AWESOME Latin food at Rincon Latino!!!

[nonlinear]

I read about Rincon Latino (www.rinconlatino.ca) on chowhound a while ago, and people there were raving about this place, so i've been meaning to give it a try. My 2009 Entertainment book arrived in the mail a couple of days ago, and lo and behold there is a discount in there for 2-for-1 entree at Rincon Latino, so we decided to give it a try tonight.

I must say upfront that the food here was excellent , and if you like Mi Tierra taqueria, you're definately going to love this place as well. but more about the food later.

Rincon Latino is kinda hidden out of the way, so you sort of have to know where you are going to get there. It's just off the intersection of Glenmore and Ogden road, in the strip mall behind the Glenmore Inn. There are actually a number of little indie places there that I want to try, including an indian restaurant, a nice looking deli with real deli meats, Bob's Hamburgers (gotta try this), and Gondola pizza (winnipeg-style thin crust, some of the best pizza in the city), and some other places.

we visited on a wednesday night at about 6:30. I'm not sure if it was the night of the week, the cold and snowy weather, or the hidden location, but the place was absolutely dead and we were the only customers in the place. The restaurant is housed in an old fish and chips joint (i think), and the dining room is raised and there is a little rope fence thing that gives it a dock feel. the walls are adorned with flags and pictures from various latin countries.

the menu (http://rinconlatino.ca/menu.html) is what I would call pan-latin, and has dishes from mexico, venezuela, equador, cuba, spain, etc. etc. etc. Unlike many 'mexican' restaurants that seem to have a fixed amount of ingredients and spices that are simply recombined or rearranged into the various dishes (resulting in a menu where every dish is essentially the same), each dish at Rincon Latino is truly unique. I had the Pabellon Venezalano, which was spiced shredded beef, black beans with melted cheese, white rice, and fried plantain. Apparently, this is the national dish of venezuela, and I can see why because it was totally delicious. My dining partner had the Enchiladas Verdes- four chicken enchilidas served under a flavorful salsa verde, alongside some spiced rice. She is very picky about meat quality, and pointed out that the chicken was large chunks of top quality breast meat, which made her happy.

The portions were HUGE, and seriously we probably could've ordered a single entree and split it between the two of us. For the size and quality, these dishes are a steal at about $13-15.

anyhow, there has been discussion on beyond before about the lack of good mexican/latin restaurants in calgary. we've discovered Mi Tierra, but Rincon Latino needs to be added to the list as well. I ancourage everone to go and give this place a try, because the food is excellent but business seems a bit slow, and calgary's food scene would be much poorer should they have to close up doors.

[SilVFan]

where is this place?

[nonlinear]

by the Glenmore Inn Plaza, 2770 Glenmore Trail SE

you have to go north on Ogden Rd SE, and then take a right into the strip mall behind the Glenmore Inn

[300rwhp]

bump for vogglios

[kaput]

.

[nonlinear]

there is also latin corner on 4th street. it's pretty good also.

not too sure about casados, or what they even are exactly... i read about them quick on wikipedia, and it seems to me that most plates from south america take this form (combination of some meat, fried plantain, rice, beans, tortilla, etc?), and they do have that at rincon latino and also latin corner....

what exactly is casados - what are you lookign for?

[kaput]

.

[CLiVE]

where I come from a Rincon is a very poisonous spider. So, I think I'll pass. :thumbsdow

[Proyecto2000]

Originally posted by CLiVE
where I come from a Rincon is a very poisonous spider. So, I think I'll pass. :thumbsdow

In Spanish, Rincon means Corner.

I have been to that place 4 times and every time has been excellent.:thumbsup: I went by one Saturday afternoon and they even had a few people dancing on their little dance floor, so it was kidna cool to listen to some music and see some people dance.

[CLiVE]

Originally posted by Proyecto2000


In Spanish, Rincon means Corner.


Yes, I know what it means. And the rincon spider translated is called the "spider of the corner." Still we used to have them in our cellar in Chile and they scared the crap out of me. :D

[nonlinear]

well, you would think that a dude from Chile would miss the cuisine of this native country and would try to support a latin restaurant! but hey, who knows... maybe you absolutely hated chile/???:D

as for the dancing, yea on the flyer they gave me it says there is dancing on Friday and Saturday nights:

hours:
Tuesday to Thursday 11:30 AM to 9 PM
Fruday 11:30 AM to 10 PM (dancing from 10 PM to 2 AM)
Saturday from 12 PM to 10 PM (dancing from 10 PM to 2 AM)
Sunday 12 PM to 8 PM
monday - closed

I like how they party till 2 AM all weekend, and then have to open up a half hour late on sat and sun :poosie:

[nonlinear]

oops

[clem24]

So after the rave review, I went to check it out.

