During university, Baldwin St. was one of my favourite places in Toronto. After a year of living on adjoining Beverley St., I basically knew every restaurant menu by heart. Since then, the street has evolved with many exciting new restaurants calling it home such as Kinton Ramen and Noodle Face Co, next to familiar favourites like Konnichiwa. My friend and I had a tough time deciding where to eat with all the new options. We settled on Agave y Agucate with no reservations, walking in around 7pm.

I also forgot my camera, apologies for the terrible picture quality. I’ll just have to go back to take better ones.

Atmosphere: Agave has taken over both the ground and top floor of a house on Baldwin St. The majority of tables are located up a narrow staircase on the second floor along with the washrooms. The layout of the first floor includes the bar and a single long bench along the wall with circular tables at intervals. The upstairs dining room was fully booked so we tried to get comfortable on the bench. It was awkward, you have to either sit on the bench, with you back on the wall and crane your neck to talk to your date or have your body twisted at the waist. I ended up sitting half crossed legged, which for a long meal would not be preferred. I loved the 90’s music that played all night and the lighting was dark. The walls were painted rich colours that added to the intimate feel.

Service: The girl who took care of our table was very professional and friendly. She recommended items on the menu, made sure our waters were refilled and was quick to clear empty plates. This was appreciated as the table surface area was small. The tapas style dishes came out in pairs, which was great as it allowed us to sample the plates concurrently and switch back and forth.

Food: To start, I need to recommend the Stiegl Grapefruit beer. It’s amazing. My friend and I split three beers that night including two Stiegl’s and if it hadn’t been a weekday, I could’ve easily drunk my weight in the grapefruit beer. It has a strong citrus flavour but not overly sweet and so refreshing. This is now the drink I will look for on any menu.

As for food, we ordered 5 dishes to split. The first to arrive were the Ceviche Verde and Chile Poblano Relleno, a blistered pepper stuffed with guacamole and pineapple, topped with pickled vegetables with a tomato sauce. The ceviche that night was cod and served with avocado and tortilla chips. The texture of the fish was firm and the colour was opaque. I thought the balance between the sourness and sweetness was perfect in tandem with the chips and avocado. The pepper had a nice spicy kick but was mellowed by the avocado and pineapple. Again, each bite had components of sweetness, spiciness and sourness from the tomatoes and pineapple, that was perfect.

Next up was the Chileajo, mixed vegetables and lentils tossed in a guajillo pepper sauce, and the Tostada de Tinga, pulled poached chicken in a chorizo, tomato, piquin and chipotle pepper sauce served on a tostada with black beans, avocado cream and pickled red onions (phew). Between these two, I prefered the Tostada de Tinga more. I liked the different textures of crunchy and creamy and the layers of flavour. The lentils in the Chileajo had a nice crunch but the dish was on the saltier side. We ended the night with Albondigas Estilo Guanajuats, meatballs poached in a chipotle sauce and served over black beans. The meatballs were loosely packed, juicy and a great final dish. Five dishes between two people turned out to be more than enough and we both left with our belts feeling a bit tighter.

In following Toronto’s taco trend, a visit to La Carnita is a must.  Their Kensington market location is easily accessible by TTC and my girlfriend biked over from her Annex apartment. She was able to get a table easily before the dinner rush at 5:30 on a weeknight for our catch-up date.

Atmosphere: The restaurant’s pretty spacious with a full bar and a few small tables in the front and larger tables in the back dining area. Sitting next to the bar, my table got a lot of natural light and we were able to the see each order being delivered to the service window. It was a very casual and relaxed feel.

Service: Our server patiently checked in on us a few times to order since we were busy talking instead of perusing the menu. Once we got our orders in the food arrived quickly and when we added more tacos to our order, they arrived just as prompt. It took some time to flag down someone for the bill, but we weren’t in a rush so didn’t try too hard. Again, the pace of the restaurant at the time was very relaxed and they hadn’t hit their rush yet.

Food: None of the appetizers really jumped out at us and besides, we were there for tacos, so tacos we did. We ordered one of each taco from the menu and their daily special mushroom and corn tostada.

Both my friend and I loved the “in cod we trust” taco and had to order a second one. The fish was lightly battered and just melted in your mouth. I also liked the mushroom tostada, which had an earthy flavour and a hint of sweetness. The tuna ceviche was light, refreshing, not too limey and the tuna was a great texture. The tostadas  was crispy and not greasy, we did eat these ones first to avoid having them sit in any sauces for too long.

I felt the chorizo overpowered the toppings in that taco. It was still good but you could only taste the chorizo. The “beef cheek” was sweet and balanced well with the avocado and raw jalapeno topping. The fried chicken in the “pollo frito” was crispy and tender. This taco again was overall sweet, a little heat would’ve been nice. Lastly the “crispy avocado and frijoles” taco was just alright, I would order any of the other choices before this one, but it’s nice to see a non-meat option on the menu.