Get us in your inbox

The best Mexican restaurants in America
Photograph: Nick MurwayLa Chaparrita

The 20 best Mexican restaurants in America

Our guide to the best Mexican restaurants in America for authentic Mexican food, great Tex Mex, amazing tacos and more

Written by
Time Out editors
&
Jenny Miller
Advertising

It’s not easy to narrow down the best Mexican restaurants in America, so lucky are we to be saturated with the cooking of our South-of-the-Border neighbor in all its wonderful regional variety. But as any good mole- or taco-hound knows, some restaurants rise to the head of the pack, from the new-school, innovative cooking headed up by Rick Bayless at his Mexican restaurants in Chicago to the best burritos in San Francisco’s Mission District to out-of-the-way joints in the West and Southwest sure to inspire your next road trip to the best Mexican restaurants in L.A., including the killer Oaxacan cooking at Guelaguetza. Below, the best Mexican restaurants in America—ranked.

Time Out Market United States

Time Out’s expansive food-and-culture destinations are what happens when your go-to guide to the city’s best restaurants, bars and things to do becomes an actual place. These are the spots we’ve curated with the same fuss, care and curiosity we bring to our editorial—and there’s probably one near you right now.

Best Mexican restaurants in America

  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Flatiron

This is the stateside debut of Enrique Olvera, the megawatt Mexico City talent behind Pujol, regularly ranked one of the 20 best restaurants. Here you’ll find elegant high-gear small plates—pristine, pricey and market-fresh. Olvera’s single-corn tortillas pop up frequently, from a complimentary starter of crackly blue-corn tortillas with chile-kicked pumpkin-seed butter to dense, crispy tostadas dabbed with bone-marrow salsa and creamy tongues of uni. Don’t miss the face-melting, savory-sweet, Instagrammed-to-death husk meringue ($14), with its fine, ash-dusted hull giving way to a velvety, supercharged corn mousse.

Empellón Cocina, New York City
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • East Village

Some chefs are like gastronomic Margaret Meads, quick studies in replicating the food of cultures far from their own. Alex Stupak, a notorious tinkerer, is much more original. Everything here is designed for sharing, and a table cluttered with his most impressionistic fare feels Mexican only in the most cosmopolitan sense. Miniature roasted carrots, in one boisterous small plate, arrive sprouting from an earthenware bowl that’s been artfully streaked with cool yogurt and sweet-spicy mole. Another beautiful abstraction features black mole splattered like a Rorschach blot around seared calamari curls, an explosion of super-savory elements with fried potato nuggets and drips of chorizo mayo. Plus the bar has one of the most comprehensive selections of mescal in New York.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Civic Center

Chef Gabriela Cámara, of famed Mexico City restaurant Contramar, brought her brand of refined seafood-focused Mexican to an airy Hayes Valley space in September. Already, Cala is garnering buzz for dishes like the trout tostada with chipotle, avocado and fried leeks (the California counterpoint to Contramar’s beloved tuna tostada); the ling cod salpicon; and a dish of cactus and eggplant cooked inside a corn husk. The salpicon and corn-and-eggplant dish are served with house-made corn tortillas for DIY taco-ing. Cocktails like the Horchata Colada (spiked with rum) and the Martini Oaxaqueño (an unusual concoction containing mescal, citrus and olives) play with Latin American bar staples. There’s brunch on Sundays and, for weekday lunch, Tacos Cala (located in the alley near the restaurant’s back entrance), offers tortillas stuffed with several stewed fillings of the day for takeout or a quick bite.

  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Koreatown

The guelaguetza is an Oaxacan dance; its use as the name of this restaurant serves as a reminder that the food served here differs from classic Mexican. The speciality is meat (chicken, beef or pork) served with richly fragrant and spicy sauces called moles, which use fresh-ground herbs and chocolate to create a depth of flavor. Try the seafood stew or a tlayuda, a strange pizza-like corn-cake, with a fresh juice.

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Bell

Thanks to chefs Jaime Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu, South LA neighborhood Bell has become a dining destination. The Jalisco natives opened their upscale La Casita Mexicana in 1999 and have since become TV personalities, famously defeating Bobby Flay in a chile relleno Throwdown. Try the duo’s meat-filled version, chile en nogada—roasted Poblano packed with ground beef, dried fruits, walnuts and candied cactus, topped with pecan cream sauce and pomegranate seeds. It looks like an homage to the Mexican flag. House-made corn tortillas are similarly patriotic with red (guajillo chile), green (cactus paddle) and white (corn), the perfect accompaniment to a plate of Tres Moles that features three types of mole: traditional poblano and two types of pipián, a creamy pumpkin-seed based sauce. Start the meal with chia seed-laced lemonade and end with a stop at the adjacent tiendita to pick up South of the Border pantry items.

  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • River North

Topolobampo (“Topolo” for short) is the most sophisticated and upscale of Rick Bayless’s restaurants, and the one most frequented by President Obama and his family. As with all of Bayless’s restaurants, the products used here are local and seasonal. So whether you’re eating fresh oysters or ceviche or one of the beautiful moles, you know you’re eating the best the season has to offer. An ever-changing menu means it's hard to predict exactly what will be on offer day to day—but because Bayless is involved, it never really feels like a gamble.

