Hum: In search of the best tacos at five Ottawa taco eateries

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Whoever came up with “Taco Tuesday” underestimated me.

My love of exceptional tacos is a seven-day-a-week thing. Last week, I went out for tacos on Wednesday, Thursday and twice on Friday. This week, I went out on Tuesday, albeit to a place where there was no Tuesday discount.

I am still not sick of tacos.

That is, provided that they’re great. Not all tacos are flavour-packed, fresh-tasting, meaningfully garnished and, in a word, interesting. But some real winners in Ottawa tick off all the boxes. I will keep on craving these tacos no matter how many I’ve had.

Below is a rundown of my recent, far from exhaustive taco tour, which mostly follows a west-to-east route, saving the best for last. I made stops from Kanata to Orléans and at three seasonally operated trucks or stands that I expect will close later this fall.

It’s worth braving construction-choked Hazeldean Road in Kanata to visit Ay Dios Mio Tacos to get a jerk chicken taco or two.

Yes, this Caribbean-influenced taco on a flour tortilla is far from traditional. But I’m a sucker for jerk-seasoned chicken’s mix of earthy, savoury flavours and heat (the latter, though, is not that incendiary). Plus, owner-operator Jamie Feres, a seasoned Ottawa restaurant cook, serves chicken that is also delectably charred and nicely accompanied by cabbage, mango and cucumber.

Of five other tacos on the menu, we tried two. The Baja fish taco let us down with bland breaded cod. The quesabirria taco was a commendable example of that shredded-beef-plus-melted-cheese favourite and it came with an alright container of consommé for dipping.

For my quesabirria fix, I frequent Que Pasa Tacos, a hole-in-the-wall, takeout-focused eatery in a Carling Avenue strip mall just west of Woodroffe Avenue.

Quesabirria tacos here feel more deluxe, garnished with lots of raw onion, cilantro and a seam of guacamole. Above all, they’re indulgently beefy and cheesy, and the dipping consommé tastes special enough to sway me to order the three quesabirria tacos ($18) required to have consommé thrown in.

Fiesta & Tequila on Preston Street opened less than a year ago, where Eldorado Taco had been. The extensively renovated, 80-seat eatery has the most extensive menu of the eateries considered today, including 20 tacos of which 11 are vegetarian. It also had the swiftest service and is licensed, with a focus on tequila. During my two visits, we received all our dishes even before our straightforward but well-made tequila-based cocktails had arrived.

Here, tacos were generously portioned and solidly made, if toned down spice-wise for Canadian palates. However, a cart generously stocked with salsas made by owner Raquel Ireta will supply as much smokiness, depth and stinging heat as you could want.

Tops here, in part because it’s little-seen in Ottawa, was the lamb birria taco, with long-stewed, super-tender meat that represents the preference for lamb birria over beef seen in Southern Mexico, Ireta says. There’s also a fine lamb birria soup to had here, and quesabirria tacos made with lamb and a lamb-stock dipping consommé studded with chickpeas.

Also standing out here were two chicken tacos made with persuasively flavoured moles, one with a chocolatey-spicy Oaxacan mole and the other with a bright mole verde. Full-sized chicken mole main courses are also available from the non-taco side of the menu.

I drove to Orléans, through the slow-motion agony that is the Queensway, to try La Ha Tacos. I’m glad that I did.

Here, tacos are sold in threes and you can do a ridiculous amount of customization to them or just let owner-operator Jay Wing garnish as per the details on his menu.

Best was Wing’s untraditional pork belly taco loaded with fatty, crispy, tasty meat and pleasingly garnished with hoisin sauce — Say what? — and diced tomatoes. Wing’s chicken taco was better than most, thanks to well-considered seasoning and meat that had not gone too dry. His breaded haddock taco was juicy but also more low-key flavour-wise.

With our tacos came corn chips fried and salted to order and mild, lightly sweet house-made salsa. Both attest to Wing’s admirable do-it-yourself ethos.

Last and the opposite of least, there’s Yakko Takko in Hintonburg. The stand owned and operated by veteran chef Roberto Reyes made taco after taco that blew me away, despite some caveats.

First, Reyes’ tacos are a little more expensive ($8 each) and take longer to make. I’ve waited as long as 35 minutes for several tacos, given orders ahead of me and Reyes’ real-time flat-top frying and garnish prep.

Also, his hearty, fully loaded tacos, bulked up with rice and beans, were tricky to eat. Fortunately, Reyes provides disposable forks so that you can graze off the tacos before trying to eat them with your hands. Even then, your hands will be oily and saucy, and bits of meat or garnish will land on your plate, not in your mouth. If you bring a date to Yakko Takko, bring someone who likes you enough to watch you eat inelegantly, seated on the most basic of outdoor furniture.

Finally, Reyes only accepts cash before he starts cooking. At least there’s an ATM in a nearby gas station.

But more often than not, Yakko Takko tacos made me involuntarily widen my eyes and say “Wow,” definitely justifying any drawbacks to eating there.

Reyes’ fish and shrimp tacos were blessed with succulent, juicy, well-seasoned seafood and loaded with accoutrements. Best in the city in their category? Almost certainly.

Reyes’ barbacoa (pulled beef shoulder) taco, garnished simply with onions and cilantro, brimmed with sumptuous beefiness. Another best in the city? Most surely.

While chicken tacos tend to be dry and boring elsewhere, the flavourful pollo asado and pollo pibil tacos are definitely worth having at Yakko Takko.

A final warning: When Reyes asks how spicy you want your tacos (or burritos, or tostadas, or quesadillas) on a scale of one to 10, he means it. Level-five tacos felt like sevens or eights to me. Level-two tacos were absolutely delicious, not lacking for anything.

I’ve also had excellent cinnamon-dusted horchata, the Mexican rice-based drink, when Reyes hasn’t run out.

I knew Reyes had gone to culinary school in Ottawa, graduating in 2007 from Le Cordon Bleu Ottawa Culinary Arts Institute in Sandy Hill. I learned this week that he’s a culinary veteran of 30 years who cooked in hotels in his native Mexico City and even specialized in Italian food.

All that culinary savvy and experience must explain Reyes’ superior tacos. Or, simpler than that, it’s as Reyes says: “I’m from Mexico City. I know what tacos should taste like.”

phum@postmedia.com

Ay Dios Mio Tacos

462 Hazeldean Rd. (outside Kunstadt Sports), instagram.com/aydiosmiotacos_kanata

Open: Tuesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., closed Monday
Price: Most tacos are one for $6, two for $11, three for $15.75 and four or more for $5 each

Fiesta & Tequila

170 Preston St., fiestaandtequila.com

Open: Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Monday

Price: $20 for three tacos, $33 for six tacos, $39 all-you-can-eat tacos on Tuesdays

La Ha Tacos

3746 Innes Rd., lahatacos.com

Open: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily

Price: $16.50 to $18.50 for three tacos plus chips and salsa

Que Pasa Tacos

2280 Carling Ave., instagram.com/que_pasa_tacos

Open: Tuesday to Saturday 4 p.m. to midnight, Sunday noon to 8 p.m., closed Monday

Price: $6 for a taco

Yakko Takko

25 Hamilton Ave. N., instagram.com/yakko.takko

Open: Tuesday to Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., closed Sunday, Monday

Price: $8 per taco

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