According to Urbanspoon, El Camino is the top “Talk of the town” restaurant, so naturally W and I had to check it out. Since they don’t take reservation, I called ahead just to see how long the wait will be (it was cold and rainy outside) and was told it would be a 30 minute wait. However, when we got there the hostess was able to seat us immediately!
The arrangement of the restaurant was interesting. There were some booths and tables, but in the middle there was one huge communal table that is shaped almost like the omega symbol, which is random but unique. We were seated at the communal table since those were the only open spots.
They had 6 types of tacos that night, and we ordered 4 different ones to try ($4 each). From left to right in the above picture, we had the beef tongue taco, pork taco, lamb taco, and beef taco. They all had cilantro and jalepeno on them, but some had additional toppings. The lamb taco came with avocado, and the pork came with pickled turnips. The beef tongue we had was a little too burnt for my liking, while I enjoy smokiness, it was way too burnt, to the point where that was all I could taste. Once I got that part out of the way, the beef tongue was actually pretty good.
The pork taco was very enjoyable, it was probably my favourite out of the 4 we ordered. I also think the lamb was decent but W really didn’t care for it. The beef was another one that was really good, it was W’s favourite!
Apart from tacos, we also ordered the Chilaquiles with Braised Pork, Fresh Curry Leaves, Pickled Jalapeno, Queso & Sunny Side Up Egg. We totally ordered this dish because we had a mouth-wateringly delicious Chilaquiles at XOCO and wanted to relive that memory. Although it was not close to what we had in Chicago, it was still a pretty tasty dish, especially when you break the egg and get all the ingredients in one mouthful!
We definitely enjoyed our meal at El Camino, and we had some of the best tacos we’ve had in town. Since it is a bar, the noise level is really quite high so be prepared for that. We were told there is parking behind the restaurant, but we parked on the side streets because it was the evening. I also almost missed the restaurant because it was on the lower level. It is located right between the hair salon Le Loft, and Elgin Street Diner, just a heads up!
If you are looking for great tacos in Ottawa, El Camino has got you covered!
sugarandsaline 