La Carnita

This is one of my favourite places in Square One to get a bite to eat in the Food District section. They serve authentic-enough mexican food that deserves a regular visit when you are at the mall. The food is delicious, the servers are always so friendly, and honestly it's not too expensive!

I will always recommend their tacos, especially the carne asada, but if you happen to go on a Sunday, their special that day is one of the best items they serve.

Highly recommend if you find yourself at the mall and are looking for a good bite to eat after shopping!

Service 10/10
tacos weren’t the best in my opinion they did not taste that authentic.
Nachos for the appetizer they were good.mostly came for the tacos and did not have a good experience with them

$8.50 for mini-tacos is way too much. The shrimp appetizer was so burnt it was almost beyond recognition. French fries in the kid’s menu came out cold. Left the place with a large bill and feeling unfulfilled. Service was quick and decor was nice but that’s about it for this place. Unfortunately, we won’t be coming back.

I’m from Niagara and this was my very first time here and all I can say is amazing things, Walid especially! Was the most amazing bartender and server anyone could ask for! I completely recommend this place and if u get Walid, greatest experience u will ever have. Experience to never forget.

We were there (5 adults and 2 babies under 1 year old) at the door we were told that because the babies we are considered a group of 6+ and we will have a 18% gratuity in our bill on top. I consider this policy ABSURD, is the first time I see this.

Best place for ribs and tacos! Amazing customer service (shoutout Walid!) Definitely recommend coming here:)

The food was amazing, very flavorful with a lot of great ingredients that just wow'd me. We went here for lunch and found the service was fast and super friendly. I really appreciate how fast they were as we don't get a lot of time on lunch. The food was perfectly warm and the flavors were fantastic.

Very delicious creative Mexican food.
You have to try short Ribs Add Carne,
loaded steak Nachos with Churros off the chain you would not be disappointed. Highly recommended

I LOVE that they have a vegan taco with fried sweet potato and mushroom. The tacos are super affordable, very flavourful and delicious. I highly recommend a visit here when you are visiting square one

Pretty good. The tacos are all very different, doesn't feel like they just change the meat. They relied a little too much on spice in my opinion.

Having been to the Queen Street location, I have to say Square One really missed the mark. Wilted mint in the Mojito, tacos came out before we received our aps and food was well spiced and nicely presented but wasn’t the quality we expected. Staff was friendly but not very attentive and didn’t seem well trained.

Went for dinner to La Carnita last night, Emily served us. The service was amazing, she was really attentive all night - teaching us about the different menu options and substitutions available. She even recommended a great beer to try out! The food and drinks were so delicious, we wanted everything to come out staggered so we would be able to enjoy it all, without being overwhelmed. We got so wrapped up in the food, these were the only things we remembered to take pictures of!

Anytime I have tried to order through uber eats, they've either delayed my order for over an hour, or didn't confirm with the driver how many bags he needed to grab. I was missing all my mains and only have gotten chips and churros when I finally got an order out of the place. Seriously disappointed too many times.

Food is fresh and full of flavour. Music is way too loud though, couldn’t have a conversation with the person across from me without yelling. Staff also needs to at least pretend to be busy, half of them are socializing with other staff or just hanging around doing nothing. That’s usually not an issue for me, but when I’m stuck waiting for my bill it’s a little frustrating.

Came in on a Sunday afternoon and to my surprise it wasn't packed and full. We got seated right away and server came over relatively after.

Server was nice but no menu explanation or suggestions given and no questions like "Is this your first time? Would you like some suggestions? Here are some of our popular items. " Only order was taken.

Food came out slow considering how little people were there but the fish were made fresh. However the taco shell itself was cold and no limes we're provided for the tacos especially cause we did order the In Cod We Trust, fish tacos. This was rather disappointing.

The corn was my favourite it was grilled to perfection and tasted delicious.

Also, love the vibe and atmosphere of the place. I can't wait for the patio to open!

Obsessed with this place! The decor is so cute and I love the tacos! The fish taco and chorizo tacos are the best. The corn isn’t worth the money though, so don’t bother.

I invited my clients here last night it was around 10: 00 pm we ordered nachos and dips with tacos and other stuff
The food was little spicy for us and portion was ok
Nachos wasn’t the best
Service as good and atmosphere was good too
Little over priced but I guess they pay premium rent in this location

This place is over hyped! The food was okay but the service was BAD! Waiters kept rushing us. I had a plate in front of me with a cob of corn on it that I was still eating, when the waiter came to give us the rest of the food we order he took the corn from my plate without even asking if I was finished! The portions of the food where also extremely SMALL! $6 for a taco that you can finish in two bits. They kept clearing our tables as we where eating leaving us with no napkins.no one came to refill the water either.and our waiter charged all of us incorrectly. The place is also over crowded with very loud music.

