I beg to differ, on the contrary
Agree with every word that you say
Talk is cheap
and lies are expensive, my
wallet's fat
and so is my head
Taco time! In this edition for Taco month, we're checking out an extremely new and quickly popular taqueria here in the east end.
Taking over the original Burger's Priest location on Queen Street East (Priest relocated further east into the Beaches)... Holi Taco is a cozy little take-out spot with a lot of character despite the confined space. The place is so new (I'm guess-timating a little under a month as I type this in mid-July) that they don't even have a proper website set up as of yet, just a modest Instagram page. As such, any information about the backstory or origins of the restaurant is extremely limited (unless a style-over-substance BlogTo video is your thing)... at least via the tools of the internet at my disposal from my comfy chair. I suppose I could've asked a few questions when I was getting my food but... uh anyway! According to a Reddit post, the owner/chef is from the Mexico City area and I guess that's good enough for me.
The vibe inside cannot be understated. Aside from the placement of the ordering counter, this is unrecognizable from the old grandfather Burger's Priest. Plenty of welcoming colours and decoration, music and conversation pulsing within the vibe ... a real feel (pardon the rhyme time) of a place you'd want to linger about despite the confines. I wandered in around 10pm on a Friday and at first felt like an outsider because everyone inside the restaurant and on the bench outside, staff or customer, all seemed to be old friends because of the generally flowing banter (a good amount of Spanish being spoken as well, and mine is limited and very un-confident).
This outsider-ish-ness quickly evaporated however, as the chef's natural glow and friendliness put my "first time here!" awkwardness at ease. Looking over the menu, you've got your standard beef, pork and fish options (no chicken, surprisingly) with a couple of variations on both the pork and beef. For vegetarians, there's a mushroom-huitlacoche taco option as well as another with cactus paddles... all intriguing but rather adventurous (it's my first time!) so for my trio I went: fish, pork (the carnitas) and the beef suadero.
Yeah, the lighting wasn't great (stupid darkness). Before we dive into the tacos themselves though, Holi also has a little station of homemade salsas in molcajetes (stone bowls) on the window counter (there are also limes, diced onions and cilantro separately). Dear reader if you can see through the league of shadows, I got a sampling of all four of the offered salsas: the mild verde is in front next to the lime, in the middle are both the mild (most obscured by darkness) and the purple-ish macha, and furthest away is the super hot. The chef cheerfully suggested the macha pairs wonderfully with the beef suadero, and also warned the super hot salsa was, indeed, super hot. Challenge accepted, obviously.
More terrible photos! This is the pork carnita, and just on its own it is extremely flavourful. They chop it to order on the wooden counter in front of you (the chef at one point was chopping to the rhythm of the music, which was delightfully amusing) and the sliced-to-order juicy texture is undeniable. Nothing crazy with spice or seasoning or marinade, just straight up pork and it is fabulous. Definitely on the fattier side but all of the meat is so soft and nicely greasy anyhow that it hardly matters. Hold the tortilla firmly, this will spill out.
Speaking of the tortilla, here in July Taco Month this is the (as of writing) first appearance of a corn rather than flour tortilla! Flour has its advantages... mostly that they don't dry out as easily, but a good soft corn tortilla has so much more to it... which this indeed is. You can tell they make these fresh and in house (or possibly from Ossington tortilla shop Maizal, according to vague Reddit sources). The freshness of the gently sweet corn bursts onto the tongue, while the tortilla itself folds easily and isn't even slightly stale on the edges. Tasty and light. Just phenomenal stuff.
I'd say, if you're going the salsa route, both the mild but especially the verde matches well with these pork carnitas. The verde has less sweetness, more of a neutral green pepper sting and especially an onion crunch. The mild salsa on its own is positively delicious! A lighter sweetness, vivid tomato flavour, still some crunch, and none of that salty nonsense you get with those mass-produced salsa jars (*cough* Tosititos *cough*). This is the real deal, and the flavours linger wonderfully.
Okay, so I hate doing "bite-in" photos like this. Nobody wants to see where my mouth has been (sometimes me especially... ba dum tss). However, in this case I have a very good reason! I um, forgot to take a picture of the fish taco until halfway through... I mean you couldn't see the fish at all when it was still whole! That's the, uh, story-I-mean-ticket.
