Native Tongues Taqueria

The menu is really amazing, definitely something for everyone! Really good for groups because of the sharing nature of the menu, and all the great cocktails to choose from!
The only two negatives is they don’t take reservations, and at some tables you have to make room for people you don’t know, which can get a little cramped and uncomfortable.

So may great things to say! I sat at the bar alone and Sam the bartender took care of me. She’s funny, pretty and makes a mean cocktail! She also was working harder than almost anyone in the place… at least as hard as the kitchen guys! All the staff were busting their butts though and the manager seemed to be everywhere. Well run joint overall.
The food… I had the carrots. Unbelievably good. Flame roasted, caramelized, charred, sweet and savoury. I would go back just for those. I pretty much never thought carrots would be the highlight of any meal for me but they certainly were here. Then I had all four meat tacos… chicken, carnitas, tongue and… hmmm. Forget. Chorizo? Anyways, all of the meat tacos and they were superb. Also, after Sam’s description of the salsa negra, I paid a little more and ordered it. It’s basically salsa but all the ingredients are fire roasted first. GET IT.
Another big tip… order the doughnut!!! Order it early if you have to and have them put it aside. Hand to God: this is the best doughnut I’ve ever had. I got the last one and got heckled. I then shared a bit of it and got a free shot
I will be eating here every time I’m in Calgary. I stay at the Marriott next door too which makes it awesomely convenient.

My companion and I left with the impression that this is more of a bar then a place to eat. The tacos were fine, but far too small and certainly not as good as genuine Mexican tacos — just okay. The tortillas were way too small. If one was drinking and wanting a snack then I can imagine this might be a fit. Perhaps it is a matter of expectations and personal taste. I can understand why some might like this place. There was an extra charge for the salsa verde. In Mexico they do not charge extra for salsa verde. The non alcoholic drinks were pricey -$ 4.00. The nickel and diming adds up. The service was good and the ambience was very nice. I am reluctantly giving 3 stars, but 2 and a ½ is about right for me.

Fantastic flavors here in booze and food, the selection is top notch and the tacos were epic, even for a LA taqueria veteran like me. Staff is super
Cool, definitely recommend this spot!

Have you ever had your face melt off?
Well that won’t happen at Native Tongue but you can certainly burn some tastebuds in a most enjoyable way. Er, wait, this is starting to sound like a flaming torture chamber for your mouth but I assure you it was aaaaallll pleasure from one dish to the next. And there were many great dishes to be had.
The menu prices are «really good» too, which means you can try a lot of food without spending a lot of money. We could have ordered the entire menu — which I was considering for a moment.
The ambiance/​atmosphere is great for social gatherings, dates, foodie parties, and whatever dressy casual to business casual inspiration that hits you.
I should point out that they have a great cocktail bar too if you just want to stop in for drinks with your pal. Try the BAM BAM DILLA! You cannot go wrong with the cool cup they serve it in.
The Good:
— Ambiance and music selection
— Cocktails
— Taste extravaganza
— Very cool décor
— Awesome Staff
The Bad:
— Not much to say here other than it’s hard to find a place to park anywhere in that area on a weekend night. I recommend you go early to find somewhere along 12^th avenue SW.
Thanks Native Tongues!
We will be back — and in greater numbers!
Sincerely,
Shane

I’ve been here twice and I’ve got to say that it’s solid! The meats are lovingly prepared, the presentation is non pretentious and simple, and the service is excellent. They have a Taco Tuesday special where you can go and satisfy your craving on the cheap, so I don’t know what other reasons you have for not going. lol.

This place has a buzzy dynamic ambience that one craves for fun night out with friends. And the food served is quite authentic.
A must go for anyone in mood for Mexican :)

I’ve eaten here 3 times.
The best thing about this place is the changing menu to reflect what’s in season because it’s always delicious. From carrots con queso to delicious frijoles to yummy stewed lamb. It’s all muyo delicioso!
They’ve make a good pisco sour and have a tasy horchata if you’re not indulging.
The service is some of the best I’ve experienced in the city and the wait times are reasonable.
Enjoy for lunch or dinner!

