A Perfect Bite: The Biblio Taco at Biblio Taco, Cumberland, BC

Despite having travelled the world and eaten more menu items globally than most people ever would (or want to), there’s a very small list of dishes that live rent-free in my brain.

For me, right now—like popping up in my mind this exact second—it’s The Biblio Taco from Biblio Taco, a small restaurant in the teeny Vancouver Island town of Cumberland, BC. It is an insanely delicious creation that I think about far more often than is reasonable for a grown adult.

At its core, it’s essentially a wildly elevated riff on the Crunchwrap Supreme from Taco Bell. Those are my words, not Biblio Taco’s, and I mean that as the highest compliment…and also as a mild drag to the fast-food giant. Because this is what the Crunchwrap wishes it could be.

Instead of a soft, forgettable exterior, The Biblio Taco is sealed and cooked with cheese on the outside—so the whole thing gets impossibly crispy, salty, and indulgent, with that golden, lacy crunch you normally only get when cheese hits a hot flat-top. Inside, it’s all balance: savoury filling of your choice (you can’t really go wrong, but the chorizo really pops off for me), lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, aioli. At the table, you can dose it in hot sauce varieties as you'd like (and I do like). It's got proper crunch, melty richness, and just enough structure that it doesn’t collapse into chaos halfway through eating it.

A true miracle, to be honest.

Biblio Taco in all it's crispy-chessy glory at Biblio Taco in Cumberland, BC.

This is not subtle food. It’s indulgent and addictive, and the kind of dish you finish and immediately start planning how soon you can reasonably have it again. Returning the next day? Probably not. But maybe a week goes by and suddenly your caloric intake could use a hearty boost?

I’ve caught myself recommending it to friends with the kind of intensity usually reserved for life-changing albums (like Robyn’s Body Talk) or underrated travel destinations (like Winnipeg or Prague).

I would absolutely tell someone to drive an extra hour out of their way to eat this taco. I have—because that’s exactly how it was suggested to me in the first place, by way of my brother-in-law encouraging me to take the extra time to try it while driving up to Ucluelet. Clearly, he wasn’t wrong.

Cumberland itself adds plenty of low-key charm too, which is unexpected. The idea that I’ve “discovered” something everyone local already knows is kind of hilarious, but we’ll chalk it up to a newcomer being appreciative. It all adds to the experience.

Stripped of context, The Biblio Taco stands on its own as a truly perfect bite: crispy, comforting, indulgent, and deeply satisfying in a way that feels both nostalgic and completely dialed-in.

Some food is good. Some food is memorable.

This one’s the latter.