Latinada Tapas Restaurant

So sad it’s gone… It was my favorite place to go with my now wife. We had our first Valentine’s there, it was lovely, they let me sing a latin standard to her while they accompanied me… Good food, good music, good people… too good to be true… Where did you guys go? Why did you leave without saying goodbye?! I miss you! :(This disgrace of a city didn’t deserve you…

We went to latinada on a Saturday night and it took one hour and 20 minutes to have one of the appetizers with no napkins, plates or cutlery. I had to go down to ask for the drinks that we order when we got there and after 20 more minutes we didn’t get the drinks, the rest of the appetizers or at least napkins to be able to eat the only appetizer we got. We decided to cancel everything and leave.

A friend and I went here for a weekday dinner, and we opted for the tapas. It was pretty empty, when we walked in, but slowly filled up, and at times it did get a little loud, but was still good.
The grilled calamari and the yuca con mojo were amazing. The yuca was seasoned very well. The guacamole was fresh, and the patacones were just ok. We also ordered the cheese empanadas, but nothing too fancy in that. Just plain.
The mojitos were on the sweeter side, but we likes them a lot.
I hoped there would be more options for tapas.

Decent food but nothing to write home about. The chips and guac were amazing but the portion was way too small.

Came here a couple of weeks ago with a large group of friends. Called ahead to make a reservation, which was no problem. My group ended up coming in staggered over an hour throughout the night which didn’t seem to bother the staff at all. All told, we were about 7 people.
The place brands itself as an authentic latin tapas bar. The place feels cozy and not too cramped and boasts live cuban jazz. Unfortunately, this consisted of a man playing either the sax or flute to whatever background his synthesizer came up with. Talented, but playing «Lady in Red» at a volume to over-​power conversation when I’m yelling at the person next to me is not what I came out for.
The menu is as advertised, although apparently they were out of beef empenadas which I’m sure were good. I ordered the lomo de carne. This consisted of striploin steak with sauteed peppers, rice and salad. It was alright but a little low on heat and flavour. I’m not sure if this is for the clientele but it was satisfying. An owner/​server suggested the guacamole as it was made fresh. Essentially you get a big serving of guacamole with chips. This was excellent and I recommend this for the middle of the table as it’s easy to eat and you can eat a ton.
What really brought the establishment down was the service. One server, who appears to be the only female working there, was spot on. If you ordered something from her, you received it in a relatively acceptable amount of time. From anyone else and your orders just never came. This was the biggest draw back as we are a group that likes to drink and when drink orders don’t arrive, it tends to spoil our evening. By the later bit of the night, the one good server was beginning to get slower, which is understandable considering she was now the only reliable server for an entire restaurant. If you’re going to have everyone able to take drinks and orders, fine, but just make sure they enter it in and get it right. If not, then have assigned sections for staff.
This place sadly didn’t live up to my expectations. There is definite objective room for improvement and I applaud them for their efforts. I would recommend to work on the service and to keep the music down just a tad.
Oh, by the way, if you’re going to have more than a couple of beers available, advertise them. Many people at my table were surprised you had Dos Equis when your menu only listed Corona for the beer. You guys do make good margaritas and pina coladas though, according to my friends.

Walking in the restaurant was really cute. Unfortunately it went downhill quickly. The waitress acknowledged that our table was dirty but never came to clean it. When we weren’t immediately ready to order she then forgot about us for 20 minutes. Drinks were not the size advertised. Pisco sour was frozen, though not advertised as such. When the food came out, we ordered off the tapas menu, it was very disappointing.
We ordered:
Patacones — they were bone dry to the point that our inattentive server did not refill our water quickly enough to get them down.
Grilled calamari — by far the best part of the meal. Big enough pieces of calamari that you were sure they were not the «artificial» pork version of the product and not over cooked.
Chorizo — When I think of Chorizo I think of Spanish or Mexican style, red either with chili pepper or paprika. This really didn’t have a lot of flavor, and no heat at all. It was fine, but not worth the $ 5.00 or the pork fat calories.
Avocado salad: A bad order on our part. We were trying to be healthy. A plate of romaine lettuce with balsamic dressing, a couple of tomatoes, red onion and an avocado in it. Not worth the $ 7.00.
Empinada — definitely the second best thing we had. The filling was tasty, but it was miniscule for $ 5.00.
There was music since it was a Saturday and while we were originally disappointed it didn’t start at 9:00 as advertised in retrospect it was a reprieve. It wasn’t that the music was bad per se, it just wasn’t at all jazz (guitar/​vocals and violin), it was very much cuban folk music, and too loud for the space.
Getting our check took forever. I can see why people like the place, since the space is nice, the people seemed friendly, and it had an authentic feel to it. The food just wasn’t good enough to get me back here, maybe for drinks and a cuban sing along I could be convinced.

Good food. Love the fish a lot!

killer calamari! went for the tapas menu, good portions — ordered about 5 dishes between me and my gf and we were stuffed. the mojito and sangria in patio weather were nice.
they put pico de gallo on everything, which can be good or bad depending.
service rocked on a slower tuesday night. not a bad place for a casual date.

Chorizo and ceviche were great.

Small tapas bar near Keele on Bloor that serves delicious food and really gives off a Latino/​Argentinian atmosphere.
Food:
Had the calamari and guacamole as appetizers — delicious
Had some chicken with rice for the main — also delcious
Service:
My dad forgot his glasses when trying to read the menu, the owner had an extra pair and helped us out
All the while, a beautiful Spanish musical duo (classical guitar and bongo) soothed us with their sweet latino beats.

