10119 100a Street NW, Edmonton

Tres Carnales has been around for a number of years now, I’ve been there many times before, but I’ve never had the chance to write anything about it, so here goes. I came here in evening right after the Beer Festival a couple of weeks with my friend Jamie. I’ve been here many times in the past, but my friend Annemarie just reminded me of it so we opted to come here right after the festival. It’s located right in Rice Howard way, and very easily accessible by the LRT (Central station). Every time I’ve been here, there has always been a line up, and this time was no different. They do have a take-out line that’s usually shorter, and we were starved so we opted to get take out and eat at a near bench since it was so nice outside. If you do decide to dine-in though, you basically place your order, they give you a little metal stick that displays a number so they know where to serve you, and at the end, your tab is attached to the number so you can order more, or get more drinks, etc, pretty neat little system they have.

The inside is relatively small. When you first enter, you can see directly into the kitchen. There was so many people confined in such a small space trying to get orders through on the day we went.

The menu is written on a board and you have options between tacos, quesadillas, and tortas, and a variety of meat/vegetarian options. I’ve gotten each of the tacos, quesadillas and tortas before and usually I’m a big fan of the tortas. It comes with a nice thick and fluffy bread, and cheese. On this occasion, we got the cochinita pibil (Yucatecan style alberta pork shoulder) in a quesadilla and the Pescado (lightly battered and fried fresh Pacific Red Snapper). You can’t get the Pescado in a tortas because the cheese and fish combination is not recommended. We also got a side of their guacomole with chips and their ceviche.

I started off with the ceviche. I recently went to Mexico a few months ago and had amazing ceviche there so I really wanted to get it a try. It was pacific red snapper cured with lime, oranges, serrano chilies and cilantro. To be honest, it wasn’t that great. It was a teeny portion served with chips, and to top it off, the flavours weren’t there. The fish didn’t taste very fresh, and overall there was too much lime and it was a bit sour.

Guacomole

House made chips

I don’t want to talk too much about the ceviche, because everything else we got was amazing. Every time I come here, I always get the guacamole and chips, It’s only 8 dollars, and you get a very generous amount of chips and guacamole. It usually fills up 3-4 people satisfyingly. The chips are one of my favourite part of this. They are nice and light and very crispy. They’re thick and quite strong too, so don’t be shy with forcing it into the guacamole! The guacamole itself is really smooth and creamy and has a lot of flavour. It’s really a great way to start off your meal. I definitely recommend getting this to start with and sharing with a couple people. It might be a bit much for one person plus an entrée.

The cochinita pibil was really good. The pork was very tender, and you could tell that it was slow cooked for a really long time. It had really nice spice to it you could really smell the citrus in the meat. This came with some salsa verde which went really nicely and gave it a nice kick!

Jamie usually gets the Pescado in tacos because it’s one of his favourite things to get, and with really good reason. I’m not sure why, but I’m always reluctant to get fish tacos and I’m disappointed to say that I’ve definitely been missing out. Jamie shared one of his tacos with me and it was amazing. The fish was so light and airy and beautifully seasoned. It holds amazingly on its own and doesn’t need any salsa or anything additional. Definitely my favourite thing that night.

Overall, it was a really enjoyable evening. We sat down at some benches facing the Muttart and just enjoyed the scenery. Everything was really good that night, aside from the ceviche. I’d say that you can’t really go wrong with any of your options there! If you’re really hungry though, I’d go for the tortas. I think you get the most meat with it, and the bread is really filling! It is a little bit more, but I’d say you definitely get your money’s worth. The Pescado tacos are amazing, so if you need one take home message, try the fish tacos.