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Cuban inspired restaurant in Vancouver? You don’t see many of them around, but there’s one right in Mount Pleasant. Tocador opened just last year and it’s all about the cocktail menu and share plates. I actually had the pleasure to interview one of its co-owners, Guy, a few years ago. This time, I was invited to sample the menu at Tocador.

Cocktails

First of all, let’s talk about its cocktail menu. It’s two pages long! One page is full of the classics, such as Negroni, Mojito, Hot Buttered Rum, Manhattan and Mai Tai. The other, is a list of original cocktails created by the team at Tocador. The two owners both started out as a bartender so it only makes sense that they pay a lot of attention to the cocktail menu. They infuse a lot of their liquors so you would see something like mango butter infused rum, red bell pepper infused mezcal and paprika infused tequila.

The Escocesa, for example, uses beet infused Dewars scotch.

Mr. described as a “mature take on a fun drink”. There was hint of smokiness and hint of sweetness; good balance of flavours. It had enough kick but just right for a school night. It was easy drinking, not too harsh.

I’m not an Aperol Spritz girl but I quite enjoyed the Guava Spritz. It’s fruity on the palate and fragrant on the nose from the perfumed geranium that was sprayed at finish. The guava note takes away the typical bitterness that I find in Aperol Spritz and I much prefer this version of it.

Food

In terms of food, Tocador sources their ingredients locally as much as they can. Their supplier provides them with an assortment of vegetables, different cuts of meat and seafood every time, and it’s up to the kitchen team to create something interesting. It’s like subscribing to those boxes and you would be surprised by every shipment. We were provided with two dishes and we paid for two additional plates on our own.

They have Whole Animal Butchery on the fresh sheet because it depends on what’s being provided by the supplier. This time, it was roasted beef cheeks, with caramelized endive sauce, sliced giant turnip and roasted peanut crumble. As soon as it got to the table, the scent of peanut oil hit the nose. Meat was very tender and flavourful. The endive sauce was sweet and added to the decadence of the meat. A decadent sweet and savoury combo. The giant radish brought freshness and bitterness to cut through the richness, and the crushed peanut gave crunch texture. This was market price and this dish was priced at $25. We easily had 10 big pieces of meat on the plate.

Next, Zaklan Carrots, roasted, with carrot top caramel, shaved white carrot and roasted almonds. Another caramel sauce but totally different – this one had a deep, rich, smokey flavour, almost molasses like. The roasted carrot, while sweet, still had some crunch. It’s contrasted by the shaved raw white carrot, which had an earthy note to it.

What is Castelfranco? It’s a type of chicory, in the family of radicchio. The Fire Roasted Castelfranco was sitting on top of stewed beans in a meat salsa roja (i.e. red sauce), drizzled with sausage vinegar. The meat salsa roja was basically made with any meat ends from the butchery. As expected, there’s bitterness from the castelfranco, and the sauce brought some heat. The stewed beans in the salsa roja was hearty and reminded me of chili.

Lastly, heat tamed jalapenos that weren’t so tamed. These Crispy Plump Jalapenos were stuffed with rice, pork and egg and boy, did they pack some heat!! Mr. thought it wasn’t too bad but I found them too spicy for me and I couldn’t really taste the stuffing. The three-cheese cheesy sauce had horseradish in it so it was extra potent. By the way, we were told the cheesy sauce used to be John Wick sauce so this was already a “tamed” version.

Final Thoughts

Meat-ends salsa roja, carrot top caramel…Tocador prides themselves for reducing food waste as much as possible and use all parts of vegetables and animal in their cooking. The end results? I thought the flavours of all the dishes were very good, and the kitchen team make some excellent, unique sauces. Tocador opens till late every day and its menu is designed for sharing. It’s a great place for some cocktails and bites, from happy hour to late into the night.Disclaimer: Part of this dinner was provided to us complimentary of the restaurant. Views and opinions are however our own.