We started with Ceviche (which incidentally came out last) (this is shrimp in a very limey broth usually for dipping). The wife had La Bandeja Montanera (yup she eats more than I do haha) (this is a huge dish with lots of meat and sausages and rice, while I had Taquitos De Res (steak tacos).

My taco was really good, the soft taco shell was probably the best I've had, even compared to Mexican places in the US. But the steak was a little dry and quite tough and chewy. Flavour was good, but my jaw was sore after all the chewing. However, they give you TONS of meat and not enough soft taco shells haha. Because of the quality of the steak, I'd rate it 6.5/10.

The Ceviche was probably the 2nd best I've had (best was this place in Boulder, NV). Had very good flavour and very limey. Not for people that don't like sour things. Again, excellent. I'd give this 8/10.

The bandeja montenera was this huge ass plate of stuff. 2 sausages (which were only ok), 2 pieces of this super deep fried hard as rock pork (not very good), a big piece of steak (very good, less chewy than the one above, and better than many places in the US), lots of fried plantains (excellent), a big pot of beans (meh), and a big heap of rice. Because it was so varied, hard to rate, but I'd give it at least 7/10.

So on average I'd give the food about 7/10. Atmosphere maybe 5/10. Decorations were meh, and the music was way too loud (they turned it up when we got there for some reason). And I think the tables were a carryover from the old restaurant.

Our bill came out to about $55 after tax/tip I think. And be careful.. Their system is charging 6% GST haha. I pointed it out but a.) I didnt' care and b.) I don't think she did either (English definitely was not our server's forte).

So yeah, for Calgary, it's a HUGE step in the right direction. It's probably the best Mexican/Latin place we have. I'd definitely go back as it sure beats driving to the US for Mexican.

[nonlinear]

not sure what time you guys went there at, but they have dance parties :clap: at 10pm on friday and saturday, so maybe that's why they turned up the music? :dunno: ???

but i completely agree with you that the portions are WAY too big. seriously, a single entree is enough to feed 2 or maybe 3 people! I can eat a shitload of food, but i could only eat about half of my entree there (leaving behind some beans, rice, and fried plantain). same with my girlfriend, and i ate her half order of enchiladas as a midnight snack the next day!

$55 is pretty good for a dinner for two, but if you get the Entertainment book of coupons, they ave a perpetual 2-for-1 entree coupon which basically cuts the price in half. seriously, there are few places that sling 2 good entrees and drinks for $30... but i kinda felt bad using the coupon when we went, cause the place was completely dead (we were the only people in there), and the family that owned it was obviously working hard to make cash, and i felt like $30 barely covered the expenses for food cost, rent, utilities, etc... but i guess the purpose of promotions is so that people go and tell their friends on beyond :D

but i guess when it comes down to it, Rincon Latino isn't perfect, and there are some problems, like the location, the lack of dinner customers, some of the left-over decor, or your ceviche coming out after your entrees. .however, they are serving a 'pioneer' cuisine in calgary, so we should expect and tolerate issues like these in return for something authentic and unique.

Earlier in the thread, i mentioned Mi Tierra Taqueria, which I think is hands down the best mexican restaurant in Alberta... however, Mi Tierra is jsut a simple taqueria after all, and you can't really expect a "dining" experience when you go there. i mean, they've only had ceramic plates and metal silverware for about a month and a half. not to mention the super crappy paint job and wobbly IKEA tables, etc. however, they do serve up dope ass food without a doubt, and i'm willing to deal with bad paint and wobbly tables for that awesome food....

so i guess i'm just saying that i like to see establishments like Rincon Latino in the CGY. it's not perfect, but shit, where else can i get food like that???? aside from Latin Corner on 4th, I think that's it, and it's nice to see!!!

[Official Hoser]

I gotta say I agree with the reviews above. I've only been to this place once, but the food was amazing. Everything tasted fresh and homemade. I had the enchiladas, and loved the salsa, as well as the side dish of rice which was moist and flavourful. Definitely plan on going back, and will be recommending it to everyone I know. I hope they don't close down, it's a bit of an awkward location. Not an area where most people think of heading for dinner.

[clem24]

Since it's so close to the industrial areas, I am assuming they work mostly the lunch crowd since I saw a buffet table there. If they get a lot of lunch traffic, it's probably enough to keep them going like most of the downtown establishments.

