TACO SHOWDOWN: La Carnita vs. Grand Electric

Alright, so here's the deal. I've clearly been using twitter as my preferred "food blogging" platform these days, but the other night I finally ate at La Carnita after a few months now of frequenting Grand Electric. And seeing as how they're both about tacos and hip-hop, I had to do a comparison. And I can't do that in 140 characters. So now it's time for...

LA CARNITA vs. GRAND ELECTRIC ULTIMATE LUCHA LIBRE SHOWDOWN!!

INTRO

If you need some background on either one, do a little googling and I'm sure blogTO, Toronto Life or The Grid will give you the lowdown.

My personal experience with La Carnita started with their very first pop-up at One Method. I was impressed by the concept and the tacos, but never tried to go again after the hype built. I'm not particularly down with line-ups.

Grand Electric is a 5 minute walk from my place and was put on my radar by djmightymike38. I found out their kitchen features Black Hoof alumni and I've been hooked since, frequenting it pretty often.

Anyway, after about a year of successful pop-ups and building a dedicated twitter following, La Carnita opened a permanent location early last week. I tried it out and here are my first impressions. Keep in mind that this is all based on a thus far limited experience at La Carnita, and a fairly comprehensive one at Grand Electric. I realize my opinion might be skewed and that I have more to explore at La Carnita. Don't worry, I'll be back ;)

Spoils from La Carnita's first pop-up: print 46/100

THE WAIT

Currently, neither resto takes reservations and works on a "come in, leave your number, and we'll call you back" basis. I've gotten pretty accustomed to this from the early days of Local Kitchen and Black Hoof.

When I got to La Carnita, which is in Little Italy, my first impression was that it was huge and had the capacity to serve a lot of people. I thought we might even get seated right away. It was just before 8 pm, peak dinner hours, and the girl told me it was a 45 minute wait. Compared to the average 2 hour wait at Grand Electric I'd experienced in recent months, that sounded just fine. I killed some time shopping down the street (ended up buying something pretty special!)

Grand Electric is in Parkdale. Up to about 2 weeks ago, they had a tiny space which people would line up for starting at 5:30 pm (6 pm open). The first time I attempted going there, they told me it was a 3 hour wait. HOLY DAMN. I didn't end up going that night but eventually learned to expect a 2ish hour wait if I arrived during peak dinner hours. I would give the girl my name, walk back to my place and have a few drinks, and wait for them to call. They have since opened their patio which added 70 seats, and I haven't had to wait so long since then.

The menu on Grand Electric's patio

WINNER: La Carnita. Every visit can be a roll of the dice, but if I had to bet, I'd go with La Carnita if I was pressed for time.

ATMOSPHERE

When the girl at La Carnita called me back after 45 minutes, I walked in to the sounds of "Too Close" by Next. That's my jam baby! The music leans a little more R&B and a little more mainstream. The staff and patrons are young and trying to be trendy. We sat at the bar so I can't comment on the back of the house but from what I can tell it's a nice, rustic-cool space.

The music at Grand Electric is definitely focused on rap and a little more underground. The staff and patrons? Well, it's Parkdale baby. You know what it is. The space is small with a hip, genuine, intimate vibe. I've sat everywhere in there except the bar. The new patio is nice but they don't have speakers out there for blasting dat RAP MUZIK... that's a serious flaw.

WINNER: I'd say this is a tie. Both places are great to bump your head with friends (unless you're on GE's patio). Just depends on your mood and whether you're feeling a little more R&B or a little more rap, really. The volume inside Grand Electric is on the borderline of being too loud to have a conversation, but who really needs to talk when you're eating delicious tacos? Besides, drinking a bunch of bourbon makes me talk a lot louder anyway... Which brings me to the next round...

BOOZE

The cocktail I decided on at La Carnita based purely on name was the Who Shot Ya? It had bourbon in it but I couldn't really tell... it tasted like juice! Tart, fruity, damn good! My dining partner got the Tecate, which is a Mexican beer that tastes like water. Neither of us is into that Coors Light crap so this Tecate seemed disappointing, but it was actually very refreshing for the heat we were about to experience...

Special mention: A section of the drinks menu is dedicated solely to "Baller Champagne" and they serve 40s of Olde English inside paper bags.

As we proceed to give you what you need...

Grand Electric's namesake cocktail is their Grand Electric (bourbon) Sour which is garnished with some spice for a little heat. For something cooler and definitely refreshing there's the Bourbonade (you guessed it, bourbon + lemonade). Both of them are tasty without overpowering the bourbon, so yes they have a nice bite and oh yes, they get you drunk. My dining partner usually gets the Cerveza Monkey, a craft beer from Toronto's own Great Lakes Brewery.

Special mention: They've got a floor-to-ceiling chalkboard menu of bourbon (the brownest of the brown liquors).

What's that? ...You want me to drink you?

WINNER: La Carnita. Just because I loved how the bartender slammed that cocktail in front of me and said "Who Shot Ya?" If you're particularly into beer, champagne or bourbon, you might swing either way.

