Playa Cabana – Hacienda

I just got the Street Style Pollo Tina Burrito from Über Eats and I can honestly say its the worst burrito i have ever had. Its advertised as Chicken but there was literally no chicken in it. It was a rice roll with some beans in it. It cost $ 16.00!!! Crazy. Save your money and go to Burrito Boyz and get two burritos for the same price and twice the size. I’ve requested a refund and thew the thing in the trash where it belongs.
Update: Über Eats refunded the full amount. There were other complaints.

Sat outside on the patio of Hacienda. The food was not good and overpriced for the quality. Service was not good either, waitress barely came by our table after we ordered. I 100% won’t go back there. There are many other Mexican restaurant in Toronto where you can get better quality food and at the same price point.

Yesterday was a beautiful warm night in the city and my partner and I decided to go on a drive to find a nice patio to sit on. We were driving down avenue road when something caught our eyes. I immediately turned around because we had a good feeling about this place. We parked and walked over and we’re promptly greeted and seated. We were a bit sad that the patios and kitchen close at 11 and we got there at 10:50, so we sat inside and made our orders quickly. I still wish we could’ve sat on the patio :)
We got our drinks and the guacamole and chips, so good. Freshly fried corn chips and the guacamole was delicious too. And then our tacos came which were amazing too. I got 3 chicken tacos and my partner got the vegan tacos and both tasted really great! There was a selection of hot sauces at the table and all of them were fun to test and try out, and turned out to be really good :)
The menu was small but exactly what was needed. Not overwhelming — you kinda know what you’re getting when you come in and it’s all on that menu. Gluten free and vegan options available!
The music and overall atmosphere here is hard to top. Raggaeton and salsa music playing all night to really make you feel like you’re somewhere on vacation.
I loved this place so much, truly a hidden gem. I’ll definitely be back.

The presentation and atmosphere is excellent. The period when this restaurant is open is short. Only in summer so catch while you can. I think once a summer is not a bad idea. The food is from southern regions of Mexico and is authentic to the region so don’t expect canadian style food.

Nice staff and interior but thats only thing good about this place. Food is terrible… definitely not genuine maxican and totally overpriced. Would never come back.
Music was bad too they played bad classic rock like eye of the tiger

i thought the food was just OK, campechana was nice but a tad salty, short ribs were meh, hard shell was nice but meat was lackluster and missing some «pow «. This was one of those places where the service level was a slight miss, drinks took far too long to come out (bartender was new perhaps), server had a bit too much of that «toronto snob» attitude. cocktail menu is OK, but not that adventurous and with so many tequilas at the bar i thought a better promoted tequila flight would be in order (sample 4 – 5 different brands). This place pales in comparison to playa’s Cocina Economica, where the service is absolutely fantastic and the food much more flavorful.
nice location, this old house has been a restaurant for as long as ive remember it ant at the corner of dupont and avenue couldnt be much more accessible for those in mid/​uptown and downtown

This review is based on my most recent experience here which was on cinco de mayo.
The service was really good and quick. Everything I ordered was on point and better then usual considering how busy they were. I was honestly impressed with the quality & quantity. Food was amazing and i could say without a doubt the fish tacos were soooo delicious! I ordered the battered shrimp with sesame for the first time and im glad i did! I was love the flavor and texture and it had a specific sauce drizzled on top that was exploding with flavor.
I ordered a bulldog baby (margarita with a coronita) and the presentation was really cute and i enjoyed every bit of it!
The churros with melted caramel and marshmallows was melt in your mouth good. It was heavenly and im a sicker for churros.
I have zero complaints and I loved everything from beginning to end. They really hit a home run!

Liked the small cozy restaurant with good service. However I wasn’t a big fan of their vegetarian soya tacos. My friend got chicken burrito and said it was decent. Felt it was too pricey for an average quality food.

Creative menu, very nice staff. Great night with dinner and drinks. We will go back for sure. LA truck taco was reordered at our table a few times. We are not sure if we like playa cabana or playa hacienda.

I love this restaurant! Like the other Playa Cabana restaurants in Toronto, this place made me love Mexican food. The tacos here are out of this world. The jerk lobster taco is without a doubt one of the best tacos I have eaten in Toronto. The restaurants is three floors and has a patio out back. Service is always good and food is always delivered quickly. Although pricy, I am always craving for more.