Honestly though, this fried fish (haddock, according to the menu) was indeed buried under a bushel of cabbage slaw and loose diced onion and tomato (both of which were nice crunchy and juicy accompaniments). Unlike the other two tacos which were reasonably generous with loading up the meats, there wasn't a whole lot of fish on here.
However, there was juuuust enough... because you could definitely taste it. A very vivid, quality fried fish flavour and despite existing like a chestnut hidden in a cabbage patch, the distinctive fish taste became clear and also stuck around nicely in the mouth when you got a good bite of it. Good choice on the light batter as well: not a lot of airspace between the shell and the filet, and considering the crunchiness already there with the slaw, having a crunchy fried fish stick as well would've really been too much. Instead, it's a delicate fry and all together a fairly good fish taco.
I figured the fish taco was the ideal one with which to sample the super hot sauce, so through the looking glass I went.
Conclusion: to put it elegantly, yeah it's pretty damn fucking hot. I mean, indeed yes it provided significant sizzle to my innocently awaiting taste buds, whereas afterwards the interior of my mouth felt a considerable reaction I say.
It's a good hot salsa though. Really good. The best kinds of spice aren't just "burn your intestines for the next half day for the sake of it". Real authentic good heat has a specific and unique flavour while it slowly murders you, and this one does. This one doesn't dance at all down the path of sweetness, no... nor is the build a slow one. It's a pure "coming at you" of sharp tomato and hot pepper that gives a good initial punch, but that first swing is also far from its strongest and none of them subside quickly either.
Objectively, a pretty good spicy salsa that might not be for everyone. Like a good spice, it still gives an avenue for the taste of the other flavours in the taco even as your mouth is burning. As I said, of the ones I sampled I think this fish taco is ideal one for this.
Finally, a decent-ish photo! I mean, the beef suadero! You had me at "slow cooked beef brisket taco", truly and honestly. Feel like I can just leave that here... but no I'll get into what makes this delicious looking taco (spoiler) so damn delicious.
As I wrote about in my Dang Smoke review, and as I'm sure to mention again... you can tell when beef brisket is slow cooked by an expert hand via both how tender the beef is and how the flavour lasts on each bite. This is different from Dang Smoke (for many reasons) as they slice relatively thick slabs of their slow smoked brisket for sandwiches, whereas Holi probably slow roasts and carves (or chops) theirs into smaller shredded bits for tacos.
The difference is mostly textural. Like the carnitas, this suadero taco is exceptionally fatty (leaving a notable grease stain in my takeout container) but when a meat is just so well prepared and so tasty in this form, the fattiness is a feature not a glitch. Another enjoyable layer and flavour within the tender shredded beef within. It's amazing how something so simple can be so damn marvelous: this is just a fattier cut of beef with a softly heated corn padding, after all... yet the beef is so excellent and full of life (irony I know) that you could eat this as is, without any of the frills, and still enjoy it immensely.
However, I took the chef's recommendation and sampled the macha salsa with this one. Yeah, I think he knows what he's doing. Excellent combo. To my credit-I-mean-ego and not knowing what this salsa exactly was, I detected a nice mix of nuttiness with dried peppers in this salsa, which turns out are the key ingredients in macha (go me!).
It is a really wonderful salsa: bit oily (almost more like a pesto without the bitter assertiveness) but with great balance between the richness of the nuts and tang of the peppers... and the thicker parts of it compliment the fatty beef quite nicely.
----
Overall! You know, it's almost serendipity I discovered Holi Taco at all, despite my relative proximity to them. Rare occasion I happened to be on a streetcar, looking north, and seeing a new taco place the exact month I'm doing a taco review schtick? Hell, with those caveats I still would've tried them even had the Google ratings been trash.
They're not. Holi currently averages a 4.9(!) of 5 with about 80ish reviews, a grade that will surely drop but I can't imagine by much. There's not much for me to be negative about with this. The fish taco? Still good, but easily the weak link of the three (needs more fish). Otherwise, I genuinely loved all of this: the different salsas, the wonderfully cooked and prepared pork and beef, the incredible soft yet firm and flavourful corn tortillas, the atmosphere... all of it is absolutely exceptional.
This is one of the best places I've reviewed all year, some of the very best tacos I've ever had in my life period, and I cannot recommend them enough. Go try them before they really blow up onto the Toronto food scene, and I'm certain/hopeful it won't be long.
Taco Tune
I've always loved the video for this song.
See you all next time, some time later this month for the Taco Taste!
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