Cuchillo

Fantastic atmosphere and great food. I’m used to a certain type of mexican food in Vancouver (taco’s, taco’s and taco’s) but this was totally different. The grilled baby corn appetizer was fantastic. The owner made a point to stop by our table and introduce himself. An experience worthy of 5 stars

Dined out Jan 22 — make a reso! And look for the neon purple skull outside — that’s what my friends told me ;) This review is based on my dine-​out experience. $ 30 for 5 course. My husband and each took a different option from the menu and got to experience everything. Our server was this petite sweetheart with short brown hair and bangs — loved her. Knew mezcals like nobody’s business. We had the flight to compliment our meal which was a brave and delicious choice (only amounts to 2 shots so nothing crazy happened). I loved the Trout, the Cauliflower Taco, and the Scallop out of the bunch. No option on the dessert, but didn’t need it. The brownie was awesome.

Nosh and Nibble came here for dinner and I had the following in my $ 30 dine out:
Lois Lake Steelhead Trout
Morita Chili BBQ Pulled Pork Taco
Pan Roasted Bison Flank Steak
Chia Seed Crusted Peruvian Scallop
Ancho Chili Chocolate Brownie
The Lois Lake Steelhead Trout Ceviche came with a chayote, cucumber, jalapeño y lychee ensalada and basil coriander mint dressed. This was a very fresh tasting fish. The mint taste was quite strong depending on how you swirled it so if you’re picky about your flavour profiles you might prefer the albacore tuna ceviche instead. The fish was quite smooth (think almost like sashimi) and the cucumber only added to the freshness.
The Morita Chili BBQ Pulled Pork Taco came with a mango papaya salsa y pinto on top. I liked the subtle grill lines on the taco which accentuated the presentation. The manga papaya salsa on top had a fruity tomato-​y taste to it and was very enjoyable. This was a simple appetizer but felt very appropriate given its place in the 5 courses.
The Pan Roasted Bison Flank Steak came with Tijuana-​style baby caesar and chorizo buttermilk kennebec mash. The mash here was wonderful. It was very buttery and the flank steak had a subtle crunch in every bite. It did come medium/​medium-​rare though so if that’s an issue for you you’ll want to specify how you want this flank steak cooked.
Fourth up was the Chia Seed Crusted Peruvian Scallop which came with pale ale chorizo pana frito coconut creamed corn y grilled chayote. The grilled chayote (cucumber-​esque) was interesting and reminded me of a zucchini despite being a fruit. There was only one scallop included in this dish but it was indeed very juicy and the chia seeds on top gave it a micro crunch, sort of like crunching on ground pepper that doesn’t have any pepper taste. Nonetheless, it was a healthy twist.
Finally we got to the Ancho Chili Chocolate Brownie dessert which came with kaffir lime horchata, which chocolate ganache, and pecan brittle. This was a very unique dessert. Firstly the white chocolate bits had a licorice finish to it which changed the dynamic of the brownie depending on how you approached it. there were also mint and berries on top and so I felt a lot of taste buds igniting while I ate this. I don’t have any regrets but I don’t think I’d order this one again and sort of wish there were more than one option for dessert for Dine Out because I don’t think everyone will enjoy this.
Overall, the food was very interesting. A comparable might be Chicha but for Dine Out Cuchillo kept to a variety of cuisines while Chicha stayed the course with Peruvian-​inspired dishes.

Definitely as good as it gets. If I could give more than 5-​stars, I would.
My first time dining here but my friend’s 2^nd time. We partook in the Dine Out Vancouver $ 30 special.
We had one of everything on the menu and shared each plate:
* Lois Lake Steelhead Trout Ceviche — Tasty. The sauce was devine: ginger; fish sauce; mirin; lemon & lime juice. Light and very flavourful.
* Albacore Tune Ceviche Y Pipian Rojo — good
* Morita Chili BBQ Pulled Pork Tack — tasty but a bit too spicy for my palette
* Roasted Cauliflower Taco — Great! My 2^nd favourite dish of the evening
* Wild Argentinian Sea Prawns — delicious.
* Char Grilled Bison Flank Steak — a bit tough
* BC Pork Belly Confit — wasn’t so sure I’d like Pork Belly but it was my very favourite dish of the evening. Delightfully tender and flavourful: maple chipotle y tamarind glaze. (I could’ve made a full meal out of a few servings of Pork Belly Confit)
* Chia Seed Crusted Peruvian Scallop — the coconut cream corn was soooo good (and 9.5 times out of 10 I will never eat corn).
Dessert was exquisite: Ancho Chilie Chocolate Brownie. The brownie on it’s own would’ve been perfect but the toppings of kaffir lime horchta, white chocolate ganache and pecan brittle put it way over the top.
Margartias. Well I have raved up my fave Mexican place over and over again as having the very best margaritas in the lower mainland. I’m afraid I might have to kick them down a ½ notch because Cuchillo’s margaritas on the rocks with a perfectly salted rim were by far the best I’ve ever drank.
Brandon was our waiter and man he is who you need to look to if you want to know how to serve a customer. Prompt, knows the ingredients inside out and backwards; friendly but not intrusive; and always keeping his eye on our water and margarita glasses. All around: impeccable service.
We had a great seat right by the kitchen so we could see the goings on. I like the layout of this place, long and lean and a very nice ambiance.
I would highly recommend dining here. Honestly, probably the best meal I’ve ever eaten. Can’t complain about a single thing.

