Cantina Norte: Mexican happy hour in North Vancouver

I recently had a “Tofu Day” (my dog’s name is Tofu 🐶). Tofu Day means we basically just take him out and spend the whole day with him somewhere that is not our own home. We took him for an off-leash trail at Cleveland Dam in North Vancouver where he ran around happily.

Afterwards, we had happy hour at Cantina Norte, a Mexican restaurant in North Vancouver that has a dog-friendly patio. TLDR: They have the most amazing tortilla chips 🤩! Keep reading to see what I mean.

📍 Cantina Norte
3246 Connaught Crescent #108, North Vancouver, BC V7R 0A7

The vibe

We were seated in the patio which is dog-friendly. The table and chairs were patio-style so they weren’t the most comfortable and I found even though there are umbrellas at almost every table, they didn’t shield all the sun that was shining on us that day just based on the angle.

The inside looked fun and spacious though!

Food and drinks review

This is everything we ordered for 2 people from the happy hour menu, which runs daily from 2-5pm. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Chips and salsa (free)

Immediately after we sat down, they gave us some free tortilla chips and salsa. That already won my heart 😌!

The tortilla chips were just average but the salsa was refreshing and more tomatoe-y than other salsas I’ve tried.

Agua fresca ($5)

This is from the regular drink menu, but we shared an agua fresca, which is a traditional fruit drink. The flavour of the day was mango, as recommended by our server. It was light and not thick with some fizz to it. Overall, just ok – I wouldn’t get it again as I was hoping for more mango flavour.

Guacamole ($12)

I cannot get over the guacamole at Cantina Norte 🤯!!!

First of all, presentation is so fun! A mountain of guac is presented in the traditional Mexican bowl. It is chunky, fresh and colourful.

For tortilla chips, you can choose between flour or corn (gluten-free). Both are made in-house but you must choose flour because these are amazing 🤯🤯. The flour tortillas are much thicker and a little flaky with a bit of puffed air between the layers. The structural integrity is strong and it can actually scoop and hold up guac.

Ceviche ($17)

My husband really wanted to order the ceviche and for $17, I think this is a reasonable price for all the seafood you’re getting – shrimp, rockfish, and octopus. All tasted fresh and it had some acidity to it with the chile, lime and being cured in tomatillos.

For chips – again, pick the flour ones! This is when we were slowly realizing our happy hour/girl dinner will be a chip dinner 😂.

Shrimp taquitos ($16)

The last item we ordered from the happy hour menu are these shrimp taquitos. You can also opt for chicken taquitos for the same price, but we like shrimp.

Taquitos are crispy rolled tortilla with filling and in this case, it’s shrimp, cream cheese and salsa pina.

I’ve only ever eaten frozen taquitos that my husband buys from the supermarket, but these were really tasty and were slightly more elevated.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We had a great happy hour at Cantina Norte with Tofu (he was relatively quiet under our table with his bowl of water).

I was truly blown away by the flour tortilla chips here – I have never eaten tortilla chips like this before 🥰! I love them so much and they were so good with the guac (must-order) and the ceviche (good deal).

The happy hour menu is pretty limited so there aren’t that many food items on there, but we were full with the 3 items we ordered and we were satisfied with our early chip dinner.

Sincerely, Loewe