Local Review the Second - Tres Carnales

It never rains but it pours, as one version of the saying goes.  I don’t know whether two reviews in a week constitutes a pouring but that is what you are getting, as I was able to try out a second of Edmonton’s newer eating establishments today. 

Tres Carnales, like Drift, opened up last summer just as I was leaving Alberta for a bit and I did not have a chance to try it out before.  With an ethos of fresh, local-produced and but authentic Mexican street food and slightly edgy atmosphere, it is certainly different from any restaurant that I experienced growing up around here.  Walking through the doors, in the bottom of an office building just north of Jasper on Rice Howard Way, I was reminded of a Mexican take on one of my favourite establishments of my younger days, Da-De-O on Whyte.  The décor was a mix of Frida Kahlo, luchadores and Día de los Muertos imagery with heavy beats of Spanish-language hip-hop resounding.  

In honour of Mexican Independence Day tomorrow, there was special menu but this being my entire party’s first visit, we opted for tacos.  Ordering from the counter and then picking our seats in a dining room already crowded just after opening, we waited a very few minutes for ours order of house-made Guacamole Y Totopos  and Salsa Y Totopos to arrive.  Both were bright and clearly fresh (miles away from the bottled salsa an Alberta boy grew up with;) I found mine a tad subtle and added the some Mexican hot sauce that was at the table. 

The tacos were not long in coming; I had ordered el Pescado and my wife got Al Pastor.  Taco Al Pastor, from my understanding, is cooked a little bit like what we in Alberta call a donair.  Tres Carnales makes them with pork and the meat was still juicy with a sauce that carried a little kick.  Served with onions, cilantro and lime, the most revelatory accompaniment was a sauce that, to my palate, was made with a medium chili and pineapple.  Sweet, with a spiciness that plays as a second note, it might have been my favourite thing about the meal.  There were four small tacos in the $10 order.

 

I got three medium fish tacos made with red snapper for the same price.  These were piled high with a breaded piece of fish, cabbage slaw, a bit of salsa and radish.  The texture contrasts were nice: the crunch of the slaw and breading against the fish and soft tortilla.  The sauce on the cabbage, slightly spicy again, was good and so was the taste of the fish.  Tres Carnales’ website says that all of their protein, except their seafood, is raised locally and I could maybe taste or at least smell that, as there was this ever so slight fishiness in the snapper which authentically comes from the Gulf of Mexico.  That is splitting some very fine hairs as it tasted very bright and different, at least for me.

Overall, a quality and unique food experience in Edmonton.  One note, our visit was partially a catch-up with someone, but the amazing atmosphere in Tres Carnales does not necessarily lend itself to such conversations.  Thanks for reading and cheers.