Latin American Archives

In Coquitlam

Polito’s Latin Café: Pupusas, Tacos, and Dessert in Coquitlam

November 22, 2017

Polito’s Latin Cafe in Coquitlam just opened a few months ago and has given the neighbourhood what it’s been lacking for a long time – latin flair. My friend Hilda brought Sherman and I here for dinner since she loves this place. I trust her recommendations as she has a pretty refined palate. I didn’t know what to expect when coming here since, but they have tacos, burritos, pupusas, quesadillas, a few specials, and dessert on the menu.

Interior

They can seat up to 60 people in the restaurant and can host large parties here. We came on a weekday, for the 3 of us, so it wasn’t that busy. They are busier on the weekends.

Drinks

Tamarind Juice, Horchata and Jamaica Juice are on the menu. They also have some unique drinks too that aren’t easy to find in Vancouver like Inca Cola, Guarana, Postobon Manzana, and a few other soft drinks.

Al Pastor Taco

This has pork, pineapple, cilantro and onions on top of 2 corn tortillas. A good solid taco.

Veggie Taco

This isn’t you regular veggie taco, it has fried plantain, black beans and cream.

Asada Taco

On this taco, there is shirt steak, cilantro and onions. A good simple taco thats pretty meaty.

Pollo Taco

This taco is topped with pulled chicken, cilantro, cream, and pico de gallo. This was my favourite of all the tacos as it has a good aroma and well spiced.

Pupusas

It’s really hard to find Pupusas in Vancouver and this is a El Salvadorian dish handmade thick corn tortilla filled with a filling. We got one of each since we wanted to try both.

Revuelta – Pork, beans, cheese, and sweet pepper
Queso – Cheese and Zuchinni

I gravitated towards the revuelta because the pork and beans added more flavour. It be delicious and not oily at all. The chef really puts hard effort in making sure he has the right cheese blend that works with the pupusas. You’re supposed to eat the pipusas with the slaw that has a nice kick to it.

Mar Y Tierra

This was one of the two specials they had today and it is a classic Latin American Surf n’ turf dish with marinated skirt steak, grilled prawns and served with latin-styled rice, black beans, pico de gallo and guacamole. We got the steak medium rare and it had great flavours but some parts of it was chewier than others.

Bandeja Polito’s

This is Polito’s take on a popular Columbian dish. It has chopped rib eye steak, beans, rice, fried egg, fried plantain, guacamole, and pico de gallo. Yet again, the steak was well seasoned with delicious flavours.

Chips, guac and pico de gallo

They made these just for us while we were here. Freshly fried tortilla chips with the guacamole and pico de gallo. Delicious!

Tres Leches

Holy smokes, this dessert was freaking fabulous. I don’t really like dessert, but this has changed my mind. It is sponge cake soaked in evaporated milk, condensed milk and heavy cream. I would highly recommend getting this.

Flan

Another killer dessert that is pretty unique. It’s custard and caramelized cake with chocolate. It’s not too sweet, so I really liked it. Good combination with the cake under it. You have to get this dessert too.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was great to discover Polito’s Latin Cafe as there really aren’t a lot of these kinds of places around in the Lower Mainland that knock it out of the park. I really enjoyed it here and I love how it’s a family run business. I’ll definitely be back.

We Rate Polito’s Latin Cafe:

Address:
942 Westwood St, Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://politoscafe.ca/

In Kitsilano

Baru Latino: Dine Out Vancouver

January 17, 2015

Baru Latino is located in the Point Grey area close to UBC. They serve up Latin cuisine and use responsibly caught seafood and local ingredients in their dishes. They also have classic and original drinks.

My friends and I decided to come here for Dine Out Vancouver for their 3 course meal for $28. We made reservations since we had a group of 7.

Blood Orange Mojito is what KoreanGirl to start off the meal. She enjoyed it but it was quite strong.

