Chris Hynes
Red chili chicken tacos (top), crunchy duritos, and street corn.
How to explain the sudden onrush of taco shops in Madison? Did someone leave the taco-signal on? It could just be that tacos are fun, and give chefs a new canvas on which to design dishes. But man, the graph of taco expansion in Madison is stunning for its steep rise.
Canteen is the newest, occupying the former Nostrano space on the corner of Hamilton and Carroll. It joins the Ohio Tavern and El Grito as the latest in the new-taco market, where inventive fillings, toppings and salsas mix with the more familiar. (Bandit and BelAir Cantina are on the way, too.)
The menu, designed by Food Fight veterans Matt Pace and Michael Pruett, stakes out a street food vibe with small tacos, little paper bags of fried bites and dishes that speak to simple comfort, like chilaquiles and the increasingly ubiquitous elote-style corn. I’m almost always in the mood for a quick taco or two, so it’s no bother to me that we’re close to being able to see two different taco shops while standing at a third’s front door.
What I’m not in the mood for, however, are taco blowouts. Canteen’s tortillas (which I thought could have had better flavor to begin with) are deployed one per taco. The meager single layer proved insufficient to keep most of my tacos together.
Carne asada and al pastor fillings delivered unexpected levels of heat, and both were greatly improved by a good dousing of lime juice. Pork belly, a protein that’s frequently overtrimmed and overcooked, showed well at Canteen. Cubes of pork with plenty of well-rendered fat were tossed with enough guajillo salsa to keep the whole affair from drying out.
The torta stands out as a champion specimen, with a Frisbee of pounded and fried pork cutlet hanging well outside the already large roll. It’s easily two meals, and good ones.
I loved the duritos, crunchy medallions of flour tortilla dusted with zingy tajin seasoning, and found both the tortilla chips and supremely delicate churros enjoyable as well.
The fried taco fillings were less successful. A fried cauliflower taco is a great idea on paper, but mine arrived drenched in sauce to the point that you couldn’t tell it had been fried at all. It was soggy, bland and unappetizing. This can’t be what the creators of the menu intended.
The rest of the menu is in need of refinement, too. The Tecate fish, its batter dosed with the Mexican beer, was far too fishy in aroma and flavor. The portion was tiny, while the cost was not; at $5 a pop, they reminded me what a steal the $3 PBR tacos at the Tipsy Cow are.
Enchiladas were bland, and the tortillas that I’ve already described as a liability with the tacos were no better when smothered with sauce.
The street corn needed some char on the kernels, but was otherwise pleasant. Similarly, just a little more cook time on the garbanzos and maybe a sprinkling of puffed rice on top would make the beans with crispy rice a knockout; the rice as served was more chewy than crispy.
Brunch is served on Friday as well as weekend mornings. A bacon and egg taco is almost impossible to mess up, and Canteen doesn’t. The brisket burnt ends hash, on the other hand, fails to live up to its promise. The tough beef cubes had little fat and no smoke or bark, the potatoes were under-crisped and the eggs were unevenly poached. This was a complete letdown, though I was well consoled by the medianoche, a blend of iced coffee and horchata.
A word of warning: the strawberry margarita, which comes in blended slush form, is kept extremely cold because of alcohol’s melting effect on ice. As a result, your first sip or two should be cautious. Too fast a sip directed at one spot on the tongue could give you a scalding, as it did mine. Submerge the lime wedge for a while if you don’t believe how cold it is in there.
Canteen has some serious consistency issues to work out, and could fine-tune its recipes, too. The housemade choco taco is fun, but its shell holds no crunch. That’s not the kitchen’s fault, it’s just poor design.
Canteen’s Food Fight stablemates, Eldorado Grill and Tex Tubb’s Taco Palace — both new-taco purveyors themselves — have been around long enough to have honed their craft and created fan favorites. Canteen will need to tighten up to match the success of its restaurant cousins.
Canteen
111 S. Hamilton St., 53703; 608-285-5703; canteentaco.com;
9 am-9 pm Sun., 11 am-10 pm Mon.-Thurs., 9 am-2 am Fri.-Sat.; $3 - $15
