Restaurant Review - Latinada Restaurant

The Spanish restaurant Latinada is located at 1671 Bloor Street West, that's just two blocks or so east of the Keele TTC Subway station in Toronto, on the south side of the street. I like Latin American food, and enjoyed the food greatly in my two visits to Venezuela. Entering the restaurant, I hoped that they had some of the delicacies I fondly remembered. My beautiful Bride had recommended this restaurant, she had been there a year before with another friend, and she had wanted to go there again, to revisit it and to show it to me, so we took the opportunity when we were in town to go there. The inside is quite cosy and rustic-looking, we chose a seat next to the window, at the opposite end of the room sat several people enjoying good conversation and some alcohol, at the bar. This is a Tapas bar and restaurant, tapas are small dishes, or appetizers, we chose two, one being Yuca Frita, which comes with pico gallo on the side, the other a spicy chorizo sausage. Yuca, as I knew it in Venezuela, is prepared two ways, one of them deep fried, or frita, the other boiled; I'm not sure which I liked better, but I chose the Yuca Frita. We both enjoyed it. Chorizo is spicy sausage, though this version did not turn out to be that spicy. As our main meals, I chose the Camarones Al Ajillo, which is Garlic Shrimp, and comes with Cuban or white rice, Avocado Salad and Patacones. My beautiful Bride chose the Salmon, it is cooked with white wine and garlic, and also comes with those same three sides. Patacones are deep-fried plantain cakes, quite tasty. The Cuban rice was made with kidney beans, rather than black beans, which I am more familiar with. The Avocado Salad was quite delicious, I normally don't like avocado, but enjoyed it with lime juice and greens and tomatoes. Both of our entrees were delicious, I wonder why there were hardly any patrons, perhaps this was an off night. They do have live music a number of times a month, featuring Latin artists, it should be a happening place those nights. Upstairs, too, there is apparently an art gallery. If this was not so inconvenient for me to get to, I believe I would come more often.