Chili Prawns comes with 3 pieces and tossed with their homemade house sauce. The sauce was quite spicy, so if you cant’ take the heat, don’t order this dish. The size of the appetizer was also a tad small.

Beef Tiradito is seared beef carpaccio with chimichurri, greens, yam hay and flatbread. It tasted ok, but the beef lacked much flavour. Most of the flavour comes from the chimichurri sauce and the little plums.

Ecuadorian Red Ceviche has citrus marinated scallops, shrimp, octopus in a roasted red pepper and smoked tomato mojo. It is served with a plantain chip.

My friends thought it was decent but the size was pretty small.

Paella Baru has chorizo, chicken, mussels, prawns, scallops, and halibut tossed with rice, cilantro, smokey salsa with homemade flatbread. It was good said my friends.

Cartagena Crusted Halibut has a plantain crusted halibut with seasonal vegetables and roasted tomatoes, served on a coconut polenta, finished with a tamarind glaze, and topped with crispy yam hay.

The coconut polenta was cold and didn’t match well with the hot halibut. The halibut was bland and needed the help of the sauce to keep it flavourful.

Costillas de Res is slow braised beef short ribs on mashed potatoes with seasonal vegetables finished with guava mojo. My friend said it was good and flavourful.

Latin Flan has orange blossom with caramel. It is topped with blueberry puree and a gooseberry. The plan was sweet and it tasted like condensed milk. We all loved it. The blueberry puree worked well with it to balance out the sweetness.

Overall, with the DineOut Vancouver deal, this place was packed and made the service slow and uncomfortable. The food would take about 30 minutes per dish to come out. Some of the dishes lacked the care and attention to keep up with the rush of orders. Servers were hustling to make sure customers had a good time, but didn’t quite hit the mark. For the $28 menu, it offers you a taste of whats on the menu. I’m not 100% sure if the small appetizers are the original sizes on their menu.

We Rate Baru Latino:

Address:
2535 Alma St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.barulatino.com/

In Burnaby Central

El Inka Deli: Latin American Food in Burnaby,BC

August 21, 2012

M, Jewels, and I decided to have dinner at El Inka Deli. It’s a hidden restaurant in the Burnaby Central area. I’ve never heard it until someone told me I had to check it out. It’s also beside the Burnaby Hospital, so if you are in the area, do check this place out.

El Inka Deli serves Latin American food and it’s very unique to find this type of food in Burnaby. It is family owned and you will get a sense of that once you walk in the door.

Jarritos Lime was ordered by M and he really enjoyed the fizzy sour taste of it. I had half of this and it’s really good Mexican soda.

Horchata is a traditional drink made out of almonds, sesame seeds, rice and barley. The way they made the horchata was very gritty and had a strong sesame seed taste. We were not a big fan of this.

Chicken Empanadas was an item was started out with. It was crispy on the outside and nicely toasted.

The inside had a good amount of filling and was delicious. Yum!

Cheese empanadas was even better than the chicken empanadas. It took a while for it to arrive at the table, but ooey gooey cheese was inside this empanadas! SO GOOD!!! If you love cheese, you will go GAGA over this!

Picada Criolla has pork chop, pork, sausage, fried plantains, fried cassava, corn bread, and potatoes. It was definitely a meaty dish. The sausage tastes good, but the pork chops and ribs were really dry. The fried cassava were like fries, really really delicious. M and Jewels both ordered this, but I don’t think they would order this again.

Mixto Ceviche has raw fish and octopus with corn, yam, onion and cilantro in a acidic sauce. It was huge!

It was probably one of the better ceviches I’ve had and the portion was very very large. It’s a good size for sharing!

I wanted a bit of heat in my ceviche, so they give a hot sauce on the side. It’s not the usual hot sauce you would think of, but this was spicy and it did the trick!

Overall, the food can be a hit and miss at El Inka Deli and take a while to arrive at your table too. I would still come again because it’s close to where I live and I love ceviche!

Words of Wisdom: