Vancouver has a huge concentration of restaurants, no joke. Even for someone as greedy as me, I can’t eat at every place I want to due to time, money, and mood. It took me being on a staycation before I was finally able to check out Molli Cafe. It’s a cute, small space with friendly service. Recommended if you’re in the area.
Weird that I tried this place the day after I did the taco blowout at Four Winds tasting room. But I guess it established a baseline to compare. Molli Cafe is on Burrard near Davie St., just to the left of the Esso station.
I wondered how this place stacked up against the current kingpins, La Taqueria, and also Sal y Limón and newcomers La Catrina on Denman… I frankly miss the days of Chilo’s Taqueria and Dona Cata, when authentic Mexican soft tacos was new and amazing.
Side note: the owners of Dona Cata (and the ill-fated La Tequileria) are now in Maple Ridge, running Lupita Mexican Foods. I haven’t been out that way to try it.
They’re only open until 7pm, Monday to Saturday. Closed Sundays. So more of a late breakfast, lunch, or early dinner-type place.
They have a small selection of pastries, including this thing that looks like a concha (Mexican sweet bun)?
Menu boards 1-3. Four tacos on offer, plus a special beef one that’s unlisted. The flavours stick to the traditional Mexican taco flavours that you might’ve seen at La Taqueria, etc.
Menu boards 3-4. Since I’ve been disappointed with the tortas from Duffin’s Donuts on Knight and 41st, I might come back to try a torta. Their soup of the day was something with rice, and once I heard that it wasn’t pozole (Mexican hominy soup) I sorta tuned out. Sorry 😛
Note: they do not have a salsa bar. They offer a default mild red salsa, but they also have a hot salsa verde (possibly containing habanero).
I got two tacos to start: Papas con chorizo (housemade chorizo, potato, sour cream, and cilantro)…
…and a Conchita Pibil (marinated pork in achiote sauce, cabbage, and pickled onions). Last time I had a pibil-style taco it was the pork belly pibil at the Native Tongues Taqueria in Calgary. That was a weakly flavoured disappointment. Thankfully, this Conchita Pibil tasted full and flavourful with or without the accompanying red salsa.
The chorizo and potato taco (above) unfortunately tasted mostly of potato and sour cream. The chorizo part was in the background. Still tasty, but if you order chorizo, you expect chorizo to be the predominant flavour. This skewed a bit towards perogies in a taco.
On the whole I was pleased with how their tacos came together so I ordered the beef taco that was the special taco of the day. I didn’t get a full name or description, but it was also one of the better tacos. Tender briskety-type meat with a bit of a saltier profile than my other two tacos, with a stewed tomato-type flavour.
Tortillas look to be about 4″ to 4.5″ in size and were warmed up nicely and pliable. But at $2.75 each (works out to $11 for four tacos) the amazing and not-quite-traditional tacos at Four Winds Brewery seem not that expensive afterall ($12 for four).
A good place to check out if you’re in the area, but with multiple La Taqueria locations that offer tacos that imho are on-par with this place (plus more variety AND a salsa bar), I wouldn’t quite go out of my way to eat here. If they have the hard-to-find pozole or banana leaf tamales, it might give you extra incentive to go. Check their Instagram for the latest specials.