Tilde

Is there some district in Mexico who’s cuisine lends itself not so much to jalapeño refried beans and mole, but to Heldmans mayonnaise? Kid you not, burritos, tacos, tortillas, you name it they slather it on everything here. If you are of a persuasion that has an affinity to Wonder white bread and mayo Mexican experience, I don’t think you have anywhere else to go than here.

Ordered a delivery with high expectations that became a huge disappointment. To begin with, the portions from picture to reality — the pictures lie. Ordered rice along with my taco dinner and the rice was completely bland. It made no sense to have it in the end. Now the worst was the «grandma’s pozole». The audacity to call an indian-​style chickpea soup as mexican «grandma’s pozole». The flavor was nothing what a pozole is or should be and on top of that the serving seemed as if it was a leftover from a half eaten soup bowl. a Pozole is an amazing mexican soup, what this place offers is a really bad attempt. All in all, if anyone dares to reinvent something as cultural as mexican cuisine whoever dares better know about traditional flavors as they are the foundation for fusions and reinvention. Sadly, this place is way off by saying that they do mexican food because it is not.

The food was very bland and really quite disappointing. I’ve had better food at chain pubs. The rice served as a side was horrible, overcooked, and flavourless. The pico de gallo was flavourless. How can this be in a Mexican restaurant? Tried many small plates and tacos and all were lacking flavour. The craft beer selection was limited. The food did not resemble anything Mexican in my opinion. Service was friendly and polite. The staff made an effort but the food was truly lacking.

My date and I ate here on a Thursday evening.
It was pretty full due to a paint and dine evening event they had. It made it a bit louder than expected but it was probably better they were there as otherwise the place was a bit empty especially given how big the space is.
It probably seats up to 50 so you can bring a big party here.
The food and presentation were decent. They two veggie tacos we had I enjoyed and the red and green sauce were both nice.
The interior décor could use a splash of something.
Lots of potential here. Great staff. Drink specials.
Check it out especially if you’re in the neighborhood.

First off, the staff are super friendly. Top notch service. They checked in regularly, and honestly asked how the food was. Nice enough that I couldn’t tell them what I really thought.
I ate here through a Pass The Table booking for unique and special dining experiences. In this case an exclusive menu. Seven courses, five tacos. The food was average at best. Anything deep fried was off, seemed like it was cooked too long at to more a temperature (3 courses). One course came out cold and stale. But the Chinese taco was great.
I’m willing to come back and see if their regular menu or specials are better. But I was disappointed.
Drinks are over-​priced too.

Not bad, not the best but I’d eat here again. I think it’s a bit on the pricey side for what you get, the hot sauce they make in house is quite good and the waiter was very nice. The Cactus fritters were not my favourite but the taco’s were pretty good and they have a daily special. Not super authentic, more mexican places need to forget the deep-​fried fish taco and opt for the grilled.

Surprised and pleased to find these folks. The creative food and the quality beer really hit the spot. The décor was all wrong, but we were so happy with everything else that we didn’t mind. Will definitely be coming back!

If I can give them a 0 star I would, I am only giving a 1 star because the waiter was nice.
Cheesy décor, so dark and black, it was 5:30 after work, we were the only ones in there, and we waited sooooooooo long to get our food, we should have realize something when we walked in. What a mistake… the food was horrible, worst tacos ever!

We LOVE Tilde. It’s one of our favourite neighbourhood spots for sure. At lunch they have WICKED specials, and it is possible to have a great lunch for two for $ 16 without tax and tip. Dinner is also very reasonably priced, and you get amazing quality for the price :) The thing that we love most about Tilde is the creative approach to Mexican food, and the incredible… and we mean INCREDIBLE… freshness. Everything from the guac and chips, to the assortment of interesting tacos, to the wings (OMG, the wings!), to the sides, is fresh, fresh, fresh. Each taco has its own spin on taste. No two dishes are the same. There is a super assortment of beers and drinks. Terrific margaritas, on special on Tuesday nights. Wine by the ounce, for $ 1 and ounce. The young owners are lovely, and they deserve to succeed with Tilde!

Visited Tilde on a recent visit to Toronto from NY and was surprised by the quality and creativity of the food. We tried the Guac and chips to accompany the local beers that we were indulging in. Did I mention they have an excellent selection of local beers.
The tacos are their main attraction. The menu offers some innovative combinations like slow cooked pork with mole, Korean chicken and Bengali fish. I ended up trying the daily special which was chorizo along with the mole pork. The mole was well done but it was the chorizo, which I believe they prepare in their own kitchen, that stood out. The portions were sizable which is sad because I was too full to try the Korean pork by the end.
The wings and the accompanying crema were possibility the best in Toronto. I could come to Tilde and just eat the wings and beer too.
Definitely worth visiting. Refreshing to taste food good prepared with care and love. This isn’t just your average Mexican place.