This place is definitely worth a visit. It is definitely the best taco place I have visited in the city
First off we went there around 830 on a Friday night. Yes, it was packed. Yes, we waited 30 minutes for a table but honestly it was painless and they have an app based wait system which is amazing (the app shows you what number you are in line and sends a notification to you when the table is ready). People who complain about a 30 minute restaurant wait on a Friday night are probably the same people who complain about the food at a 3 star all inclusive in Cuba — but I digress.
We elected to sit at the bar. The service was amazing. Drinks are great with a large emphasis on tequila — ask for a tequila old fashioned even though it isn’t on the menu. We had the cactus salad appetizer which had a nice kick to it and a great all around dish. For tacos, we had the pork belly and it was delicious. My only problem is that the sides were somewhat lacking and we could’ve used a few more toppings for the tacos
We will definitely be back

5-​star service, 2-​star food and 1-​star value make me give Native Tongues Taqueria a 2.5 star rating (I’m rounding down because I don’t think it warrants a revisit). On a very busy Taco Tuesday ($ 2.50 tacos) we waited for about 30mins to get a table for five.
Once seated the place was quite inviting and warm despite the crowded feel (I was elbowed a few times by the person behind me). The open style kitchen was a nice touch as well. The bar looked well stocked and as it should be since this is where they make most of their $$$ (more on that later).
The service was impeccable and even though our server got one drink wrong (it was quite loud so she mis-​heard) she quickly corrected it with the right drink.
Food here was just «OK»… nothing to write home about. I’ve had better tacos at food trucks or mom & pop taquerias. However, $ 2.50 tacos aren’t that bad of a deal if that’s all you decide to order. Even then, the pork tacos were a bit too salty, the beef tongue was bland and the chicken was dry. The mushroom tacos were the best. but they were mushrooms; salt and cheese them up and it’s hard to mess up. The tacos were also soggy and the beef tongue created a drippy mess on my plate.
The 1-​star value comes from the fact that we paid:
$ 13 for a Caesar (if I knew I was going to pay that much I would’ve just ordered Mezcal)
$ 13 for a meager amount of chips and a small cup of guacamole.
$ 5 for a doughnut (despite my unwillingness my wife wanted to try it)
If you ever decide to go here expect to pay a lot for drinks and appetizers. Stick to the tacos and you’ll be fine… even a week later I’m kicking myself for paying $ 5 for a doughnut. Native Tongues Taqueria exemplifies all that is wrong with Calgary’s dining and drink scene. Hire young, beautiful people, design a visually stunning dining area, call it something cool, overcharge for drinks and food. To me this isn’t a way to build a following and repeat business. This is really just a cash cow that will last a few years until everyone that thought they wanted to go here will go. No offence to Native Tongues or any of the other restaurants in the BMeX restaurant group. I get it, you’re here to make money. I just feel like my money is better spent elsewhere where I will get more.

The restaurant is a gem in town! Great atmosphere, awesome food, professional service by the staff.
We were a group of 8 with kids and called to book a table but being told that we should just drop in and being put on wait list. Dropped in, waited for short time and the table was all set for us. The waiter was all over the table with great suggestions of food and drinks and took care of the kids like his own; food was amazing, drinks were special. Will definitely go back. Thanks for such a great service.

I tried Native Tongues with a group of four on a Thursday night at 7 pm. There was no line but the place was packed so we had to wait for about 15 minutes for a table. The service was welcoming and our server was attentive throughout the meal. We ordered the guacamole, the nopales (cactus paddle) the lengua (beef), carnita (pork) and chorizo tacos. The tacos flavorful and invoked similar flavors that I’ve had in Mexico but were $ 4 for one small taco. The guacamole was slightly cheaper than Anejo at $ 13 and was fresh. I thought the cactus at Native Tongues was much more tender than at Anejo and was quite delicious. Native Tongues is a great addition to Calgary’s food scene but don’t expect it to be cheap. One of my friends knew the manager and even after comping us a dessert, the bill came to $ 30 a person.

Great place, reminds me of a very authentic place back home in Jersey City. Like everyone in Calgary, staff was great and the waiter was quick to recommend drinks and specials of the day. landed on getting a bunch of tacos (tounge x 2, carnitas, and chorizo) and a carrot special (almost stole the show, great! caramelized and dressed with some crema, yum!).
Great good at a great price, come thirsty as they have nice mezcal cocktails and well priced beers.
I moved into the neighborhood, I’ll be back for sure.

I placed a pick up order here, late on a Sunday night.
When I arrived, it wasn quite ready, but the staff was super friendly, and took the time to chat with me. This was very cool, instead of me standing awkwardly alone, waiting for the order to be finished.
I had the guacamole with chips, 2 carnitas tacos and a chorizo taco,
All were excellent and highly recommended.
The only thing I would do differently next time would be to dine in so I could sample the tequila. ;)

This restaurant was not great for large groups for the following reasons:
— no reservations are taken even on week days we had a hour wait when we got there at 7 on a Thursday
— it is extremely loud in the restaurant and situated in long narrow tables
— ordering is family style and all entrees are meant to be shared. This was a bit difficult as you had to carve a chicken to divvy up amongst 3 people
— they were out of one of the tacos
This would be a great date place but if you are a large group try it out a Monday or Tuesday.

Really happy with how the food in YYC is getting better and better! Native Tongue Taqueria is going on my list of great restaurants in Calgary :)
Lots of street parking literally right in front of the restaurant and down the street. I would visit on an evening or Sunday lunch if you want to save your parking money.
They hand you a paper menu where you can write down how many of each tacos you’d like. They have appies, salads, individual tacos, and then a big family sized plate where it comes with all the fixings and you can make your own tacos! It was difficult to choose as the individual and the family sized plates are different meats.
We started with the tuna ceviche which had a good kick and is served on one big chip with guac. The guac tasted really fresh and the tuna was delicious too. I wouldn’t say it’s a good sharing dish though because of how messy it was.
From the individual sized tacos, I liked the mushroom, cow tongue, pork and chorizo in that order. Beef tongue sounds really weird and I was hesitant to try but it was actually super good! So tender and flavourful!
We ordered the lamb tacos for the family sized one and it came with all the sides and 8 tortilla wraps. There was plenty of meat though, you could have made more tacos by ordering extra wraps.
The place looks like a pub and it is on the louder side. Good place to go to hang out with friends for some food and drinks! If you’re looking for a good place for tacos, this is definitely the best place in Calgary! :D

Simply put, this Mexican place is in a category of its own in Calgary. For corn tortilla aficionados, the ones here are made in house from scratch from hominy… none of this masa flour nonsense! The fillings are classic and flavourful, with both red and green hot sauces furnished for your spicing pleasure, and two vegetarian filling options are available. If you want the real deal, go here now. Not cheap, but a daily happy hour 2−5pm gets you 3 tacos and a Tecate tall boy for $ 15. Barring an interest in cerveza, their is a great list of inventive tequila and mezcal based cocktails (my wife swears mezcal is the new bourbon).
We sat at the bar. The service was quick, and we drooled over the wood fired grill. Will have to go for one of the asada plates and report back with an update… FWIW if you’re not into tacos the hamburger is really top notch.

It’s hipster taco time! But, like, not in the ironic way that regular Taco Time is also hipster taco time… We’re talking done up to the nines in rustic fashion here — Native Tongues is super cool! The tacos are a slightly gourmet but still quite traditional taco, and coming in at the high $ 3 dollar range puts them pretty on par with the other authentic Mexican eats in town. Now what other authentic places in the city won’t have is a chillaxed ambiance, good service, or a craft freakin’ cocktail bar. Native tongues has all of this. It would be a cool place to go for cocktails and order some tacos on the side, or make a meal of it (making damn sure to order the corn queso. Yum!) and have some drinks on the side.
Because the food is so quick, Native Tongues would also be an excellent lunch pick. Excellent spot to take a lunch date or business lunch.

My younger brother is headed back to Saskatoon soon so my sister and I let him decide a cuisine for dinner. His choices were either Steak or Mexican — of course once he mentioned the two, we pulled out our handy dandy Unilocal!apps and did a little search. A list popped but what we couldn’t come to an agreement until Kenny mentioned Native Tongues. DING DING DING! I knew it was hot and new and I’ve been creeping their Instagram so I was totally all for it.
Native Tongues is located on 12^th avenue SW, down the street from The Beltliner. Street parking is available. We didn’t know exactly where it was so we wandered a bit and couldn’t find it. Couldn’t find it until Kenny pulled his google maps out and we were literally standing right in front of it. Native Tongues is located on the corner — it was Sunday about 730PM, so still light out and their red glowing sign was unreadable — I think the font is awful and I wasn’t able to identify «Native Tongues» until I looked closely.
Aaaaanyways, we walked in and it wasn’t busy so we got seated right away at a high top. The space isn’t huge and there are a bunch of high tops as well as long family style tables and some normal table tops. The bar and kitchen have an open concept so you are able to see everything in action. We ordered drinks right away, I got a glass horchata (traditional Mexican milk drink, cinnamony), Brandon ordered some blackberry cocktail, Kenny got a beer and Danielle just got water. The menu consists of: Antojitos, Ensaladas, Tacos de Cuisados, Tacos al Carbon, Dulces… man…I know this is a Mexican place and they go all fancy schmancy with their words but at first look, I was like –_​– I can’t understand anything (I could but you know what I mean). We asked for recommendations, the Elotes and Ceviche were mentioned so we shared an order of each. Elotes is grilled corn on the cob topped with crema, queso, chile, and cilantro. One order of elotes is literally one corn on the cob cut in half. There were four of us and all wanted to have a taste so we sliced all the corn off and mixed in in the sauce and shared. The ceviche was fresh seasonal fish which was tuna cooked in lime and chiles on top of guacamole and cilantro on a round tortilla chip then all finished with radishes — there were nice big chunks of the fish but overall a small portion size. The antojitos were tasty but not mind blowing.
We ordered a bunch of tacos to share: 2 beef tongue, 2 refried beans, 5 mushroom, 4 chorizo, 4 confit pork. All the tacos are stewed meat and vegetables on top of corn tortillas and served with a bunch of limes, salsa verde (green) and salsa rojo. I must mentioned, that when the tacos came, the lighting was so dim, we couldn’t really identify each taco. The server mentioned she couldn’t really see and I even pulled out my iPhone flashlight. The tacos are pretty small, can be gone in two bites, max three but they are quite tasty. My sister and I didn’t want beef tongue only because… its beef tongue but she had a bite and she really enjoyed it. My favorite was the mushroom taco, super flavorful and I loved the crema on top. We asked for some hot sauce and they have Valentina which is my favorite because it’s not super hot but has that kick at the end. We all enjoyed the tacos — they are little pockets of flavor. My sister mentioned that it was one of the better Mexican places she has tried.
Overall, the service was great, super attentive and always filling our waters and asking how everything was. I wish the lighting was more… there only because I like to see what I’m eating. The high tops don’t have a lot of room, especially for a table of four, I felt something was going to fall off the table. The food was good but the antojitos that we ordered were overpriced for the portion size. We had the two appys and four-​ish tacos each and we still had room for more food but decided not to order anymore. Will I be back? I will probably end up here at some point only because my girlfriend really loves tacos and I went here without her.

Mucho delicious-​io! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Native Tongues Taqueria.
I knew I was going to have a good time at Native Tongues when I saw the really awesome neon light signage! This place oozes coolness. I feel like I gained like 500 cool points just by eating here.
The atmosphere is great. It feels really authentic. I have never been to Mexico, but this is how I envisioned a stylized, upscale (ish) restaurants to be like. The walls have a really nice texture and I enjoyed the art on the walls a lot. The Mexican décor elevates the atmosphere and it almost feels like you’re enjoying a festive meal with your neighbours, especially with the great soundtrack of soul/​funk playing in the background.
The food was unbelievably yummy! I had the mushroom tacos (I can’t remember the official name) and the corn on the cob. Guys, it was so good that I am dreaming about eating them again. Very succulent, savourly and filling.
I also got the «Squirt» which is the Mexican version of Sprite. The name made me laugh and I wanted to share that with you. Oh and it tastes exactly like Sprite.
The way the menu works is that you can order «snack size» tacos for approx. $ 3.50-$ 5. Don’t let the size confuse you! Two tacos is really filling. Our waiter was super friendly and knowledgable about the menu and his menu recommendations was on the spot! I trust him when he says the shareable plates are big enough to feed four people– something I plan to test out the next time I am there.