Mole Negro de Oaxaca
$32Built over four days. 28 ingredients. The dish that tells you what kitchen you are in.
Cantina Mexicana · Toronto · Est. 2024
Regional Mexican,
cooked the slow way.
Calabaza is a Mexican cantina built around a four-day mole, a forty-mezcal bar, and a kitchen that sources from family farms. We are not a Tex-Mex restaurant. We are something quieter, and a lot more specific.
418 Roncesvalles Avenue
Roncesvalles Village
Open Tonight
Tue – Sun, dinner service
40+ Mezcals
Tasting flights nightly
La Cocina
Cooking de la región, in a city far from home.
Our kitchen reaches across three regions. Oaxacan moles. Yucatecan slow-roasts. Pueblan pressings of fresh masa, daily. We treat Mexican cuisine as the seasonal, regional craft it actually is, not the cuisine label North America inherited from chain marketing.
Sourced close to the soil
Heirloom corn from a Oaxaca partner farm. Produce and herbs from Ontario growers we name on the menu.
A bar built around mezcal
Forty agave spirits, sourced direct from small producers we visit twice a year. Tasting flights every night.
Del Menú
Four dishes, in case you want a head start.
The full menu shifts with the season. These are the anchors that have stayed since the day we opened.
Cochinita Pibil
$19Yucatecan slow-roasted pork in achiote and sour orange. Served on house tortillas.
Calabaza Asada
$26Roasted seasonal squash, mole verde, pepitas. The dish we are named for.
Pescado Zarandeado
$44Whole-grilled snapper for two, charred lime, fresh tortillas.
Mezcal & Tequila
Forty bottles, twenty-three producers, one obsession.
We pour mezcals from Oaxaca, Durango, and Michoacán; tequilas from valley and highland houses we have tasted at the still. Tasting flights are built nightly. Bottle service runs on the books with a six-week wait.
Reservar
A table is the easy part.
Reservations open three weeks ahead. Walk-ins are welcome at the bar every night, and our six-seat counter is held back for them. If you are coming for a specific dish or a tasting flight, book the dining room.