The New Rancho Relaxo/Cantina

Lawrence, Steve and Will.

After volunteering at the Scott Mission I went to dinner with Will, Steve and Lawrence. It was sort of a late birthday dinner for me. I suggested going to the nearby Rancho Relaxo which I really liked.

When we got there it looked totally different. They had renovated the restaurant to look more upscale. As well, the menu was revised to reflect the new decor. It was slicker and slightly pricer with less choice. Boo.

Gone were a lot of the traditional Mexican dishes such as fajitas, the pescado de Corona (grouper with avocado mousse) or my favourite steak enchiladas with refried beans. They were replaced with trendy, decidedly non-Mexican fare such as Ratatouille, Gnocchi, Seafood Ravioli and New York Strip Steak.

William and I had the hybrid Enfrijoladas which was sort of like steak enchilada, only with mushrooms instead of steak; Lawrence had the soup of the day and a couple of rather small tacos; and Steve had a variety of four small tacos too (at a rather exorbitant price of $4 each). It was pretty food, but not so filling.

I miss the old Rancho Relaxo with the tacky decor, friendly staff, yummy food and generous portions. And all a very reasonable prices.

Rancho Relaxo

I went to dinner at Rancho Relaxo with my friend on Saturday. We had a Living Deal voucher (I believe that was the company) that was good for $40 worth of food, but no alcohol unfortunately. I pretty much had my heart set on Mexican food and beer.

Since Rancho Relaxo is pretty much the only Mexican restaurant I know, by default, it's my favorite. It's located on College Street, a block west of Spadina. Just north of Kensington Market and Chinatown.

As usual I had the Enchilada de Casa with steak. It's steak wrapped in a soft corn tortilla with melted cheese, sour cream and their house salsa. It's served on a piping hot plate with rice, refried beans and house salad.

My friend tried the Pescado de Corona. It's a pan-fried filet of Atlantic Grouper smothered in a smooth avocado mousse. I tried some. It was good. Not as good as my enchilada, but good still. I guess I'm just partial to enchiladas here, so nothing can top them. It was also served with rice, refried beans and house salad.

Since we couldn't use the voucher towards alcohol we scanned the dessert selections. One of their specialties is Deep Fried Ice Cream, so we ordered that. It's vanilla ice cream battered and deep fried with cinnamon and honey/agave drizzled on top. Yummy with a capital Y.

I tried to order the Chocolate Cheesecake as well, but they didn't have that. So we tried the Chocolate Fudge Cake. They didn't have that either. They did have Volcano Cake. So we had that. It was very good too. It's a chocolate cake with soft chocolate goop inside. I guess the best way I can describe it. We had it with water because their coffee machine was out of order too.

Rancho Relaxo

I went to dinner with my friends at Rancho Relaxo last week. It's a Mexican restaurant on College, one block west of Spadina. I eat here a couple times a year on average. My favorite dish is the Enchilada de Casa. It's a soft, corn tortilla filled with your choice of chicken, steak, pork or veggies and topped with cheese and sour cream. More often than not I opt for the steak. The dish is served with rice, refried beans and house salad. Yummy.

We were supposed to meet at 7:00 p.m. I was there first, followed shortly by my friend Catherine who I used to work with. It was good to see her again. I hadn't seen her in four months. Jay showed up next. I've known him since we were in grade 9. He lived with his parents on the street behind mine. We don't see each other so often now. By chance we ran into each other this past summer at Yonge and Dundas. He was on his motorcycle going south on Yonge and I was riding my bike north. I got stuck at a light, but managed to turn around and catch up to him. Truth is you can't travel that quickly on the roads in the city. It's just too congested. Bike is the best way to get around when the weather is nice.

Daphne and Diane were next. I know Diane through Daphne. We first met three or four years ago, if I'm not mistaken, when Diane came from Korea to visit Daphne here. I traveled with Diane in Japan back in 2007. At that time her company was sending their employees to Tokyo every so often for work. So she knew her way around quite well. It was a great help to me. Daphne and I first met at work. She's a Resale Homes magazine customer service rep. Everybody likes her.

Anyway, dinner was great. Daphne and Catherine also had Enchiladas. Jay had the Fish Tacos and Diane had a Veggie Quesadilla. Afterwards we shared an apple cake dessert and deep fried ice cream.

Delicious food and engaging conversation with good friends. What more could you ask for?

P.S. - The above photo isn't mine. Catherine took it while fooling around with my camera. I thought it was quite colourful, so I decided to use it. All my friends are camera shy for some reason, so no shots of any of them. What can you do?