It's a terrible shame
It's a terrible shame, I know
It's a brutal game
gonna have to let you go
I'm stuck in a rut
and I can't find my way out
And the sides
are closing in
Another Tuesday, another Taste!
Indeed we are back! In Pog form. While throughout this brief TT rebirth we've been looking at quite a few newer spots on the Toronto food scene... today we're looking at a more established hub of the Leslieville neighbourhood.
Completo has been attracting visitors to its cozy space and patio just off of Queen East on Coady Avenue for nearly a decade now, with enough success and popularity to recently open a second larger location on Broadview near Gerrard. Not bad at all for an operation that traces its origin to being a humble and temporary food stall in Kensington Market.
Previously I'd indeed been to Completo a couple of times, but that was several years ago... well before I started writing these review-type things. Putting two and two together... here we are giving them a proper, official Tuesday look.
While the menu at the Broadview location offers much more (like a brunch menu, and empanadas!) I went to the original Coady Avenue one for a simple reason: it is much closer to my house. Actually, one advantage the Coady location has is that little patio on the corner. It isn't fancy or anything: just a couple of park benches and a few chairs, but with the spring weather slowly getting nicer this was a good occasion to eat outside, sit and watch Leslieville pass by on a mid-week evening.
Coady Completo has a fairly simple and straightforward menu (it's a very small open kitchen). Feeling as hungry as I was, I went for one of their 'boxes': french fries, two sunny-side eggs, salsa, hot sauce, and a choice between steak, pork or chorizo. This was later in the day, a couple of hours before they closed and when I chose 'steak' the kind lady told me they'd run out. Oh no! Instead, she highly recommended the 'chorizo' ("it's very good", her exact words), a suggestion more than good enough for me. I also added a side of mashed avocado, because delicious (surely I don't have to fully explain everything).
You can see the avocado up top. The little container in the middle is their hot sauce, with their salsa mix occupying the bottom. Most importantly though: where is the chorizo?
Peekaboo.
I've been given bizarre looks many times for my 'on-the-go' affinity for cold scrambled eggs and potato chips (but it works damn it)... here with Completo we have a leveled up version of my apparently odd (yet effective) meal. Obviously, there is no comparing cold scrambled eggs with freshly fried sunny side ups... and that freshness is key because allowing that warm yolk to ooze over some of these thinly cut, perfectly crisp and seasoned fries... well I hope you see where I'm going. Delicious Town, next exit.
The outer edges of the eggs aren't throwaways either. None of that filminess along the borders, consistent soft fluffiness throughout. In conclusion: yes eggs indeed make most things more awesome and this is a strong Exhibit A.
Looking at this box more generally: it clearly suggests a 'choose your own adventure' approach to how you eat it. There is a lot of everything, but supplies of some will depart quicker than others, so ration accordingly. Astonishingly, by the end I had an extreme surplus of the mashed avocado (don't worry, once home it did not last long).
The key elements to break down are the fries, the hot sauce, the salsa, the eggs (which we've already done), and the chorizo patty itself. These are very good thin cut, bendy oily fries. For something like this, mediocre-to-bad fries could wreck everything.. but these are excellent. They could stand alone, even.
I really enjoyed the hot sauce: a thicker yet finely blended earthy pepper one, which gives an immediate haymaker punch of spice but then slowly faded each time after. Not for the heat-timid, but nothing unmanageable either.
Salsa! Salsa! Because people like to say salsa. This is not your typical saucy tomato-based salsa, rather more vinegary, crunchy (chunks of red onion), sweetly acidic via the diced tomatoes with a significant kick of sharp cilantro. It's somewhat out of place here since it doesn't quite work with the fries (I suppose dumping the whole thing on top of the eggs might've been the way to go) but is quite tasty as a stand alone side. Quite nice.
How about the chorizo? The thing recommended to me by an actual staff member? Well... it is formed into a thick, crumbly patty with plenty of tender juiciness... thus easy to separate and add to a forkful of other things. Logistically, Completo wins this particular round. Flavour-wise... the crumbly patty tastes strongly of herbs and onions. Not a bad thing at all, I quite enjoyed it... as those particular flavours strike that fine balance between vaguely noticeable and overtly assertive. Each bite had different dimensions.
A truly good 'choose your own adventure' meal really can't lead to any bad exits or endings... it all must work together in any combination and this Completo chorizo box does just that. Damn fantastic. The fried eggs especially are on point, precisely done so to blend without seams into everything else. Chips or crisps or fries with eggs... I'm just saying.
'Completo' is indeed a Chilean term for a "street food with the works", vaguely implying a hot dog as a common vessel for this. After my first re-visit it occurred: "damn silly of me to review a place without even trying the menu item associated with their name!" Uh... yeah! That'll show... me? Right. So here is the completo Completo Hot Dog:
There is a hot dog in there, somewhere.
First off, this Completo Dog isn't shy with the extra-cirriculars... even somehow getting an extra bun and stuffing them together tightly all the way, then nibbling on it like one would a burrito... this thing would still be a grenade of toppings ready to burst out upon ye.
Sell your War Bonds for napkins! In seriousness though, even for a typically messy food like a hot dog... this is like trying to eat an explosion. You've got the same chunky, vinegary salsa as was featured with the chorizo box, along with mashed avocado, some ketchup and mustard, and mayo. Lots of mayo. Lots and lots and lots and lots of mayo.
They do warn this on the menu, using the exact description "lots of mayo" but this here is more mayo than dog. I notoriously love saucier sandwiches/burgers/hot dogs etc, and even for me this was excessive. It doesn't quite ruin the hot dog but is a serious strike against it. Thank goodness for the likewise heavy amount of avocado to at least counteract all of that because otherwise you're approaching mayonnaise sandwich territory.
The rest of the hot dog is perfectly fine. Nice soft bun, the wiener itself isn't anything mind-blowing beyond just tasting like a quality regular all-beef offering, with nice juicy texture and soft all around the outside (no weird undercooked or overdone parts). Quite good, but it needs to be just a bit more of a factor. The salsa, when not falling off the dog because again this was insanely messy to eat... adds a needed element of sweetness and some crunch compared to the intense creaminess of the mayo and avocado.
---
Overall! Two reviewed items this week for the price of none! I will say that Completo is definitely worth checking out, especially if you've never been... although I strongly preferred one of these items way more than the other.
The chorizo box? Wonderful, delicious, sneakily filling, probably ideally shared with another person. The hot dog? Mildly a let down. The mayo was just too much... and while the rest of it worked fine I think perhaps I was expecting just a little more to it, both in dynamic flavour and in bulk. Really more of a snack than anything.
Even with a .500 batting average here, I still highly recommend Completo. In an insane coincidence, this very Sunday before publishing this I was seeing a friend and his partner who, while we chatted about food, asked if I'd ever tried Completo before... legitimately while my first draft of this review was nearly complete(o). Spooky! This week, it was meant to be.
Television Rules The Nation
While Star Trek: The Next Generation might be my favourite show of all time (despite writing about the unsalvageable dreck of their absolute worst episodes once, or twice, or thrice)... The Wire is probably the very best show I've ever seen (though admittedly I've only seen the pilot of Breaking Bad, I know I know). So here's an terrific article about what made The Wire so good and memorable.
Peepers
I just find this whole scene so damn funny.
The Kid From Kitchener Does It Again
Unreal.
Tuesday Tune
Smile, everyone.
That's all for another week! Plenty more on the horizon for these weekly Tuesday reviews, but until next time... enjoy this gradually warmer weather (though stop raining on Saturdays, please), stay safe and don't spill that mustard.
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