Decided to try this for Dine Out after a friend recommended it to me since she knows how much I love La Mezcaleria. Let me start off by saying that these two places are completely different… not even on the same level.
The Dine Out menu consisted of 5 sampler dishes (all very small but filling in the end). The food was just okay… I wouldn’t say anything stood out and I didn’t like how everything came with some sort of potato thing to make you seem fuller than you actually would have been. Also, everything was super slow. There were only 4 cooks in the kitchen — this place is too small to handle something like Dine Out. After our second dish we waited an hour for our next dish…
I think they could have saved a lot of time and money too by just making it a three dish menu with larger portions so they don’t have to cook everything in such small batches and numerous times.
It was nice to try but I don’t think I’ll be going back.

If you’re looking for an amazing food experience, this is the place to visit. The ambiance, the service, the fancy food — it’s a combination that makes for a great dining experience. I’ve never felt so trendy.
We went for the Dine Out menu, and were not disappointed. The pork belly & the ancho chili brownie were definite highlights. It’s 100% the best way to try so many of their great dishes, without totally breaking the bank.
The reason I’m only giving four stars, however, was for the quantity-​of-​food-​to-​time ratio. The portions, because they were tasting portions, were small — which was great, because we got to fit more into our bellies. But because we were there for almost two hours, start to finish, it felt like we were getting hungrier with every plate. Have a small snack before hand if you’re really really hungry.
Big thanks to the reviewer who mentioned the trick about the purple neon skull sign — we would have walked right past it otherwise!

Great atmosphere, fantastic service. Went on Dine Out Vancouver and got to try a great selection. The prawns were spectacular, the bison was amazing. Even though DOV meant it was busy the service was excellent. Great wine selection too.
You gotta go.

Here for the dineout menu & it’s delicious! The drink specials are great, particularly the Mezcal-​whisky cocktail (I’m a big fan of both!).
The service is fairly quick and servers check up regularly. We got the first two items on the dineout menu quickly, but then we had to wait about 15 – 20 minutes on the following 2 items on the list. Nonetheless, the food was delicious!
I had the tuna ceviche, the pulled pork taco, wild Argentinian sea prawns, chia seed crusted Peruvian scallop and ended with the chocolate brownie. Yum! The sea prawns were my favorite. I also had a taste of my friend’s cauliflower taco. It was phenomenal.
I would highly recommend coming to this place for a meal and/​or Mezcal cocktail. I enjoyed every part of the meal. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed, especially since it isn’t overwhelmingly overpriced.

We have a great experience at this place. It was a Friday night and we decided to try out this place for it’s great review in Latin American cuisine. When we arrived, I was surprised by the beautiful decors and I like the long commune table in the middle of the dining room. It was a quiet night and we were quickly seated. (There usually a huge lineup. Lucky us.). As for the food menu, it’s a decent size with quite a lot of varieties. On that night we ordered the Lois Lake Steelhead Trout Ceviche, the Baja Style Battered Rockfish Taqueria and the BC Elk Short Rib. The Steelhead Trout Ceviche was great. The dish was presented like a small salad with well-​balanced favors of lime and jalapeño, whcih was great in taste. I also like trout meat portion, nice sushi slices and not like other Ceviche with little cubes of seafood meat. The Rockfish Taqueria dish was pretty good. The tortilla was a little dry for my liking but I like the chipotle aioli sauce which compliments the thick battered rockfish. The Elk Short Rib dish is the best dish for my experience at this place. The short rib was cooked perfectly, fork tender and literally melts in your mouth. The green apple jalapeño sauce was great and it was a pair with the elk meat. Overall, the dishes were great and I do recommend to people with a taste of adventure.