APPETIZER

We only tried one at La Carnita so we could leave room for a broader taco selection. Our bartender/server convinced us to go with the chiles rellenos, a.k.a. jalapeno poppers. You can't go wrong with fried cheese... it was yummy and not too spicy.

My go-to appetizer at Grand Electric is the Spicy Squid. It's lightly fried calamari in a sweet/spicy sauce and garnished with a LOT of thinly-sliced jalapenos. It reminds me of eating mild hot wings. I friggin love it. I've also had the Beef Crudo Tostada which, in other words, is steak tartare, and quite nice.

WINNER: Grand Electric. I just love that Spicy Squid. La Carnita's chiles rellenos were good, but not as interesting in terms of flavour, presentation, or concept.

TACOS

At La Carnita, we had the fish ("In Cod We Trust"), the Pollo Frito, and the beef tongue (Lengua Tostada). What I noticed right away was that the tortillas at La Carnita are unnecessarily larger than Grand Electric's. I don't need a bite of tortilla with no filling in it. Also, except for the tongue (which was served on a fried tortilla), the tortillas weren't as soft as Grand Electric's, which have a nice, almost al dente bite to them (steaming process perhaps?).

The next thing I noticed at La Carnita, was that my mouth was on fire. So I guess that's authentic Mexican. But damn. It was actually so bad that I couldn't finish 2 of my tacos and wasn't sure if I could eat anymore at all. THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN TO ME, OK? I'm a born and raised plate-finisher, so that was a little traumatizing. It was so hot I couldn't really appreciate the flavour profile of the tacos. I guess I'm just a wimp :P But luckily I found that a few glugs of my dining partner's Tecate eventually cooled the fire.

I've had all the tacos at Grand Electric: the Baja Fish, Beef Cheek, Pork Belly, Pig Tail, Arbol Chicken, and Pork Barbacoa (special). I love them all but the fish and beef cheek are my favourite. The fish is legitimately off the hook, and compared to La Carnita's fish I'd say it's lighter and more melt-in-your-mouth. The beef cheek is sweet and tender (pro tip I got on my first visit: put the red sauce in the little bottle on it). The barbacoa is awesome too when they have it. My least favourite would be the chicken, not that it's bad, it's flavour profile is just not as interesting as the others. You see a touch of Black Hoof's offal influence in the tail, cheek and belly. And something that I now really appreciate: heat is optional. If you like it hot, you can add the green sauce or the caramelized onion/peppers concoction they have for condiments on each table.

WINNER: Grand Electric all the way. I've loved (and demolished) every bite of every taco I've ever had there. And Baja Fish rules all. ALL, I tell you. I didn't like the texture of the tongue at La Carnita (my fave tongue comes from Black Hoof where they shave it super thin like pastrami, transforming the tongue completely from chewy to tender). I found their Pollo Frito to be overcooked as well. It might've been a somewhat closer call though, if I could take the heat at La Carnita and appreciate any subtleties in their flavours.

DESSERT

Ok, so I read a lot of tweets hyping up the churros at La Carnita as the bomb $h!t, with people raving about how they would drink the cajeta that it's served with, if they could. I ordered them (10 minute wait as they're made to order - no problem) and they were very good, with a great cinnamon to sugar ratio, BUT...

Grand Electric used to have bomb churros that were actually FILLED with cajeta. They were SO GOOD. Not as much cinnamon, but hello? FILLED. WITH. CAJETA. By comparison, La Carnita's serving of cajeta was a little wimpy. Unfortunately, Grand Electric has since taken churros off the menu. I asked why and they said it was the most labor-intensive thing that they had. They were so worth it though! They still offer desserts in the form of basically little pudding jars in "key lime" and "chocolate & pecans" flavours. Nice, but ain't no churros.

WINNER: La Carnita. It's all about churros, and if Grand Electric still had their sexy-ass version of them, they would've won. But because they no longer offer churros, La Carnita wins by default.

PRICE + TAKE-HOME

Tacos are $5 each at La Carnita and if you ate 3 you'd probably feel well fed after that. When you receive your bill, you also get a limited edition art print, staying true to their roots of pop-up art + food.

Print 235/5000

Tacos are $3.50 each at Grand Electric and if you ate 3 you wouldn't be hungry but you could probably go for 1 more. When you receive your bill at Grand Electric, you receive a loteria card. I didn't know what this was and actually didn't pay attention to it until the 2nd time around when I realized I got a different card from my previous visit. So I googled it. Loteria is basically Mexican bingo. You can also do readings with them, similar to Tarot cards.

The bottle, the spider, the moon, the brave one.

WINNER: Tie. The taco prices are comparable but for the same $$ I'd rather have Grand Electric's. However, La Carnita's art prints are fucking cool.

OVERALL VERDICT

I enjoyed both restaurants, but when it comes down to what's most important - the food - my pick for overall winner is Grand Electric. Like I said previously, this is my initial reaction, and I will be returning to La Carnita to get an even better feel for their menu and space. But for now, I'm feeling GE is OG.

Ok, La Carnita, we get it... maybe you're trying a little too hard?

All in all, you WILL do yourself a favour by checking out either one of these places. Grand Electric gets more love from me though, especially because it's in my hood.

- LV