WOW, I freaking love this place!
Head here with a group as they had a Summerlicious menu ($ 25 dinner).
WARNING = DO NOT get the Summerlicious menu. It’s shit. Just stick to the regular menu, in particular the tapas. Incredible! My friend and I stuffed ourselves silly for $ 35. The other diners in our party had the Summerlicious menu for $ 25 each and their food looked very disappointing (super small portions).
Anyway, this place is quite tiny and seats maybe 30 people plus another 10 on the front patio. The atmosphere at Latinada was great, it was just like being in some kind of hole-​in-​the-​wall restaurant you would discover backpacking through Central America. Latin serving staff and most of the patrons seemed to be Hispanic.
We tried:
Pico de Gallo ($ 4) — absolute bargain, came with a big basket of fresh tortillas.
Fish Ceviche ($ 17) — quite different than most ceviches I’ve tried but really amazing. Large pieces of fish (rather than the usual small cubes) mixed with red onions. It had kick.
Grilled Calamari ($ 9) — Another good dish
Beef Empanada ($ 5) — Large and served with salad, this was another winner. Not greasy whatsoever and the meat was nicely cooked.
They had some really reasonably priced cocktails too (margaritas, mojitos, etc).
Live Cuban Jazz band came on at 9pm. Amazing how they fit a 5 piece band into this tiny place.
Come here for the atmosphere, it’s truly unique. Just skip the Summerlicious menu.

Just had dinner here tonight with my friend and her family. I have to say the food was EXCELLENT. They currently have a Summerlicious menu, but we decided to forgo it and enjoy some of their tapas offerings… her family opted for the Summerlicious menu and man, what a mistake. First of all, Summerlicious menu was weak, and the food portions were not kind of embarrassing… we ordered the baked beef empanadas from their regular menu and received a nice sized and delicious empanadas, while the Summerlicious empanadas were the size of profiterols. I felt sorry for the folks at our table who didn’t order from the regular tapas menu. 2) I would recommend that if they continue to partake in Summerlicious that they offer a tapas menu instead of a dinner menu, as the appetizers/​entrees/​desserts on the Summerlicious menu almost came off as forced and felt like they were trying to hard… they should showcase what they do best, which is tapas!
From the tapas menu we had pico de gallo ($ 4) and you get a nice sized serving with a basket of freshly made tortilla chips. We also ordered beef empanadas, grilled calamari and ceviche pescado… all were delicious. The food was so fresh, the flavours crisp and the serving sizes were perfect.
Only thing that wasn’t great tonight was the service, but I honestly think that they were overwhelmed due to the number of folks who were there for Summerlicious and woefully understaffed as a result.
I would defnitely recommend this place for a casual get together after a long hot summer day… their patio (it is small) did look quite inviting. The food is VERY reasonably priced.
Added bonus was the live entertainment which started at 9pm… great spot.

We went for dinner for two on a Saturday evening. We picked the restaurant because of the high reviews it received, and it is in our neighbourhood. The place was nice. The live music was excellent. The food was tasty. I was hoping for more variety in the menu. I don’t eat a lot of meat so the options are limited. The service was OK, but no special effort was made. We had questions about some of the menu items and the waitress described the ingredients but not with the enthusiasm of someone who enjoys the food.

Ok first I have to admit that I’m writing this somewhat after the fact so I’m I’ll be a bit sketchy on the details. I’ll tell that it was summerlicious; but honestly the regular menu seemed more interesting and similarly priced so we went for that. My partner had the calamari and shrimp and I had the shrimp. I was stuffed; and she had so much food we had to take some home. The mojito was awesome. The service was friendly and prompt. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone. It was a great neighbourhood find. Intimate and vibrant atmosphere.

Excellent place. Excellent service. Excellent ambiance. It is located in a small stretch of 5 bars on Bloor at Indian Road. I would say this is a hidden gem in the city. Out of all 5 bars, this is a class act. Very small and quaint and as my girlfriend stated, it is a place that reminds her of the restaurants in Mexico. Even reminded me of some of the Mexican restaurants I visited in LA.
We ordered from the tapas menu. Yuca, chorizo, empanadas, guacamole and platano frito and of course 2 glasses of sangria. Perfectly cooked and tasty. The sangria wasn’t too strong and not too many fruits so it was perfect for us.
Don’t forget to stay for the entertainment if you happen to go on the weekends. Just the perfect end to the evening. I would definitely recommend this place to anyone who wants true Latin American cuisine within the city.

This is so far my favourite Latin American restaurant in all of Toronto. I ran across it by accident, and no one seems to know about it, but the dishes are very down-​to-​earth and authentic. The owner is Chilean, and many of the dishes reminded me of food that I had when I was visiting Santiago. I brought my Colombian friend with me for a second visit, and he was instantly in love with the food! I definitely recommend this restaurant!

I was very pleasantly surprised by the very existence of this place. It was a victim of my whole, «I will regularly wander this area and not walk beyond a chosen spot (that spot being King Slice)”-syndrome.
Oddly enough, I first visited the fringes of my regular stomping grounds with my FATHER, uncle, sister, aunt and visiting-​from-​Europe relative. Father gets capitalized because that, guys, is out of the ordinary. But this is a place you can go with your dad, or with people your own age. They had pretty kickass guacamole and beautiful mojitos. A sea of green deliciousness.
They even had live music! Very vibrant and joyous live music that prompted a number of people to burst into dance, and one particular couple, into very skillful and entertaining dance. Also entertaining? My uncle getting wrapped up in the excitement of it all, and belting out a song with the band. Surely, the visiting relative will remember this with a fondness exceeding that for the Mandarin (which is difficult, in my opinion).