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| - I remember when this place first opened, my friends waited over 4 hours to get a table. Although I wanted to try this place since I love tacos, this was a serious deterrent to trying it anytime close to opening. I had heard it was pretty easy to get a table for lunch, so my girlfriend and I decided decided to finally give it a try.
When we walked in, as expected, they were blasting old school hip hop music. Luckily we got a table away from the speaker, or it would have been a bit much for lunch time. I could see this being fun however if knocking back a few bourbon shots with your tacos on a Friday or Saturday night. Luckily, as someone who likes old school hip hop, they had great selections and the soundtrack to our meal was very well done.
The service was impeccable. The gentleman who served us (unsure of his name, but he mentioned he was a vegetarian) did a great job. He did it with a smile, didn't seem hurried or bored (which must be a real challenge considering they have to describe these same dishes day in and day out), and happily answered any questions we had with more than the expected amount of detail. This guy deserves credit for the above and beyond service.
Now for my review of the food. I'll preface this by saying that with the amount of hype surrounding this place since it opened, I will admit that there was almost an unfair level of expectation going into this place. It was difficult to detach that level of expectation before walking in and give it an unbiased review.
We started off with the guac and chips. The chips would have been very tasty, but they were way over salted. They were warm, fresh, and had just the right amount of oil, but the amount of salt they put on it was overpowering, unnecessary, and kind of ruined the dish. The guacamole was average. Not bad, but not great. However, even average guacamole is tasty. That being said, we felt that $8 was a bit much or this dish.
The pork belly taco with fermented pineapple sounded amazing when it was described, but I found it to be too acidic (and yes I like pineapple), and again, too salty.
The beef cheek was decent. The sauce on it was great, and it packed quite a punch with the heat which was impressive. I find a lot of taco joints in Toronto hold back in the heat department, but this is not the case with Grand Electric. However, the dish was again brought down because it was just too salty.
The crispy cauliflower taco was great. Nice and crispy and whatever spice they had in there (either cilantro or cumin; I can't remember) was strong, but it really lifted the dish up to a well above average level.
The baja fish taco was the showstopper. It is the baja fish taco I've ever eaten. In fact, it's one of the best pieces of battered fish I've ever eaten. Perfect amount of batter to fish ratio, and the beer batter was to die for. The cream sauce, cabbage and lime coupled with the fish was the perfect flavour combination. It's too bad the rest of their tacos weren't like this.
Although the cauliflower baja fish tacos were very good to amazing, this place drops down in the rankings because the other 3 dishes we had weren't really that impressive. Simply put, 2/5 dishes hitting the mark isn't enough to make Grand Electric live up to the hype. I would definitely come back, but would stick to the better parts of their menu.
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