is a relatively new addition to the neighbourhood compared to the buildings around it, built in the early 1960s, with an apartment on the second level. It has hosted a series of pizza restaurants since then, and because there’s a giant pizza oven in the kitchen that’s not going anywhere, they still offer pizza along with the Mexican fare.
Valeria had been working at another restaurant as a student at Carleton University and while looking for extra hours ended up filling in for a bartender at Angelos. She stayed on and a few months later the opportunity arose for Val and her family to take over the lease. Before moving to Montreal in 2006, her father had managed traditional restaurants in Mexico City, so it was a natural fit. It is now a family operation, with her father in the kitchen, her brother in the front of the house, mother taking care of the paperwork, and Val managing it all.
While tacos are a favourite, especially on Tuesdays, their menu incudes traditional dishes not commonly found elsewhere. The big kitchen allows them to offer a broad menu with a wide variety of ingredients, with some dishes that can’t be found elsewhere. The best example is Molcajete Cielo Mar y Tierra, prepared and served using a traditional volcanic rock mortar, and including octopus, shrimp, chorizo, cactus, and jalapenos among the delicacies that make up the dish. If it’s spicy heat you’re looking for, you’ll find that too – as one local patron puts it, “their hot sauce is no joke.”
To prepare these dishes means having some fairly unique ingredients on hand, and the family started getting requests to sell to those who wanted to cook with them at home. That led to the opening of La Latina, a specialty store on Dalhousie that offers Latin American foods, spices, salsas, and other items you wouldn’t find in other stores in the area.
While they do get a lot of drop-in visits, most of their regulars are locals, many of whom have experienced traditional Mexican dishes while working or travelling abroad and are happy to have found somewhere close by to enjoy the same flavours. The restaurant has become a place for special occasions, with weddings, birthdays, gender reveal parties, and bachelorettes all being celebrated over the years.