The neighborhood may not be so great, but the food here is amazing, the vibe is nice, and parking is ample. Note that there’s no clear sign or number on the door — just look for the purple neon skull on the outside and you’re there. :)
Duck tacos: these were amazing. Tender, rich depth of warmth to its flavor… I’m not usually a huge fan of duck, but these definitely stood apart! Probably the best duck I’ve ever tasted!
Mexican Sea Prawns: Truth be told, I ordered these because the pictures made them look so good, and I wasn’t disappointed. They were even better in person! Prawns were tender, cooked perfectly and sat atop some nice greens and a corn cake of some kind. So delicious and surprisingly filling.
Pork belly — I know many have reported these to be very sweet, but I actually didn’t find them to be overly so. The meat had a perfect crispy side, succulent tender side, a good portion of meat and the sweet glaze went very well with it!
Dulce de leche: I was full, but had to try the dessert since everything else had been so tasty. There’s only one on the menu, which I thought was interesting, but it was really good.
I liked how everything was served one by one. You could really savor and enjoy the flavors and dishes without mixing them too much. However, the downside to this is that I got full a lot quicker since I had time for my body to register it had eaten haha. Still so good though and considering the quality of food here, I’m surprised this place isn’t more packed. Definitely worth a try!

One of the best New Spanish fusion restaurants in town!
This is a Go to spot for everyone whether it be for after work drinks, date night, friends nite out or even to bring your kids!
Don’t let the neighborhood fool you, because ask for luigi is just around the corner, the infamous # 5 orange is the other direction and the railway club is a five minute walk.
The décor is gastown personified, the cocktail list is hip and filled with new varieties of tequila concoctions for you to sample.
The food menu is where it gets fun with a tapa’s style list of flavourful tacos and appies.
The three flavour guacamole is a must try, as is the pulled duck and the pork sauce is amazing!
I can’t wait to go back for more!

Really enjoyed it, place is always packed so we made a reservation and walked past the line. Good social and fun atmosphere… service was excellent (a rare find in this town) and food was also great. Dessert… awesome.
Definitely recommend checking it out!

We arrived around 5:30 on a Thursday and even though we didn’t have a reservation they were able to seat us. We ordered the guacamole trio and three different types of tacos between the two of us. They served each item we ordered one by one. This means we were eating about an hour which means I got to do my most favourite thing in the world: Eating for a long-​ass time!
We felt like royalty as I’m pretty sure we had a different server bring us our food to make sure it wasnt sitting in the window getting cold. PLUS they explained what was in our tacos so we knew what we were eating… yes, you would already know that when you first place your order but I appreciated the extra effort!

Lordy Lordy Lordy, had a fantastic meal backed by extraordinary service (Ben, on his first day I may add) had tremendous knowledge of the menu, and did a fantastic job guiding us through various options! The food is great, a few misfires on flavors (or lack thereof) but overall a great experience. Not enough spices in my opinion but that’s normal in canada as they turn down the heat in most restaurants.
Few things you must try —
— Steelhead Trout Ceviche — unreal
— Peruvian Scallops — out of this world
— Wild Sea Prawns — boom
Lots of good choices, pretty tough to misfire. Looking forward to another round with different targets!

