A new restaurant for Mexican brunch is now open in Toronto

A new restaurant is now open in Toronto serving tacos, tortas, and best of all, a brunch menu with Mexican inspiration.

Santa Madre has opened its doors with a menu of Mexican favourites, and now they’re also serving Mexican brunch on Saturdays and Sundays.

The restaurant has a huge range of tacos on the menu, including carnitas, suadero, pollo pibil, al pastor, pescado and nopales. The person behind the new restaurant Santa Madre, Luis Valenzuela, is also responsible for Holi Tacos, so you know the tacos at this recently opened spot are going to slap.

Valenzuela says in a post on social media that the idea for Santa Madre has been floating around in his head for about a decade, and now his dream has finally become reality.

Santa Madre also serves a torta ahogada (which comes swimming in sauce), torta Milanesa and a torta vegetariana, as well as quesadillas and a tight selection of snacks and desserts.

The torta vegetariana is a creative vegetarian option with sauteed hibiscus, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts layered with refried beans, melted cheese, and fresh avocado, all on a sourdough roll.

The brunch menu is something to behold. Small but mighty, the options on the menu for Saturday and Sunday are chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, traditional pan dulce with cafe de olla, and a dish called mollettes.

The chilaquiles are corn tortilla chips doused in either red or green salsa, with queso fresco, onions, crema and cilantro. The huevos rancheros at Santa Madre consist of corn tortillas topped with sunny side up eggs and a smoky salsa, plus toppings to garnish.

Molletes is a dish of a toasted bolillo roll (a type of bread), layered with refried beans, melted cheese and fresh pico de gallo. The pan dulce is a freshly made sweet bread, and it’s served with a comforting cafe de olla, which is spiced with cinnamon and sweetened with piloncillo, also known as panela, a kind of unrefined whole cane sugar.

Not only is the food from the heart, the decor and look of the restaurant is wholesome and locally sourced, with a local artist hand painting the logo, menu and art on the walls, which features elements of Mexico like cactus plants and the Virgen de Guadalupe.

“We wanted to make Santa Madre very family-oriented,” Valenzuela says in a post to social media.

Santa Madre is now open at 1437 Gerrard St. E.