One of a few «Playa Cabana» restaurants in the city, and just down the street from it’s smaller, sister store «La Carnita».
Playa Cabana certainly hit the spot when we were craving Mexican… we sat on the back patio, which is fully enclosed («winterized») and heated with heat lamps. We were more than comfortable and happy to be accommodated so easily at 7pm on a Friday night.
The food was delicious — we had tried several of the tacos, as well as the ceviche appetizer… delicious. We could not leave without trying their churro poutine, which surprised us in it’s simplicity (we were expecting a bit of a gross concoction).
Our server was amazing, friendly, and extremely helpful with her recommendations.
We’ll definitely be back!

I’ve been to the Original Playa Cabana, Bar Correano, and tonight, we visited the Hacienda. While I was not so impressed with Bar Correano, and I loved the original, I found Hacienda to be a charming medium. The chips were great as were all the salsas. Short Rib tacos were nothing short of amazing, but I found that there was less meat in these ones than the ones I ordered from the original location down the street. We also tried the LA Truck tacos, but we both agreed that the Short ribs are the best!
Margaritas are great and never too sweet. We started off with a house cocktail made of mint, strawberry, tequila and lime. I can’t remember the name, but they were refreshing and delicious.
Our server was great. So professional, always making sure that things were cleared off our table and returning to ask if we needed more drinks, chips or water. She was actually very sweet with zero hipster ennui.
I might even have given 5 stars, but there was a family of kids beside us and the kids were all up out of their seats and being loud and whiny. I know this is not the fault of the restaurant, but it’s really annoying. Leave your kids at home, cuz I was smart enough not to have them and don’t want to fit yours into my comfortable adult lifestyle. When I was a kid I would have been whacked for getting up out of my seat and complaining about the food.
From now on, when kids start acting up beside me, I’m going to get really drunk and start burping.
Overall a super solid place for yummy Mexican food and I will be back!

This place has a pretty nice ambience. The back patio was rustic and bright; very spacious. Service was friendly but a bit slow; servers tend to mingle with one another and disappear for a while. However, they did come by with free tequila.
We wanted burritos but later found out that they only served it inside and not on the patio (it’s still the same restaurant…). There would be only tacos and a few other items on the menu. They will ask you if you want chips and guac when you sit down — keep in mind that it is not complimentary and will set you back $ 9 (they ask before you get the menu and see the price), just like the other Playa Cabana location. But if you want chips and guac, go for it.
We had 3 sets of tacos: braised short ribs, chorizo verde and pulpo (grilled octopus). The first two were similar but I preferred the sauce of the braised short ribs more. I was surprised that the octopus was very tender (not tough or chewy).
As far as the tacos go, Seven Lives does it better but the ones here are still good. This place has a nicer ambience if you want to sit and lounge.

Taco places have been popping up around Toronto recently and this is one of the latest. A quaint restaurant right off Dupont and Avenue, there was a huge line up in. Braving to sit on the recently rained-​on patio furniture, we quickly ordered. Corn for starters, followed by fish tacos, LA truck tacos and braised ribs tacos, we ate in gusto. The food was nicely presented and tasty but small considering it’s a 5 $ dollar taco. The margarita was similarly expensive and underwhelming. The service was also very attentive but disorganized.
Do not bring someone here on a first date unless you want them to see you reading messily with your hands and face. I think some wet naps would’ve gone a long way.
Overall a nice little taco joint with a slightly higher price tag.

The food — four stars and a half —
the food was really good, we ordered a few different tacos and we liked them all, they have different options for the tortilla; soft tortilla, fried tortilla (tostada almost), lettuce «tortilla» (you use the lettuce as the tortilla)
As dessert we had the churros poutine AMAZING, if you love cajeta (it’s a thicker version of Dulce de leche) you will enjoy this very very much.
My hubby and I wanted to also try the dark chocolate cake and they were out of it.
The drinks — two stars —
Ok. I work in the industry and sometimes that makes me criticize a lot and expect a lot, thankfully I got my hubby who tells me when I am exaggerating, sadly this time it wasn’t me it was the bartender.
We were seating right beside the bar in the patio at the back of the restaurant (very cool patio) I got a drink menu different my hubby we didn’t notice until I ordered a drink and I was told I couldn’t order from that menu because that was the inside menu. Anyways I ordered the sangria and he ordered Dave’s Margarita, my drink was not good, not bad, nothing special… My hubby’s drink was ok. We saw the bartender really struggling making the drinks, no measurements and not rinsing the shakers. I decided I didn’t want another drink, I didn’t have lots of options and I didn’t like the idea of having my drinks in plastic cups (that it’s probably an Ontario law or something, but still) however my husband ordered a second one and let me tell you, the «Margarita» was white and it didn’t taste like the first one at all, it tasted mainly like fake lime. I understand she was busy and I understand sometimes you don’t have time to measure the exact amount of each ingredient but you have ONE job and it’s making drinks, that’s why you should try every drink that you make, just like a chef in the kitchen you have to know you are giving quality drinks and most of all consistency.
The place itself (décor, ambience) five stars
The place it’s sooo cool, love the décor, love the location, the rustic feeling.
The service was ok, they were busy,
I asker my server coffee and she said no coffee was served in the patio but we saw people having Coffee so we asked the manager if there was coffee allowed in the patio and she said yes of course…
We are probably gonna go back and seat inside, make a reservation (they were full inside and the wait was an hour) and hope the bartender inside has a clue in the drink making.