Great food and excellent service. Place seems to be fairly busy which is expected since it's a new located but overall was impressed.

Stopped here on a Tuesday while exploring the mall. Place seems very downtowny with a nice vibe. Decor is great. We were quickly seated and our waitress came to our table right away. We ordered a few appys and a few tacos for mains. Disappointingly the tacos arrived first. We had to remind the staff twice that our appetizers were still pending. The sad part was, the tostadas, which the menu had mentioned as "quick bites/ menu reading snack" was the last to arrive.
The food was good, the achiote chicken taco and the crispy cotija taco were my favourite. The rest of the stuff was good, but not as good as some of the other Mexican joints I have been to. The three dip platter was ok, but the spicy bean dip was cold, which was disappointing. The avocado mango salad was soggy and too limey. We ordered the churros for dessert, they were ok. Crunchy on the outside but inside was really doughy and chewy, that made me think they were probably frozen and not fresh. Overall I would say worth a one time visit, not sure if I would go back. Since they are fairly new, kitchen is still working out some kinks. Music is also way too loud.

Mains came out before the apps. Felt like was in a university cafeteria or a food court. Staff seemed to be there to have a good time instead of working. Not a destination to go out of your way for, would even debate a stop by if your in the mall.

Tried it three different times. The lighting is weird, the music is deafening (I shouldn't have to yell at the person sitting less than a foot across from me, keep asking wait staff to repeat themselves, or resort to lip reading). Overall not an enjoyable experience and in turn makes the food lacklustre. Shame really, as I've always enjoyed the downtown locations.

Attracts trendy crowd. Very busy on weekends and lots of people enjoying great conversation. Great service and great food.

Great staff and food was good just a little cold! Definitely could be that it was so packed! Customer service was 10/10 however the food was really good but seemed not fresh! Will try again

Had a great time at La carnita. Been to downtown location and this place totally brings that feel here. The best part of the experience was Gala, who served us. She was amazing and instantly built a repore with us. Definitely will come back and ask for Gala. The food was 4 stars. Gala made it 5 stars. Thanks again

Good food. Tacos are average size but are over stuffed. Nice flavors I recommend the fish, churzo and steak tacos. Loud music and creative decor.

Walid is an amazing host! Wonderful person with a wonderful personality and took care of our large table very well! Def recommend the food was amazing and it was a wonderful time!

Had the most awesome and chill service Gala! The vibe of the restaurant was relaxing and friendly. Gala and I vibed from the start of my first time experience all the way till the end and I would come back for her as my server and for the great food!

An awesome place at SQ1, yummy food, good drinks and EXCELLENT service, nice and friendly staff (Christina - regards:) Overall great atmosphere, maybe little bit expensive but definitely worth it! Highly recommended.

Whats the hype about this place? Went for lunch and literally my bill was about 50$ for literally a cod taco (with literally just fried dough and barely any cod) and the carne asada the taco the size of large cookie. I also ordered the Avocado mango salad and the drink special for 9 bucks with the grapefruit slushie and they were so small. After our meal, we were still hungry and went to eat somewhere else in the mall. The verdict? Place is overated. Expensive for the portion you get however the staff ad atmosphere is great.

Very disappointing. Portions are tiny, so that you have to order more than one plate to feel satisfied; service is slow. My husband asked specifically for no onions in his plate because he is allergic. The plate came with onions, he returned it, and it came back again with onions on it. We asked for an extra order of churros, and it took more than 20 mins after paying the bill. I almost cancelled the order. I would not recommend it to anyone, and definitely not coming back

Tacos are amazing, nice atmosphere and excellent customer service. Runners, Manager and Empani (I don’t know if I’m misspelling her name), which was our server were delightful.

Lovely customer service, nice drinks and the tacos were really nice! A little bit on the expensive side but my experience was great. The decor is really nice too!

I was dying to try this place out. Finally went after work yesterday and talk about excellent service. I need to talk about how the AGM (I am horrible at remembering names but know it was alicia!). She was so friendly and made sure we felt special and welcomed from her greeting at the door to making sure our food and drinks were to our liking. My belly was full and satisfied. Will be coming back!

If you like cold food, poor service, music too loud to comfortably speak and being short changed when they make a mistake on your bill, then you will love this place. If you want to upset your mother or mother-in-law, then bring her here because she will hate it.

