Gina's Mexican Cafe has been a stable of great food in Nanaimo since 1986. Here are a few reviews to wet your taste buds!
Barber's Best – Vancouver Sun
There are very few places in the world where, for something like $75, two people can take an ocean voyage, complete with embarking and disembarking, walk a mile and a half through a strange little town, get a very good, substantial and inexpensive meal, and get home in time to sleep that night in his or her or their own beds.
The British Columbia Ferry Corp. gets a lot of flack. De‑ servedly. But on a sunny day the ferries are a bargain. Nanaimo is an hour and a half away from Horseshoe Bay, and walk on passengers pay $8.50 each. Get off the ferry, walk south along the waterfront, cross the bridge to downtown and up the hill you can’t miss the big sign MEXICAN RESTAURANT— on the side of an old house.
Gina’s is gorgeously tacky, a B movie of a Mexican restaurant. There’s not a lot of Spanish spoken, but there are bikes and beaters in the parking lot, margaritas and beer on the menu, and a lovely skinny blond waitress with a beautiful, slightly lop-sided "I’ve seen it all" smile straight out of Five Easy Pieces. There’s a view across South Nanaimo for collectors of third-rate views, but the food is outstandingly good. The best restaurant guacamole I’ve eaten since Santo Tomas in the ’70S. It’s piled four scoops high. Flautas crisp and hot from the fryer are stuffed! with fresh local shrimp, there’s a chipotle sauce that’ll take the enamel off your teeth, and there are big local prawns while they last (they’re fresh, not frozen). Chicken, fish, even tofu and kids’ food (no jalapenos), it’s white-trash Mexican food with class.
There are cappuccino machines on the ferry, but for breakfast on the way to Nanaimo recommend a pit stop at West Van’s Savary Island Pie Co. (lovely scones and muffins).
—James Barber, Barber's Best column in the Vancouver Sun, June 10 — 17, 1999
Technicolor tortilla heaven sits atop cliff
RATINGS |
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* |
Serves food |
** |
Needs work |
*** |
Worth a visit |
**** |
Very good |
***** |
Superb |
****.5 |
Gina's Mexican Cafe |
GINA’S MEXICAN CAFE
47 Skinner St., Nanaimo
753-5411
Winter hours:
Mon-Thu 11 am - 9 pm;
Fri 11 am - 10 pm;
Sat 12 am - 10 pm;
Sun noon - 8ish pm.
Wheelchair access available.
Please phone ahead for details.
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a technicolour house perched on the edge of a cliff must be worth a million. I first dropped into Gina’s Mexican Cafe years ago, after its loud jumble of blue-and-pink paint above the traffic caught my eye as I wound my way through downtown Nanaimo. In subsequent visits, I encountered service that ranged from adequate to really good, but the food was always amazing — an effective boost for a jaded palate in dreary winter months, and the perfect excuse for another icy beer during the summer. Sadly, during a badly needed pit stop several years ago, a friend and I had both mediocre food and service, promptly ending the Pavlovian response that normally occurred each time I neared the Harbour City’s core. After a couple of recent visits, however, I’m pleased to say the, thought of a trip up Island has me drooling again.
Gina’s is brilliantly tacky, festooned with multicolored lights and a wealth of Mexican knick-knacks, but remnants of the original house remain. Bare fir floors and fireplace tiles in the main seating area hint at what was once the centre of a family home, details now almost unnoticed in a room where interior hues are more Matisse than Martha Stewart. Sliding into a seat on what was once a porch — now vividly toned alcove with clapboard walls — I watched the sun drop behind Mount Benson, munching on the house freebie of tortilla chips and finely diced salsa and easing my parched throat with a Margarita. I kept my fingers crossed.
For the uninitiated, "gringo" cards on each table explain the Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes. Portions are generous and the overall taste is homemade, with layers of flavour. Add in low prices and friendly staff and it’s no wonder Gina’s remains a favourite of local residents after 20 years.
A relatively short, no-nonsense list of antojitos or appetizers is a good place to begin. Perfect for groups, nachos come in small and large sizes ($6.95 to $14.50 topped your choice of spiced pinto beans, beef, chicken or shrimp. A quartet of crispy flautas — cigarillo-shaped roll-ups stuffed with shrimp — will set you back a mere $7.25, as will a dish of guacamole. That may seem a little steep for this simple avocado paste, but it won't when you taste it. Unlike the horrible versions you get for a dollar a tablespoon when you order nachos at your local pub, Gina’s version has texture and tastes alternately buttery and nutty, with notes of lemon and garlic.
I had been walking along the water and was a little chilled so I pondered the soup of the day — chipotle beef — before deciding on prawns coriander. With a salad, this would have been a meal in itself, but I didn’t know that when I ordered it. Once it arrived, I decided to leave half to save room for the entree I had ordered. That was the plan, anyway. Faced with six large prawns bathed in a thick sauce of reduced cream, butter and freshly chopped coriander on a bed of perfectly cooked and lightly seasoned long grain rice, I had no willpower.
Main courses feature the expected, as well as some interesting deviations from the Mexican-Restaurant-in-Canada menu. Try a burrito made with a whole-wheat tortilla filled with spinach, grilled chicken and chipotle for $9.75, or shrimp and halibut for $10.95. Chills Rellenos features the relatively mild Anaheim variety stuffed with cream cheese, fried and served on a bed of rice with a trio of salsas: rich, red salsa ranchero, the slightly piquant salsa verde and dark salsa mole, packed with the flavours of nuts and cocoa. If you’re fighting off the effects of a late night, huevos rancheros — scrambled eggs baked with ranchero salsa and served with house beans, spiced corn, fresh fruit and a warm tortilla — will sort you out in no time.
—Pam Grant, Dining Out
