This must-try vegan taco spot is hidden inside a Junction Triangle plaza

The sort-of secret: Taqueria Vegana, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant specializing in plant-based tacos and burritos You may have heard of it if: You’re a vegan who also has a soft spot for carnitas and carne asada But you probably haven’t tried it because: It’s tucked away in a Junction Triangle plaza

The idea for Taqueria Vegana was technically born when Karla Hernández, a vegan, started dating Abel Páez, a chef. But we have to backtrack a bit first. The two met in 2013, in Cuernavaca, Mexico, where they’re both from, but their relationship then was a platonic one. When Páez moved to Toronto in 2015, they stayed in touch and eventually started a long-distance relationship. Hernández came to visit in March of 2020, right before the first of many Covid lockdowns. Five years later, she’s still here and they’re still together.

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Hernández wasn’t always a vegan—she adopted a plant-based lifestyle shortly after settling in Toronto. To accommodate her diet, Páez started transplanting the flavours they grew up with into veggies and other meat alternatives.

They opened Classico in early 2021 as a ghost kitchen and roving pop-up that catered to both meat eaters and vegans, turning up at places like Montauk Bar and Project Gigglewater As their following grew, they opened Classico Vegano at College and Bathurst in October 2021, serving fully vegan takes on their Classico tacos. When that space closed a year later, due to Covid, they went looking for a more permanent home.

The more they explored the vegan side of their culinary heritage, the more they realized there wasn’t really anywhere in Toronto that made proper vegan Mexican food. So they cut the meat items from their menu, leaned in to plants and started thinking of their next project.

Last summer, a space became available near their home in the Junction Triangle (they have two dogs, so proximity for walks was a priority), in what used to be Alma y Gil. It had a walk-in fridge, and they had a dream, so they jumped on it. After gussying up the space, they started selling gift cards to the restaurant for some quick money, then invited their friends and family for a meal.

Taqueria Vegana may be a 100 per cent plant-based restaurant, but its menu lists all the taqueria hits: carne asada, al pastor, carnitas. Almost everything is made in-house, but if they can’t make it themselves, they look local—and they’re picky about what ingredients they use.

The space is currently a takeout joint first, with a couple of tables and some counter seating for anyone who can’t wait to dig in to their seitan burrito. But, as soon as the weather allows, they’ll open their big streetside patio full of picnic tables. The colourful tables inside were made by Paul Georgio, who also does the furniture for Grape Witches. (Branding is a big deal—they wanted to skip the usual mariachi motifs in favour of more trendy, Toronto-ish graphic design.)

The best seitan, they swear, comes from King’s Cafe in Kensington Market. They brine it in-house for two days in Mexican mother herbs along with allspice, Mexican cinnamon—which Hernández says is sweeter—coriander, onion and garlic until it’s packed with flavour. (The brine also helps soften the gluten-based meat alternative.) Then it’s braised with a mirepoix until it falls apart, like traditional carnitas. Birria and burritos get a hit of PlantAhead’s dairy-free mozzarella, which the couple says is the best vegan option out there.

The entire menu is also nut free, and customers are asked at checkout if they’d like cilantro and onions—which is good news for the “cilantro tastes like soap” camp.

For Páez and Harnández, the goal isn’t just to eschew meat—it’s to do so while maintaining authenticity of flavour. Páez’s mother ran a restaurant (the original Classico) in Cuernavaca, so he knew how to make the hits from a young age. “And we didn’t go vegan until we moved to Canada,” says Hernández, “so we know how these dishes are supposed to taste.”