La Bella Managua – 872 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON M6G 1M5
Country: Nicaragua         
Must-try dish: Churrasco
Dinner guests: Dancing Queen, Dan’s Date & Island Dan 
Seating: Indoor seating only.  
The high:This is the best kept secret in the city – delicious, high-quality, and reasonably priced food for everyone. 
The low: It’s become so popular that you may need to make a reservation instead of just a walk in for dinner. But this isn’t really a bad thing!

Among all the hustle and bustle in Toronto exists a little piece of Nicaragua on the corner of Bloor and Ossington called La Bella Managua. This was the city’s first Nicaraguan restaurant, and was a passion project turned reality for chef and owner Jesus Morales, who arrived in the city in the late 80’s at the age of 23 years old. 

The majority of the ingredients used in Nicaraguan cooking are beloved around the world, and especially in Latin American cuisine. Main players include beef, chicken, fish, rice, potatoes, beans, plantains, avocado, chillies, onions, tomatoes – all things used in various types of cooking. Rather than relying on spices and herbs to season the food, simple but classic flavours like salt, garlic, and citrus are big players in helping to highlight the true flavour of the ingredients. 

If you ask around in your circles about La Bella Managua, there’ll likely be a few people who will tell you right off the bat that it’s one of their favourite restaurants in the city. This place almost has a cult following of sorts, yet it retains its neighbourhood vibes that make you feel like you’re right around the corner from your place. Perhaps it’s the decor that envelops you into a cozy, homey feeling, or the friendly and helpful service that distinguishes the “platos tipicos” from other Latin American dishes, or it could be the high-quality and delicious food served at reasonable prices. Let’s be honest, it’s a bit of everything that makes La Bella Managua everyone’s neighbourhood spot. 

We opted to go the more traditionally Nicaraguan route with our picks, and were pleased with everything on the docket starting with three appetizers, and then four main dishes to share between five people. 

Ceviche Mixto
This is a Nicaraguan-style ceviche made with a combination of fish and seafood, onions, bell peppers, citrus, avocado, and cilantro. It’s fresh and zesty, and what makes it unique are the crispy plantain chips served alongside it to use as a vessel to consume the ceviche. We should have ordered a second round!  

Yuccanadas
For any cheese lover, this might be your favourite dish on the menu. These cute empanadas are stuffed with yucca (a root vegetable often used in Latin American cuisine) and cheese, then fried. The cheese is melted and the generous portions ensure that every bite is packed with a yucca and cheese blend that’s perfectly balanced. For any spice affectionados,  these pockets are an excellent way to start sampling the spicy salsas made in-house. 

Nicarizer
This platter seems to have it all – the sweetness of plantains, the saltiness of fried cheese, a creamy cabbage salad, and crispy tostadas. The Nicaraguan cheese is popular on the menu – it comes either fresh or fried, and when it’s fried, it resembles halloumi without the overpowering salt taste. When operating in family-style sharing practices, this is a terrific choice to taste a little bit of everything. 

Now for the main dishes. 

Pollo Jalapeno 
It’s no surprise that we only order chicken dishes when they come highly recommended, and this one is even better than what we expected. So much so that many of us felt that it was a contender for the must-try dish of the night. For starters, the chicken breast is moist, almost as though it’s slow-cooked making the meat shred without any effort, and the jalapeno sauce added a non-offensive kick that would appear in nearly every bite. Between the seasoning, the jalapeno sauce, and the charcoal cooking flavour, this dish is an absolute winner. 

Churrasco
It would be a sin to eat at La Bella Managua and not order one of their beef dishes. There are a few options on the cut, and you can of course pick how you want it cooked, to be served alongside decadent garlic mashed potatoes and vegetables. This beauty is a tenderloin, so it felt like cutting into butter and was perfectly cooked at medium rare. With a fresh piece of meat, the best seasoning is often simple so that it can take on the taste of the grill. This is exactly what happened. 

Seabass (Fish of the Day)
While the seabass isn’t a regular fixture on the menu, the fish of the day is. It comes as an entire fish – eyes, bones, and all! Despite this, de-boning it was an easy enough task, and the wealth of meat available made it worth it to work a little for a reward. Like many of the other dishes, the freshness of the fish was the main flavour that was only enhanced with simple touches like garlic, lemon, and salt, but otherwise, it was all natural. 

Bandeja Tipica
This was a last minute addition, and we’re thankful that we were convinced to get onboard. It’s the type of dish that you could eat and enjoy on a daily basis because of the fresh and versatile ingredients involved. This was also the only dish of the night that had Pico de Gallo – a Latin American treasure of seasoned rice and beans, and there was a lot of it for everyone. There are also fried plantains, avocado, and a larger portion of that Nicaraguan cheese with soft tortillas. You can eat everything individually or make yourself little wraps blending it all together. 

This our second time at La Bella Managua. Our first was in March 2020, just before the world shut down due to the pandemic. It was actually our last restaurant, and because it’s such a wonderful place to eat, it kept us craving more throughout the restaurant closures. We’re so happy that we could return, and that this neighbourhood place for the entire city could weather the storm over the last few years. Until next time, and it won’t be years before we get back! 

Eat with you soon, 

Mandrea Bike
(Mat & Andrea)