El Comal, hidden yes... gem? Not too sure. (Burnaby North)

I honestly have no idea how I stumbled upon this place. What I did notice was that it was very close to my girlfriends house, and that No body had ever been to it, on Urbanspoon (gasp!). I read some reviews on other websites and it seemed to me like I had found a hidden gem...

El Comal essentially is a small Mexican grocery store that also hosts a deli/restaurant. It is kind of out of the way and unless you know about it you most likely would never see it (I drove right by it while looking for it).

We quickly looked around at the groceries.. lots of sodas, salsas, sauces, and tortillas, before wandering a couple feet over to the dining area.

We sat down and were served some complimentary salsa. I enjoyed it although my girlfriend did not think it was that good. We also grabbed some Mexican sodas. They were nice and apparently have %100 Natural Sugar! Just reading those words is stimulating some insulin production. Anyways onto the food.

I ordered three soft tacos, one with chicken, beef, and pork so that I could try different things.



soft tacos



side of rice and beans

The tacos were really nothing special. I enjoyed them but there was nothing that stood out in them flavor wise. Fairly bland imo. The rice and beans were your standard rice and re fried beans. I wasn't too happy though with the meal. My favorite out of the tacos was the pork one.

My girlfriend ordered the chili relenos. I read on one review that somebody said they tasted just like they do back home in Mexico...we will see.

Chili Relenos

So my girlfriend did not like this at all. I felt kind of bad because I was excited to show her a new place because she loves Mexican food. This place however was not the best. I ate the rest for her, although it wasn't amazing I didn't mind the taste of it.

Now in defence of this place because I hate bashing an establishment in my post, I came to the conclusion that perhaps we are so used to non authentic Mexican food, which I assume is served at most Mexican joints in Vancouver, that when we actually had traditional cuisine we did not enjoy it because we were used to tex mex or some other type.

Just food for thought/rambling. I have never been to Mexico and had real Mexican food so I really can't compare.