Breaded fish was soggy (In Cod We Trust), sausage was okay (Mexican Chorizo), breaded chicken (Pollo Frito) was cardboard-esque but liquid sauce dripping out of the taco masked it a bit.

The decor is grungy warehouse meets modern chique meets vintage, smelling of new paint that will likely fade in time.

The redeeming qualities are the fruit and veggies that seemed fresh and flavour was okay for cold food. That makes sense for fruit and veggies but unfortunately didn't get any of the salads, just the fruit and veggies in the tacos.

Oh so you'd like to know about being short changed? Say you order two tacos and get charged for three. Each taco is $6 and minimum tip is $18%. Let's do some simple math: $6 x 3 (tacos) x 1.13 (tax) x 1.18 (tip) = $24.00. So each taco costs $24 / 3 = $8.00. Oh you want a refund for the taco you didn't order? Here have $6. What happened to the other $2 you say? Well it's a "let us keep your money because we messed up" tax.

We weren't making a fuss over it, but you'd think simple arithmetic wouldn't fly over people's heads. We chose not to make a scene, simply did the calculation ourselves. Don't even try to get a full refund so you can repay, because they can't do that apparently. They will stiff you a refund, then give you the actual refund if you do the calculation yourself, but they'll keep that handsome 18% well deserved tip on the rest of your bill. If you want to speak to a manager.guess what, the manager was the one that did the refund.

Oh and make sure you go next door (Sweet Jesus) to pay $6+ for soft served ice cream. They're owned by the same people, so that order of extra sprinkles you didn't order, might as well be a burning trash can you throw money into.

Our party of 6 tried to make reservations earlier in the day and were told upon arrival that they don’t do reservations yet. They were more than accommodating and cleared a table for us. We ordered various kinds of their tacos, from their “In Cod We Trust” to their Crispy Tacos (Taco Tuesday Special) and they were all delicious. They had a good variety of flavors all with their own kick. And their rose sangria topped it off perfectly. We would totally eat there again.

Decided to check this place out and see what the hype was about, sadly to say, there really is no hype about this place. They serve mediocre tacos that are soggy and cold! And seriously over priced. I tried 4 different tacos and only 1 tasted decent, honestly your better off going to barrito boyz to get your Mexican fix! I wont be returning.

WAY overpriced, but otherwise good food and good service. Watch out when paying - they suggest an 18% tip on their credit card machine instead of the customary 15%.

Oh dear. I was ready to give this place a decent rating, but everything from the service to the food fell completely short of being passable. Rather, they have gone so far to the point it was unsavable. Here's why:

I chose this place for an early Mother's Day lunch. The waitress we had was nice and explained the menu. My dad didn't want anything spicy and the waitress assured him that she'll ask the cooks to take out any spice for the Tuna Ceviche Tostada that he ordered. She comes back to tell him that they couldn't do it and he'll need to order the Grilled Fish Tostada instead. He says that's ok and she mentioned that she'll ask the cooks to remove anything that made the dish spicy. The rest of us placed our orders, the food came quickly and all of us thought the food was ok. The tacos are very small.and expensive. The tacos were cold with the exception of the cod because it was deep fried-but the taco itself was cold. The Carne Asada taco was cold. Mediocre food for really expensive prices. Seven Lives is way better. Maybe even Taco Bell-because at least you get what you pay for. All right, 3 stars at most.

At the end of the meal I asked for one bill and after I paid for it giving them a little more than standard (which was very generous considering that our waitress made mistakes). Just FYI, the machine they use only has 18% as a minimum for tax. It's no longer 15%-you'll have to select 'Other'. My dad took the bill and noticed that they charged us for the Tuna Ceviche Tostada that he never wanted ($8.25). We mentioned it to them and asked for a full refund on my credit card and to redo the transaction. The manager comes out, tried to provide me a full refund, but the machine never worked. So I asked them to give me cash back.

So here's where they made a professional mistake that left a sour taste in my mouth and I felt like I was taken advantage of: They only gave me back $8.25 in cash, which was the cost of the item on the menu. They did not account for tax nor the tip I included. I just asked them for the correct receipt so I could recalculate and tell them how much I wanted back. The manager refused to do this for me because she wanted to protect the tip I left more than customer service. She was afraid that I was going to leave them 0% tip which was what I wasn't even going to do.

The manager was giving us the coldest look as we left. It felt hostile which basically told us to not come back, which I am fine with obliging to.

