Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver

We were sitting by the window with sunshine streaming in, people and dogs lounging outside, snippets of Spanish coming from the kitchen…and plates of tasty food on the table in front of us. It wasn’t Mexico, but it sure felt close. Instead, it was right around the corner from the office, at the Salsa and Agave Mexican Grill in Yaletown. A cute little Latin eatery on Pacific, it seems like a secret tucked in amongst all the Canada Line scaffolding.

The last time my coworker and I were here we had the mixed tacos – pastor (marinated pork), carne asada (grilled beef tongue), barbacoa (lamb), chorizo (sausage) and vegetariano (green pepper, onion and mushrooms) and were intending on sampling something from the South American section of the menu, only to find out on arrival that the culinary dishes have now been restricted to Mexico. No matter, the tacos – regular style or rolled – are an excellent choice and since one of my favorites last time was the carne asada, I decided to try the Carne Asada plate with chilaquiles verdes. This is a tender grilled beef dish made from a thin cut of steak and served with fried slices of tortillas soaked in green salsa. At Salsa and Agave, like most traditional Mexican eateries, it also comes with rice and refried beans. Tortilla chips and fresh made salsa are provided at the table in case, like us, you have been thinking about lunch since 8 AM and are about to gnaw your own arm off.

I’ve not had chilaquiles verdes before, but they were delicious and complemented the relatively bland flavour of the rice and beans. Tangy, starchy, and spicy make a delectably simple meal taste well, but the addition of the beef threw me off. It was cooked to a desired tenderness, but it was so bland as to taste like meaty pulp and I got tired of it before I was finished. I much prefer a carne asada that has a bit of spice to it and to compensate, I forked over a lot of my salsa verde onto the meat and that tasted pretty good. This could easily be a matter of personal preference, however. It’s definitely authentic.

To drink we had tamarind soda, but there is also a wide variety of tropical juices and pops available, and they also serve homemade horchata, a milky cinnamon, sugar and vanilla drink. They don’t have a liquor license, so dreams of sitting in the sun drinking Coronas will unfortunately be quashed, but it does make it a little easier to get back to work.

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Salsa & Agave Mexican Grill
1223 Pacific Boulevard, Vancouver