[rinny]

Originally posted by clem24


Our bill came out to about $55 after tax/tip I think. And be careful.. Their system is charging 6% GST haha. I pointed it out but a.) I didnt' care and b.) I don't think she did either (English definitely was not our server's forte).


After all of these reviews, I went and checked this place out last night.

Ran much like any latino restaraunt would be anywhere else in a latin country, I think their service style has to be understood in relation to their culture. The somewhat awkward way they run the place with loud music, waitresses speaking broken-to-decent english is all part of the cultural experience as anyone who has been to a central/south american country and eaten in the small diners/restaraunts would understand this.

Why awkward? I ordered a Kokanee Gold, didnt have any, some other people obviously ordered beer that they didnt have because 15 minutes later they roll in a grocery cart in the front door with a few 12 packs of both Kokanee Gold and Keiths, cracking one and bringing it to the other table. Not a big deal really, it reminded me of being in central america.

What I ordered:
Spicy Beef Empanadas (spelling?)- Appetizers, 4 delicious but deep fried corn meal "perogie" looking things with spicy beef and delicious jalapeno salsa

Chicken Enchiladas- Noticed the original OP ordered this as well. 4 decent sized enchiladas with lots of chicken/cheese and a helping of spicy rice.

All great food, great taste, bigger proportions for the enchiladas.


I'll be going back again, and trying the tacos. There was a table of 10 people and I overheard one lady saying best tacos in town!



Overall rating:

4.5 / 5

[nonlinear]

OK, we just returned from a saturday afternoon lunch at Rincon Latino, and had a completely different experience than we had last time. things were so bad that we won't be returning here again.

first of all, we went at about 1:45 on a saturday afternoon. like our first visit, the place was completely dead (although another couple did enter just before we left). however, this time, there was loud latin music blaring from a speaker that was pointed right at us. it was so loud that we couldn't really hold a conversation, so I understand now what clem24 was talking about in his post above.

I ordered the Taquitos de res, and my dining partner had the Flautas. I was amazed at how quickly our food arrived after ordering - no more than 5 minutes tops. however, we soon realized why things had been delivered so quickly: my dining partner's flautas were completely cold inside. also, despite a sizzling sound from the cast iron plate on which my taco meat arrived, most of the meat was cold/luke-warm. the meat had obviously been pre-cooked and then microwaved, and served on a hot cast iron hot plate. the service here is very poor, and the waitress didn't come by to make sure everything was ok with our food, so my dining partner had to go stand by the front counter in order to get the attention of the waitress. when she came to the table, she couldn't understand what the problem was, and kept trying to tell us that the filling was chicken. finally, she understood taht it was cold, and she finally brought it back to the kitchen to reheat it. in the meantime, she brought out some empanadas for my dining partner in the mean time (that was nice).

on to my tacos. first of all, i know these people are from south america and not mexico, however what they call "tacos" are instead fajitas. that's not a big problem as i can eat fajitas too, however the quality of the dish was extremely poor, especially for $16. as i mentioned above, the meat had been pre-ccooked and microwaved; half of it was cold and half of it was luke warm. as clem24 pointed out above, it was exceptionally dry and chewy. it was served with 4 corn tortillas, but there was was too much meat on the plate, and only about 1/2 cup of sautéed peppers and onions. this meant that i had 2 fajitas with meat+peppers+onions, 2 fajitas with meat only, and a huge pile of left over meat that had to be thrown out. they also serve the dish with a small dish of beans, some cheese (although it looked like there was mold growing on it so I didn't eat it), and about 1 teaspoon of salsa and 1 teaspoon of sour cream. this dish is definitely not worth $16, heck it's not even worth $6.

in fact, i would be happier paying $16 for a combo at taco time.

anyhow, sorry for the false alarm guys. i definitely can't recommend this place to anyone any longer. i guess there's a reason there are no customers in that place!

[lelalong]

Sounds like the quality does vary from dish to dish. My coworkers and I went there for lunch and the place was empty. I had the Taquitos de res and had the same experience as nonlinear. The meat tasted gamey and was tough. I had to use the green habanero sauce on the table to give it some zing. Three other people had the same dish but they said it was tasty so maybe I got an older batch of meat? I want to go back again for dinner and try the other dishes just to confirm whether or not this place is a real miss.

So far I would give it a 6/10.

They need to call Restaurant Makeover to improve the look and to get people in the door. The exterior is pretty drab and typical strip mall. Actually a couple places around there need a sprucing up...