Amazing tacos! We really enjoyed the Pork Belly and the Bengali Fish. Super tasty, and only $ 5!
I consider myself a taco expert, I’ve tried all of the popular, and unpopular tacos in the GTA, Tilde is absolutely worth a visit.
This was my first visit of many. The staff was friendly, the décor was fine. After reading below, and my experience, I’m confident things have changed for the better since opening.

The only thing keeping me from giving this place 1 star is that the waiter was really trying (but was clearly new).
We went here for brunch a few weeks ago and were literally the only table in the restaurant. Yet it still took an hour and a half for the meals to come (no special orders, just straight from the menu).
Now, I like salt — but this food was saltier than salt! I have no clue how EVERYTHING could be that salty! It was disgusting. Even the guacamole was salty! I was super disappointed by the low quality food, especially since it’s the only Mexican place on the Danforth.
The waiter was apologetic about asking us to repeat our order multiple times, but not about the unusual delay. The kitchen staff seemed to be joking around with each other which is fine, but not when it delays food for an hour and a half for your only customers.
If you’re looking for Mexican food in the city, go elsewhere. Even if you live nearby.

Had dinner with a friend, we went in around 7 and were seated right away. I had a cocktail and we each had two tacos + patatas fritas. The tacos were fine. Given the saturation of the Toronto taco scene right now, they really didn’t stand out. The mole was ok and the meat and potatoes, while interesting in concept, was underwhelming.
My cocktail, a ginger berry something, which was apparently their most popular, was way too sweet.
The patatas fritas could have come on the side of any breakfast diner plate. Churros were tasty but nothing special.
Our server was very friendly and obliging, but I won’t be back, partly because I can barely remember what anything tasted like less than an hour later, and a little because the space itself was very dull.

This place deserves better reviews in my opinion. We came here for their special «Wingentine’s Day» menu on Feb.14: AYCE wings and tacos menu. Included in the AYCE menu was a range of appetizers, as well as dessert (which we couldn’t possibly entertain since we binged on tacos).
It was $ 25 per person, and I had never been to Tilde before, so my expectations weren’t super high – I would have been happy with a simple greasy Valentine’s brunch to fuel the day ahead. I was surprised when really tasty, high-​quality food made its way to our table – the tortillas were super fresh and homemade, and the fillings were delicious. We especially liked the fish tacos, but the vegetarian options and Korean chicken were also great. The fiancé had wings (which I couldn’t because of dietary restrictions), which looked and were reported to be really delicious.
Because we hit up the place early, we were one of a few tables, but the service was great. It’s a casual ambience with casual, kinda 90s/​Friends-​esque décor. For what I think Tilde is setting out to do – give people some options for casual but quality eats in the east end – it achieves it well. You get delicious bang for your buck! Check it out when you’re on the D-​forth!

I have held several large events in the past, and the biggest hiccups have been service-​related. Either the food takes too long to get to the guests, the food comes out in waves, or the communication between the kitchen and floor staff is missing, and I have to step in to assert my expectations. At Tilde however, the service was spot on! I was able to comfortably mingle with my guests because the staff at Tilde had everything under control — food was fresh, hot, and came out on a timely and organized fashion. This is even more impressive considering that they had a full house to contend with.
I want to note that one of my guests has a gluten intolerance and we did not tell the restaurant in advance about this (totally my fault!). Yet rather than panic (I was already researching restaurants in the area that had gluten-​free food that I could pick-​up for my guest), they told me that there would be a slight delay because they did not want to contaminate the food for my guest while they were cooking from the event menu (gluten cannot touch my guest’s food or she could get sick), but as soon as they were done serving everyone, they would create for my guest a special three-​course meal that would be gluten-​free. How awesome is that?! Very!
Food
Each person enjoyed the following:
Guacamole and Chips
2 Tacos — 1 Korean Chicken and 1 Bengali Fish
3 Chicken Wings
2 Churros with Chocolate Dipping Sauce
Tilde also created a special cocktail for the event, and discounted all cocktails and beers.
Every dish was cooked to order, and arrived at the table steaming hot and loaded with fresh ingredients.
What we loved:
The chicken wings! Man, those were some ridiculously good wings — large, juicy, and perfectly seasoned. You can’t ask for anything better.
The mango sauce. I could have eaten it with a spoon. Bottle that baby up and you got yourself another successful business. You gotta put it on everything! Trust me! Thank me later.
The tortillas were real tortillas! And they doubled them up! Which was necessary since those tacos were loaded! Thank God, cause there is nothing more that I hate than stingy portions.
The cocktails! I did not have one, but while walking around the room, people could not stop talking about how amazing they were.

