La Bamba's chicken tortillas, refried beans and Mexican rice more than satisfy a craving for south of the border cuisine.
La Bamba Restaurant
Address: 637 Corydon Avenue
Phone Number: 204-415-9355
Website: http://www.labambarestaurant.ca
Neighbourhood: Corydon
“I cleaned my plate.”
“Yes, we don’t even need to put it through the dishwasher.”
This was a snippet of a conversation overheard at La Bamba Restaurant between a diner and a server clearing the table.
And sure enough, at the end of our meal of Mexican favourites, our plates were cleaned too.
We arrived with a keen, heartfelt hankering for a decent Mexican meal and we left La Bamba satisfied and then some.
The owners are actually from Mexico and are using family recipes inside the kitchen. La Bamba owners Edgar Rascon and Juan Godinez opened their first location in 2007 in Saskatoon with a mandate to serve fresh, from-scratch Mexican food that tastes like home.
It’s a family-run operation and sure enough, the family, including three young kids, were in house at the Corydon Avenue location decorating the Christmas tree at the front entrance during our visit.
The staff are remarkably friendly. No aloof servers here.
Every meal starts with a basket of tortillas and a sweat-inducing salsa verde.
Shredded chicken tacos on real corn tortillas were fresh and fantastic loaded with diced ripe tomatoes, a hint of lime and roughly chopped cilantro. (Authentic corn tortillas should be a given at all Mexican restaurants but sadly that is not always the case.) Shredded beef taquitos brought the heat.
Refried beans and tomato-tinged Mexican rice also hit the spot.
Lime margaritas (three of them, but who’s counting) were a perfect pas de deux of sweet and sour followed by a smooth, warm denouement of tequila.
Afterwards, three scoops of tequila-spiked, house-made ice cream clinched the deal. La Bamba makes three versions: tequila only, strawberry-tequila, and mango tequila. For tequila lovers, go straight to the tequila-only version.
La Bamba has two other locations in Winnipeg; one in Osborne Village and one downtown on Portage Avenue. In May 2010, La Bamba opened their first Winnipeg location in the village.
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