This review was written by my husband, Christopher. On top of his full-time job, he is also a part-time freelance writer.
The menu for La Bamba restaurant can be found online, and items that are NOT gluten-free are marked as so. They also offer a variety of vegan or vegetarian items.
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Standing on Confusion Corner at the south end of Winnipeg’s Osborne Village, we are getting more frustrated as we look around – definitely confused – searching for building number 222. We have just come from a movie and are looking for La Bamba, a Mexican food restaurant that offers gluten free menu items.
Minutes before, we had been navigating through the light afternoon traffic up St. Mary’s Avenue and down River Avenue in an attempt to sneak into the Osborne Village. My plan had been to find parking on a residential side-street – which I did after further navigating through the traffic calming circles on Nassau before turning onto Gertrude Street. But now that we had gotten out and walked down Osborne to the Pembina/Corydon interchange – without finding our destination, I was wishing I had my own personal Ferdinand Magellan to help me navigate. I would have even settled for a Magellan or Garmin GPS system.
We walked north, from 230 Osborne to 214 Osborne without finding the restaurant. Then, Jeanine pointing to the only building that looked like it could house a restaurant said: “Maybe we should walk down that sidewalk.”
She was right. La Bamba Restaurant is tucked away in the lower back of the building that sits at the south-east corner of Osborne, just before the interchange. Had I known, we would have parked at the rear and saved some rubber on the bottom of our Birkenstocks.
We walked down the stairs into the basement of the old building, announced our arrival to a mostly empty dining room and were promptly seated a half hour before our reservation time. Jeanine had purchased a Groupon coupon which had stated a reservation was necessary.
After briefly discussing whether we would order Nacho starters, we decided to go straight to the entrée. I ordered Tacos de Quesocarne which is “Three corn tortillas with steak, grilled onion & cheese, topped with fresh cilantro and accompanied with rice, beans and Guacamole” ($17.99).
Jeanine ordered Quesadillas: “Three corn tortillas stuffed with melted cheese, onion and accompanied with rice and beans” ($15.99) and added shredded chicken ($2).
Chips and salsa accompany every meal, unfortunately when the waitress brought them she informed us that, while the chips and salsa were gluten free, they were deep fried in oil that had been used to fry breaded items. Thus, I was left with the task of finishing the chips. The salsa that accompanied them was more a dipping oil with finely chopped peppers - piquant - but not offensively so.
The beauty of Mexican cuisine is in its simplicity. Rice, beans and corn, cilantro, peppers and spices, maybe some chicken or beef and you have a wonderful meal with simple elegance. The food arrived promptly, well heated and plated appealingly. Portions didn’t look like large at first but that was deceptive as neither of us had room for dessert.
The restaurant itself is small and, when we arrived shortly after 5pm on a Sunday afternoon, was relatively empty. The interior was a mixture of the building’s original brick work, at or nearing heritage age, and orange stucco walls that evoked the architecture and palette of Mexican decor. A Mexican flag hung proudly from the wall I was facing. The seating is at tables in a dimly lit, romantic atmosphere that would be great for couples or groups.
How do you rate a restaurant? With stars, check-marks or adjectives like good, great or fantastic? Jeanine always waits until the following day to see if she feels any effects from cross contamination - she didn’t which from a Celiac piece-or-mind evaluation, is a rave. I would give La Bamba a solid 4 out of 5 stars on my arbitrary scale because I really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere.
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