Say “Ole!“

¡Órale! offers a tempting taste of Mexico

Working at the Canada Revenue building just got a whole lot better. You know the one: it’s that big white office building at Johnson and Vancouver with the perpetually changing restaurant a few steps below street level. Proprietor Scott Martin, who lived in Mexico for several years, has now brightened up that corner with ¡Órale! and brought his experiences with taquerias, fiestas, Mexican weddings and traditional homemade meals back with him to Victoria, alongside some Mexican slang. (According to the online urban dictionary, “orale” is a term with several possible meanings, including “Hell yeah,” “Right on” and, my personal favourite, “A term of excitement like yeehaw is to country folk.”) But however you choose to translate it, saying “¡Órale!” should make you feel good—and eating here should too.

Believe it or not, all items are between $2 and $5, and if you’re part of a small group that wants to sample pretty much everything on the à la carte menu you can do so for around 40 bucks. (I can hear the yeehaws from here!) Even the drinks are cheap: help yourself to some fun, refreshing, colourful Mexican soft drinks and juices ($1.50) from the cooler, or ask for a bottle of Mexican cerveza, the usual suspect ($5). The counter service is friendly and helpful, and suits the atmosphere of the place, which is also very casual. Grab your own utensils, napkins and ice water, let the upbeat Latino music wash over you and take a seat inside or out on the patio with the bright blue-and-white umbrellas.

Like the street food that inspired much of the menu, everything is served in small disposable containers. And when your food arrives, the tiny prices start to make sense as the portions are, for the most part, pretty small as well. This is great for lunch or even an afternoon snack, and if you’re there for a full meal you can sample a few things without stuffing yourself.

Soft corn tacos ($2 each or three for $5) are made with 4-inch tortillas and are available with various traditional fillings—which means tender, full-flavoured pulled pork, beef and chicken instead of ground meat, and two vegetarian options with fillings such as stripped cactus paddles and Pablano chilies with onion, corn and cream. Asking about the spice level is helpful if you’ve got a tender tongue—some of theses pack a real punch.

If ¡Órale! has a specialty, it would have to be the tasty tamales ($4.50), which I believe are the only ones in town. An ancient indigenous American dish, these are described on the menu as light corn-flour dumplings stuffed with your choice of chicken, with either salsa verde or salsa mole, or Poblano chilies, onion, corn and cheese. Time-consuming to prepare, these are wrapped in corn husks and steamed in batches until firm. The latest batch of mole tamales was not ready yet, so we had a chicken with green salsa and one of the vegetarian versions and enjoyed them both.

For a crispier option, try the attractive vegetarian tostadas ($3 each or two for $5), possibly my favourite item. Deep-fried crunchy 4-inch corn tortillas are topped with black beans, lettuce, sour cream, salsa and crumbly white cheese, and for only 75 cents you can add any taco filling, transforming into an omnivores delight. Try the tinga—a spicy, chipotle-infused mix of shredded beef, pork and chorizo sausage, or the chicken roja, tender pulled chicken stewed in red salsa. Similarly, any taco filling can be added to the tiny melty cheese quesadillas ($2 each or three for $5) for the same price.

Martin is also marketing his place as a Mexican deli, so if you want to prepare some traditional Mexican dishes at home, ¡Órale! is the place to pick up some of those harder to find spices, dried chilies and canned goods, along with masa corn flour for making tamales, that famous chocolate mole sauce for stuffing them, and corn husks to steam them in. And if, like me, you adore the famous flavour of canned chipotle peppers, you can buy them here in four different sizes, the largest being the industrial sized can containing over six pounds of the spicy smoked jalapeños in adobe sauce. Hell yeah!

And don’t miss getting a tiny pack of gum from the counter candy stash for only five cents, the same kind that is sold on the streets of Mexico, in flavours that vary from mint to cinnamon to violet. In fact, these candies could be a metaphor for this place—yummy, inexpensive, small portions infused with fun, and straight from the heart of Mexico. ¡Órale! M

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¡Órale!
1002 Johnson
11a.m.-7p.m. Monday-Saturday, closed Sunday
250-590-3370 • orale.ca