Atmosphere was great however I found the food was just ok. I got the chicken enchiladas which was amazing but I found the rice was undercooked and the beans were overcooked so my meal felt incomplete but I will go back and try the tacos and some alcoholic drinks.

Hmm…
Came here to eat last night and sad to say this was not my favorite experience in Toronto. I’ve already done overpriced taco joints with loud music (see the Grand Electric) and to me its kind of an overdone fad.
Where to start: the tables are kinda jammed together and you can’t help but ease drop. They might as well go for communal pick nick tables with how close everyone is seated.
Service. As a consequence of the cluttered seating I was constantly getting jostled by the servers as they moved the food. At one point my coat slipped off my chair and our waiter picked it up, while scolding me for my chair hanging abilities. He also forgot my tequila.
Food: Had a plate of guac and chips and three tacos: LA truck (steak bavette) the short rip and the fish taco. All were decent, with crunchy garnish and decent sauce. I was tempted by the three for 15 (but you can only get one kind), so each was $ 6. The guac was nothing special
So here is the rub. The ambiance and service were not great and the food wasn’t good enough to rescue it. There are lots stellar low end Mexican options around. (Check out St Clair and Kensington Market) and really good high end Mexican at Valdez.
This may be a cheap night out for the couple next to me who were reading a Toronto star article about themselves and kept calling the premier «my friend Kathleen» but I will take more affordable and just as well cooked Mexican at places like Emporium Latino and Azteca.

One of my favourite spots in the city. Adorable outdoor space for a tasty, funky and sophisticated brunch. Cozy up inside with a Mezcal Ceasar in the winter for a pleasant dining experience. Good any time of the day. Unreal music. Nutty good décor.

I’m not nearly as impressed with Hacienda as I am with Playa Cabana down the street. True, the décor at Hacienda is super cool, with its giant illuminated signs reading BAR and LIQUOR, and its collection of pulley hook things at the front entrance.
But the tables are crammed together wayyy too tight. We sat elbow to elbow with couples on either side of us, and it was nearly impossible not to eavesdrop anytime we paused to take a bite. Awkward seating arrangement, for sure. (There were plenty of open tables in the restaurant… why did they have to seat people on either side of us, literally inches away?) Also, I found it too brightly lit in there, which further detracted from the ambiance.
But really, it was the food that left me most disappointed. We ordered a trio of grilled fish tacos, which we’ve always thoroughly enjoyed at Playa Cabana. At Hacienda – not so much. They just weren’t good at all.
The sangria, so skilfully concocted at Playa Cabana, also fell short here.
The saving grace was the beef shortrib taco, which thankfully has the same magic formula we fell in love with at Playa Cabana. If you do come to Hacienda, order the shortrib taco or miss out on a divine mess of savoury, crunchy goodness.

A friend recommended this place to me and on my last night in toronto a small group of us made an early reservation to get a prime seat on the front patio.
I can’t remember what it was called but I ordered a cocktail with ginger beer in it. High recommended! I only had 1 — but if I didn’t have to fly the net day I would have had a few more — fantastically unexpected bite!
Started with chips and salsa and guacamole — seriously could have made a meal of these and almost did. Chips were served warm. We were all in our glory!
Nadine and Karen and I decided to split two orders of tacos which ended up being a perfect amount of food — short ribs on one side and LA truck (I think they were called) on the other. Equally delicious. Howard ordered tacos with poblano peppers and cheese and ate all 3 without a peep so I know him enjoyed them! We also shares an order of corn on the cob for the table. I would love to find the recipe — they were a major hit with our table!
We topped of the meal by splitting a churro a poutine between the four of us. The churro a were delicious on their own but the hot Carmel sauce and melting marshmallows added to the experience — and there were 4 in the order so we were all happy!
Service also should be noted as it was fantastic. Very good recommendations — we took them all — and very pleasant attitude. She went to find out what was on the corn for us and was back in seconds with the ingredients. Haylen always had a smile on her face and everyone there seemed really nice — we will definitely be back!