La Taquisa (Vic West)

Address: 120-176 Wilson St. (Westside Plaza)

Phone: (250) 889 5803

Website: http://www.lataquisa.com/

Price: 5 tacos for $10

Notes: Cheapish, authentic Mexican food.

Randomly stumbled on the new location of la Taquisa while scoping out some sunny-Sunday afternoon beer at the Spinnakers Liquor Store in Vic West. I hadn't made it to their taco cart in Cook St. Village yet, so I'm not sure how it compares. Since ¡Orale!, Adriana's and Los Taquitos have closed I have been limited in my locations to get tasty, tasty Mexican so I was excited to see this open up.

I'm hoping they do well - Westside Village isn't exactly a destination for dining, but there's an increasing number of yummy things in the area with the condo developments nearby.  Hernande'z still beats them on price (in fact the price for 5 tacos is twice as much at la Taquisa), and given the following H's has in this town it may be hard to compete especially since they are pretty equally delicious. However - la Taquisa takes Interac so they're one up in our books as we almost never carry cash.

The space is mostly functional for take-out, not eat in. A chalk board tells you the menu. It's small, but with lots of options: tacos, burritos, "el gordo" or "gringa" stuffed with your choice of carne, veggie, vegan or pescado fillings. Opt for everything from mild to super spicy salsa, and/or add guacamole and sour cream for 50¢ each. They also have tortilla soup and quesadillas. I hear there will be mole soon as well. Now if only they would add tamales to the menu I'd be a very happy lady!

Service:

June 12, 2011

The service was pretty quick, but since they make all of their tortillas from scratch it does take a few minutes. However, they are conveniently located with a Starbucks and a liquor store one one side and a Booster Juice on the other, so you have plenty of options to distract you while you wait for your food!

Food:

June 12, 2011

Assorted Tacos via foodspotting.com

We were still pretty full from our breakfast (chorizo scramble... then we had homemade tacos for dinner. It was Mexican day at our house!) so we opted for just a few tacos. We initially ordered four, but it was pointed out that we could get 5 for $10 so we split the last one although looking back we should have done the 6 for $12 and had an even number!

Love-love-love that the taco shells were made fresh while we waited! It removed the whole issue with tacos that drives me crazy when the tortilla shells just fall apart after the slightest addition of moisture. Grocery store taco shells are the worst. Bah!

Got an assortment this time, so here we go:

• Beef al pastor - very mild, but good. A spicier salsa might have kicked things up a bit. 
• Pork chorizo - the chorizo didn't stand out. so much so that my partner-in-food-and-life was surprised to find out it was the chorizo taco. 
• Chicken tinga - stellar! I got it with the salsa brava and it really stood out.
• Beans and cheese - simple but tasty, and I'm pretty sure that was proper queso fresco.
• Fish al pastor - not my favourite. It was very fishy tasting - your mileage may very, I'm pretty fussy about fish!