I came here once in the summer before their «grand opening», which I think is weird because since their grand opening, they’ve been very selective of the days they are actually open.
I wanted to try the mole taco but they ran out so I had to order something else. Decided to try the fish taco because I like fish. Worst taco ever. The fish was tasteless. It was fried but it was all batter and little to no fish meat at all. Portion size is tiny. For $ 5 a taco, I’d rather get the big bell box at Taco Bell.

We came here on weekday night. As a long time Riverdale resident I’m always very curious and hopeful of new food options opening in the area.
Me and my partner started off with Guac and chips, at $ 7. The chips seeming like the real deal, (fried and fresh) were disappointing. They were not not warm and about half had lost their crunch.
The Guacamole was also disappointing, we both remarked how it seemed like basically raw avocado mashed up with some red onion sprinkled throughout.
The tacos themselves were quite good. Together we had the Korean chicken, fish, and shrimp on the tostada. At $ 5 a pop decent portion and fair value. Good flavours, the fish was fried very nicely.
The Service was quite nice, prompt and with a smile.
The décor is nothing to write home about,
fairly plain. My worry is this place is too large, and it’s on the stretch of the Danforth where foot traffic decline sharply east of pape.
I hope this place succeeds but they’ve got to up there game if they’re gonna compete in the busy restaurant world of the Danforth.
As a side note, if you’re going to use paper menus, they should be in good condition when given to the customer. Perhaps laminate? Or I’ve seen clip boards work quite nicely too.

Maybe Seven Lives in Kensington has ruined me for other quality tacos, but I was really disappointed in the high priced, low quality of Tilde. We had the nopel fritters (catus fritters), and split 3 tacos: Korean Chicken, Smoking Mole, and the Steakhouse.
The Fritters were a soft, with an under cooked texture (the outside looked like the right level of fried, so I’m guessing this is the intentional texture) with a not-​quite crispy exterior. The flavour grew on me, but maybe that was the sauce that accompanied it.
The Korean chicken was the best of the tacos we had because of the slaw and sauce, yum! I would eat this again! The smoking mole’s slow roasted pork dried out my mouth and needed extra sauce plus the pineapple was of the canned variety. Finally the steakhouse was also dry and I could not taste any hint of blue cheese. They also piled a big handful of fresh curly lettuce ontop each taco, I’m not sure why, perhaps to make up for the lack of filling?
There are also two house-​made sauces that sat in jars on our table. The red, ‘spicy’ one was quite tame, and the green ‘mild’ one was not so much a hot sauce but it was delicious. Probably the best part of the meal.
Now, the tacos were slightly smaller with less filling than Seven Lives, but larger than Grand Electric. Our very friendly server suggested 2 – 3 each, so if you have that, plus an appetizer, plus a drink, this is low quality food for high quality price. The décor feels really cheap. Chinatown tables/​chairs, with pretty bad paintings.
If you’re looking for delicious tacos on the Danforth, keep looking.

My husband and I grabbed a drink and quick bite here during the soft opening.
We each had a taco — I had the «Smoking Mole» and he tried the «Bengali Fish». Both were incredibly flavourful, though I wish they had a touch more heat (there was hot sauce provided at the table though). The crispiness of the fish was amazing.
We also had an order of the nopal (cactus) fritters. They were tasty enough, though not sure I’d order them again.
I’ve heard a couple of people complain about the $ 5 price tag on the tacos as compared to places like Grand Electric that charge only $ 3.60, but I found these tacos to be larger than the two-​bite tacos you get for under $ 4.
Tilde also has a nice selection of beer, cocktails (my husband had one of their cocktail creations and seemed to enjoy it) and they have wine on tap!
Our server was wonderful, even asking if we wanted a place setting for our baby. I also appreciated that the owner, Ashwin, came out and introduced himself and was interested in getting our feedback/​suggestions.
The space itself is spacious and has ample seating. We’re told they’ll be getting some highchairs soon too.
Definitely a welcome addition to the neighbourhood.

Just ate here today with much excitement as I’ve been waiting for truly good Mexican food in the east end for some time. I think this is my new place.
My boyfriend and I had one of each of the ~$ 5 taco options. (Minus the steak house taco).
The service was very quick (although the place wasn’t very full) and friendly. We sat near the window, which was open to the Danforth, which was lovely.
The tacos were AMAZING. Each one was different and had great flavour balance. I liked the Black and Yellow best, which was some kind of bean and corn combo. It was sweet and salty and tangy in such a lovely balance. As others have said, the Korean taco is also a must-​try if you’re into asian flavours. The others we tried were also good — there is a coconut fish option and a mole-​based option.
My only complaint is that it seems a little pricey for what you get on a plate. The tacos are about $ 5 each and you only get the one taco in the middle of a plate. I would love to see some beans and rice added as a side. The people making the food obviously have skill with flavours and would probably execute a simple beans/​rice well. This would make it seem more like a meal and be more filling.
Overall though, I will definitely be back. We finally have yummy tacos in the east end!