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| - El Rey is a fantastic addition to Kensington Market. There are followers, and there are innovators - Grant van Gameren is by far an innovator. With each new restaurant, he's expanded the horizons of the Toronto dining scene, giving us something completely new, challenging, unique and fun to explore. El Rey Mezcal Bar continues this trajectory, and it's pretty great. The space is just gorgeous, colorful and artistic with beautiful lighting everywhere. We visited on a rainy night, and I loved the ambiance inside, very intimate and romantic while still lighthearted and playful. When it's not thundering out, there's a massive patio out front, and they even expand the patio out into the street on Kensington's Pedestrian Sundays.
Mezcal has been hard to come by in Toronto, and if you haven't had it, it's wonderful stuff - kind of like tequila's smokey, complex cousin. No other bar in TO has the full education's worth of mezcal flights that El Rey has on offer. There is a very original, extensive cocktail list - I'm unfortunately not drinking currently, but everyone at our table loved their boozy, perfectly crafted cocktails, and I loved the non-alcoholic mocktails the bartender whipped up for me.
We also enjoyed the food, sampling the beef tlayuda, smoked chicken quesadillas, shisito peppers, potato sope - all excellent bar snacks, but I would definitely call this a bar with food, not a full restaurant. The service is definitely more bar than restaurant, and I'm sure that will be offputting to some. Judge as you will, but when there's 5 pages of booze on the menu and only 1 page of food, you are probably in a bar. And when a bar is this good, have a drink and enjoy! There is nothing to complain about here, it's all awesome.
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