La Carnita - Leslieville

Great service, and really helpful and friendly staff

We had dinner here on Saturday night with friends. They enjoy Mexican food as we do. We’ve been to several Mexican restaurants in the city and this wasn’t our first trip to this restaurant.
We had a reservation and were seated with no problem, our server was pleasant and attentive. We all enjoyed our drinks and dinners no complaints at all.
My only comment was the music was so loud that everyone there seemed to be yelling over top of the volume. I’m older but enjoyed the music that was playing but it was seriously and unnecessarily loud for a small space.
Not sure if we’ll be back, at least on a Saturday night.

We made a reservation for a busy Friday night and were seated at a high-top table. My husband asked if we could move away to a table away from the speaker right above our heads, but it was a no-go. The service and food was really great. Portions are smaller, but so tasty. The one issue was NOISE LEVEL. A decimal app showed high80s decibals which is excessive. The staff did not turn down the music when we asked either.

Food wasn’t anything special
Didn’t eat the fish taco. It was very fishy. My friend got the mushroom taco that tasted like balsamic glaze.

Good tasting food and drinks.. Almost 2bills for 4 people is a tad pricey.. All in all a place ibwould revisit.

Birthday, I marked it,

Service was fantastic for our group of three - we didn’t need to ask for anything, he was on top of it.

Service was a bit slow and meals came out at very different times. Also some consistency issues between this and other locations, but otherwise very good.

Our server had a bit too much attitude. He would blatantly say no to our requests only to be redirected by the head chef. He seemed unaware of a lot of the nuances to choices in the restaurant.
Food was on point but our servers reactions were a bit too arrogant for us.

Service was very slow

Love this location as it’s not as busy. Didn’t take an hour to get a table!

The food at La Carnita is always great. We always enjoy going there. On Saturday when we went though, our server was annoyed with us that we were trying to have a leisurely meal. He was not friendly at all and it left a sour taste in my mouth.

Been to a few La Carnita locations and thought it would be a good place to take my boyfriend on his birthday since the Leslieville location was close to our Airbnb, but would give this location 0 stars if I could. We were checked into our reservation 10 mins before we even arrived and when we did, we weren't greeted by anybody. When we sat down, the waiter just left and we had to wait 30+ minutes just for water after asking multiple times. Nobody came and checked on us for food, we had to flag a waiter down. After waiting for an hour and still no food, we decided to cancel our order. We would've cancelled our drinks too had they not arrived, but they arrived poorly made, as if someone just dumped a bunch of liquids into two glasses. We had to pay $30 for drinks we couldn't even drink because they were so terrible. Many others around us were complaining too about missed orders and poor service. I understand it was a busy night as there was a concert across the street, but you would think the location would know better to have more staff. If it was a weekend, I'd understand, but it was a regular Tuesday night. Wasted 1 hour of a meticulously planned birthday night. This will be the last time I will ever be going to La Carnita ever again.

All around great! Busy found it a bit loud. But I would totally come back again always

A great place for a group of friends to meet for drinks and Mexican food for sharing. Good vibe and a nice venue size (smaller) so has an element of intimacy.

Music was wayyyy too loud, we couldn't even talk

Some of the tacos were overly spicy, if someone doesn’t like spicy food there should be a note on the menu identifying the tacos that come hot.
Service was very poor, we sat for about 40 minutes at the end of our dinner and no one approached us, asking whether we want more drinks/desserts/ anything else

Great to share food

Great little Mexican spot. Gotta get the Mexican street corn!

We were seated quickly, and forgotten even quicker. No one came to the table for 10 mins. We left.

I’ve been to other locations. Food is ok, but I (and everyone I’ve eaten there with) don’t like that they bring food out on a tray and you have to free-for-all grab at it and try to remember exactly what you ordered. Just give me my food on one plate, and give my guest their food on one plate.

Service definitely could have been improved. The mojito was awful but the tacos were so tasty

Ordered drinks, appetizers, and mains. Waited over 30 minutes and nothing arrived despite other tables seated after us ordering and receiving drinks and food. We left.

Great food and nice cocktails! A little to warm in the restaurant otherwise we would have stayed longer

Fairly hot in the restaurant but good vibes

Food was so good! we ordered a bit of everything. Service was a little slow and they could easily have sold us more drinks! But i think they were understaffed. Delish!

The service was as excellent as the food! I would definitely come back again.

The tacos are delicious and spicy. Had the achiote chicken taco and in cod we trust taco. The margaritas are yummy... 10$ a piece so kind of pricey.

Great place with good service and food. Was a bit noisy due to a bachelorette party but otherwise seemed fine.

Service was inattentive. Food was good. Loud.

We waited over 2 hours for just our apps. Didn’t know who our waiter was as 3 different people came by multiple times ...... we finally got our our food 2 hours later. Food was okay .... I wouldn’t recommend coming to this location.

Fantastic food. Not a typical authentic Mexican restaurant (not that there's anything wrong with that). Tacos are one taco per order and are smallish but so good. Way better beer selection than any other Mexican restaurant I've been to. They had all the usual Mexican beers plus a fairly large selection of local beers. I had a Left Field IPA (laser show or something) . Best Canadian beer I've ever had. Just a great dinner.

First time eating at this location and it was sadly disappointing. Myself and 10 year old son were seated by the bar at a table not big enough for one plate let alone the several plates I ordered. Steak taco was overcooked which was also disappointing considering how consistent the food has been thus far. I will not be eating at this location again. Yonge/Eglinton location is much better when going out to eat with kids.

The tacos were amazing and the service was great! We highly recommend this restaurant.

Everything was great. The only thing that was a little bit of a concern was that the half chicken I ordered as my main, appeared cooked from the outside, but the meat was pretty pink the deeper inside I got, so would recommend a few more minutes cooking to ensure that doesn’t happen again. I didn’t send it back or even mention it on the night and did eat most of it, so you can tell this did not by any means negatively impact my experience there!

Food was mediocre at best. Drinks were good but overpriced. Washrooms were messy with no toilet paper or soap. We felt really rushed, we were continuing to order off the menu both food and drink the whole time we were there, but we’re told after two hours that we had reached our time limit and had to leave. We were surrounded by empty tables and were still steadily spending money. When we asked why we were being forced to leave they simply said two hour max was their policy. Will not be back, food was not good enough to be rushed through

The food was alright but everything was so very salty. More focus on flavour and less on salt would go a long way.

We were seated in the bar area and had 4 different servers attend to our table, until we realized the bartender was actually our designated server. She came to take our taco orders while we were still eating our appetizers and had her elbows spread on our table in a very casual manner. When we were done with our appetizers (we had the corn on the cob) she asked us to move the corn from our side plates onto the main serving board rather than just taking our dirty side dishes and replacing them - she said that we should “save water”. The entire serving experience was extremely awkward, the food was so overly seasoned you couldn’t even taste the food and there was a weird cat litter smell through the restaurant.

La Carnita never disappoints, the food is always great ! If you're craving some good tacos this is the place to go. They also have great vegetarian options.

I love la carnita! Food is always great!

Amazing food and great staff!