Damn it, Cuchillo, your food is so good that I’m still dreaming about it a week later.
Now, I’d heard great things about this place, but given that I’d had Mexican food for 2 meals the day before, I figured I should probably switch it up a bit. We attempted to go to a nearby restaurant, but the wait was half an hour and we wanted food NOW. So we took our bikes another few blocks, as Mary W. assured me she hadn’t had to wait at Cuchillo before (it was also a Tuesday). Upon arrival I immediately loved the space. It’s… upscale-​casual, if that makes sense? I felt comfortable in my sun dress but if I wore jeans (never, they are the devil) or a cocktail dress I would have felt just as at home. They have a bunch of lucha libre wrestling posters at the entrance and a friendly host who directed us straight away to a cosy little table by the exposed brick wall.
We cuddled in and ordered a couple of cocktails — mine was smooth and balanced, and all too easy drinking, and Mary’s was smoky and delicious! We followed those up with a Mojito, and I grabbed one the same drink she got. While we enjoyed our drinks we ordered some appies — on the server’s recommendation we got the chipotle salt dusted fry bread, the white bean parmesan fundido, and the blistered padron peppers. She suggested this combo because you can make PIZZA with it. She is a smart woman. I was totally crazy about everything I ate, and wolfed down so much delicious Mexi-​pizza. It was quite salty, naturally — I would suggest salting the tortilla chips a little less as the queso fundido provides enough salt on its own. However, this did mean we drank a bunch of water, so that’s good!
We then ordered the octopus salad, and pulled pork tacos with mango papaya salsa — tell me you don’t want to eat those things? The octopus was a good combo of tender and chewy, and the potatoes and pea shoots really rounded it out. By the time the tacos arrived we were about to explode, so I need to try these again sometime! That said, I ate all of my taco and hot damn was it tender, well sauced, and tasty! The spicy chilis in the salsa perfectly balanced the sweetness of the bbq sauce.
Service was great and we absolutely ate our faces off! Definitely somewhere I’ll be coming back to time and again!

When they warn you that service will be slow and that they bring out one dish at a time, they really do mean it. Having never been to Cuchillo, our waitress gave us a quick rundown of the menu and what to expect (sharing plates, slow service, modern take on Latin American favourites).
We ended up ordering the steelhead trout ceviche, mole lamb tacos and the rockfish tacos. The ceviche, while different from the typical preparation, was just okay. I really enjoyed the fish tacos which had a great crispy exterior, contrasting the jicama slaw that it was served with. The mole lamb tacos were really heavy and dense, but packed full of flavour.
While the food was decent, and even though they did warn us about only bringing out one dish at a time, that kind of annoyed me. Sure, if I’m looking to linger over a meal with friends, then great, but otherwise, I’m expecting dishes to arrive in a timely manner.

Came here for our first wedding anniversary. This was the fourth stop in our five stop food tour. We had only the tacos which were amazing.
We had the pulled pork taco and also the pulled duck. So good but. One less star because 6 – 7 bucks for a taco is kinda steep considering some other taco joints in Vancouver are around 2 – 3. However these were tasty hence the four stars.
If they lowered the price I would come all the time and rate it a five star.
If you do wanna eat tacos. Like I said pulled pork and duck are the ones to get.

What a cool and funky place! I absolutely loved the décor and the long tables that are perfect for sharing.
We were only in for a few drinks — aka one of the best mojitos around town, and shared the pork belly plate between the two of us. Talk about melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious! The pork belly only had three pieces, but they were sizable chunks, and we were definitely feeling full afterwards.
One big thing about this place is that it is definitely built for sharing so bring a bigger group with you and order a bunch of plates! It’s more fun that way and everyone gets a little bit of everything. Yippie!
I’m definitely coming back here to try out some more deliciousness.

I took my friend here for her birthday yesterday and we shared a few plates between us: Antojitos — Chipotle Sea Salt Dusted Fry Bread, Ensalada — Confit of Local Octopus, La Mesa — Pork Belly Confit and the Chia Seed Crusted Peruvian Scallops. We were actually too full to eat any more, as their portions are quite generous here. We also both had a mojito, which was very good, albeit a little bit sweet.
The Fry Bread is one of my favourites — I noticed they toned down the spice since I was there last, so it’s not quite kick-​in-​the-​face spicy as it was before. The scallops dish is also different, and I think I prefer the way they served them before. Not a huge fan of chia seeds, but I think I just really preferred the sausage they used to serve with the scallops.
The octopus was very tender and the sauces served with it packed a lot of flavour. My favourite dish of the night had to be the pork belly, though. Wow, it was cooked to perfection and just melted in my mouth. So amazing. Too bad it’s not so healthy for you, or I could eat this every day. Definitely a great meal.

Went last night with a group of 5 for a birthday dinner. There weren’t reservations available till 9 but we walked it just before 7 and were able to get seats at their long communal table
Love the open feel of the restaurant. Restaurant has a casual, sophisticated feel with a really cool mosaic tile skull piece by the kitchen.
Food was great. Things were meant to be shared. We did the duck, pulled pork and rockfish tacos. The taco orders usually come with two pieces but they give you two tortillas per piece that you really can make double. We also had the yuca fries and their prawn main dish, which was super flavourful and delicious.
Our bearded waiter friend did a great job and was super attentive and refilled drinks super awesome. I’ll be back for that churro dessert one day