Not only did they cause so much confusion-which can be forgiven, but their low level of professionalism of handling this situation caused my mom a lot of distress on her special day.

I'll never come back to any of these establishments or any affiliated ones. I can't support businesses who try to jip their customers.

I will change this review if they decide to make things right for me. If this message is still up, they have not done anything to resolve the problem I experienced.

So happy La Carnita is in Mississauga. Loved the Mexican street corn, cod taco, Pollo Frito taco, tuna ceviche tostada and the churros. Great friendly service too!

Recently, the food district opened at square one mall and one of the restaurants that’s opened with it is la carnita. I really wanted to try this place since it opened in downtown Toronto. Our wait was almost 45mins for a Saturday night which wasn’t too bad. We walked around the food district and tried some snacks and came back for our reservation. The atmosphere and interiors of the restaurant is earthy. The sitting arrangement has a relaxed vibe to it. Our server was entertaining and well informed. I ordered a cocktail which had the right amount of sweetness. For apps we ordered the Tortilla Chips with three
Dips to share, it included Guacamole, corn salsa and spicy bean. For mains, we all decided to order two tacos per person, the server recommended 2-3. I only ended up ordering one since I am a vegetarian, they were out of 2 of the 3 veg tacos, which was a little disappointing but the mushroom taco, that I did have was very flavourful and it reminded me of my trip to Austin, Texas, where I had the best tacos in the country. Everyone at our table enjoyed the food, service and the ambiance. We would definitely come back in the summer to enjoy the patio. I totally recommend the restaurant and support great restaurants coming to Mississauga.

Checked out the food district and then landed on the very anticipated "La Carnita" by both my partner and I, as well as I'm sure other patrons. We visited for lunch on Saturday around 1: 00pm and the place was rather busy. We were able to be seated by the friendly hosts rather quick, which was nice.

The atmosphere is very hip and rustic at the same time, the decor is very patio"ish" and colours have earthy tones, rather nice and relaxing, I'm sure the patio will be very nice come full summer.

We ordered five different items and honestly this was a disappointment as my expectations were high. The appetizer we went with was the Scorpion Wings, 6 pieces, normal wing size, while tasty I found them rather strong in flavor? Which is good don't get me wrong but a bit too much! Picture this, they were drenched in sauce and then rolled in a dry rub and then rolled in sauce again and on top of that plated on more sauce.

We were offered the drink of the day which was a rather tasty coffee liquor which apparently was on sale, 3oz and very expensive.

For our actual meal we ordered four different tacos, Carne Azada, Chorizo, Sweet potato and last but not least, Pollo frito, all served in a four inch tortilla. They were all rather interesting flavours and well "balanced" except for the Pollo frito taco which had been breaded and then put on the taco but that was hard as rocks, overcooked to the max.

I was disappointed really with the place, for the price especially I expected to be rather "blown away" and this definately did not do that.

The whole meal came to about 56$ + 20$ tip, Recommend the place for either getting a meal before hitting the club or for lunch AND don't mind overpaying.

I met my Niece and Sister on short notice for a social at Square One’s newly opened Food District.

Our server Cristina was very friendly and upbeat just like the loud upbeat (Drip Drip Drip by Tori Lanez) music that filled the air.

We began with an appetizer of Tortilla Chips with Spicy Bean $9.95 (one dip included). The chips were crunchy and flavourful plus the dip was excellent!

My taco choices were a Mexican Chorizo $4.95 and a Sweet Potato Taco $5.50 as a main.

Churros with cajata sauce $6.50 for dessert.

I loved the ambiance, the food, and the prices were very reasonable. Great service Cristina!

Went to Square One on Saturday as I wanted to check out La Carnita that recently opened in the newly launched Food District. Got there around 9pm, and went up to the hostess and she said it be an hour wait (which was to be expected since it was a Saturday night so wasn't too annoyed about that).

When we came back at around 10pm, we went up to the hostess and she stated that they did have a table for us; however they ran out of food; however as compensation they would give us first round of drinks on us.

Usually properly managed restaurants would ask that you leave your number along with your name on the waitlist in case a table opens up quicker or something else happened, such as running out of food.

To try to make the most out of the experience we ended up taking the drinks. The waiter that served us did end up stating that they did have chips and dip left and at this point, since we didn't eat dinner we just took it.

I would have given this a 1 star if it wasn't for the free round of drinks (which were ok) and the waiter doing what he could do to help us salvage the night.

Probably will not come back for awhile until they get the newly launched restaurant jitters fixed.