Advertising
Fonda San Miguel, Austin
  • Restaurants
  • Rosedale

In a town of great Mexican brunches, the stuff Mexican brunch dreams are made of is served in this sprawling hacienda-style restaurant in North Loop, which celebrated 40 years in 2015. Those who show up midday on Sundays are treated to a changing weekly spread that would take any mama days to make. The menu mines the cuisines of Oaxaca, Puebla Yucatan and Veracruz, ranging from chicken in mole sauce to fish cooked Veracruz-style, with capers, onions and olive. Dinner in the dining rooms, each brimming with folk art, is worthy of a special occasion, thanks to the elegant surroundings and a selection of winning South of the Border cocktails.

Mary and Tito’s, Albuquerque

8. Mary and Tito’s, Albuquerque

Almost everything in New Mexico cooking is blessed by the addition of roasted chilies, and the question is always “red or green?” At Mary and Tito’s, red is usually the answer: the restaurant’s slow-burning chile sauce features on signature dishes like carne adovada (at its best stuffed into a crispy-fried sopapilla), chiles rellenos or enchiladas, and has earned quite the cult following. This humble Near North Valley restaurant celebrated half a century of pleasing chile fiends in 2013, and was honored with a James Beard Foundation America’s Classics award in 2010.

Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/Melanie Wong

Advertising
Barrio Cafe, Phoenix
Barrio Cafe

9. Barrio Cafe, Phoenix

At this humble little spot in the heart of mural-bedecked Calle 16, chef Silvana Salcido Esparza (a four-time James Beard Award nominee) serves Southern Mexican specialties to legions of adoring Phoenicians. The food of states like Oaxaca, Yucatan and Puebla makes a strong showing at Barrio Cafe, in house favorites like Yucatan’s cochinita pibil (marinated in crushed achiote seed and sour orange and cooked in a banana leaf), and chiles en nogada, a colorful dish from Puebla featuring stuffed chilies in a cream sauce.

Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/keycmndr

  • Restaurants
  • Inner Sunset

An offshoot of the acclaimed NoPa restaurant, Nopalito offers authentic from-scratch Mexican cooking made with local, sustainable and organic ingredients. This is the antithesis of slapped-together street food. Carnitas is slow-cooked and braised in orange, bay leaf, milk, cinnamon and beer; Mole Coloradito con Pollo is made with toasted chiles, almonds, Ibarra chocolate, dried plums and a huge array of spices. Don't miss any version of tangy, tender nopales (cactus leaves), frequently on the menu in the form of tamales or in dishes such as Queso Flameado con Chorizo y Nopales (flamed Oaxacan and jack cheese with grilled cactus and chorizo).

Advertising
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • South Lawndale

Chicago’s best all-around taqueria specializes in tacos de fritangas, or fried meaty things cooked on a wide metal stovetop called a charola. You seriously can’t go wrong with anything on the menu, from the extra beefy suadero to the intricately spiced longaniza sausage. But the showstopper—and perhaps the best taco in Chicago—is the tripa. Order it crispy, and these little hunks from the cow’s intestine (not, as you would assume, the stomach) arrive as golden-hued and glistening crunchy nuggets.

  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Mission

The Mission burrito, as iconic to San Francisco as fog and cable cars, is the star at La Taqueria, a stalwart of the Mission District for more than 40 years. While some quibble over the exclusion of rice, no one argues over the tastiness of their behemoth foil-wrapped burrito bombs, filled with beans, cheese, salsa and meats ranging from carne and pollo asada to carnitas, chorizo and lengua. Located in the heart of the Mission District, the tidy no-frills spot also features tacos, quesadillas and a full selection of aguas frescas. Whatever your preference, start off with a basket of chips and the super-fresh guacamole.

Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/Wally Gobetz

Advertising
Casa Enrique, New York City
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Long Island City

The owners of Bar Henry branched out to Queens with this 40-seat Mexican eatery, specializing in the regional cuisine of Cintalapa, Chiapas. Brothers Cosme and Luis Aguilar, the chef and GM respectively, pay homage to their late mother with traditional plates, including some based on her recipes, such as chicken mole and cochinito chiapaneco (guajillo-marinated baby pork ribs). The white-painted spot features a garden and works from Queens artists.

Mariscos German, San Diego
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Palm City

One type of Mexican food that shouldn’t be overlooked is the Ensenada-style fish taco, a hotly contested category in close-to-the-border San Diego. The debate about who does it best will never stop raging, but for many seafood lovers the answer lies at Chula Vista taco truck-turned-hole-in-the-wall Mariscos German (658 Hollister St, San Diego), where the fish is breaded to an ideal golden brown crunchiness, then topped with chopped cabbage and creamy sauce. The menu features a other kinds of seafood, like shrimp and marlin, available as tacos, burritos, cocktails or tostadas. One impressive favorite is the tostada loca, a mix of marinated seafood accompanied by crispy tortillas.

Advertising
Frutiland La Casa del Sabor, Arroyo Grande, CA
Frutiland

15. Frutiland La Casa del Sabor, Arroyo Grande, CA

This casual roadside spot near San Luis Obispo specializes in tortas, supersized Mexican submarine sandwiches that frequently inspire lines at lunchtime. Two hungry people may be hard-pressed to finish the Cubana, a pile-up that includes breaded chicken and beef, pork cooked four different ways, two kinds of cheese, and more. Less gut-busting, but equally popular, are Frutiland’s fish tacos, served on blue corn tortillas with shredded cabbage and the welcome addition of fruit salsa. An extensive menu of aguas frescas (fruit juices mixed with sugar and water) puts the “fruit” in Frutiland.

  • Restaurants
  • Mexican

This beloved restaurant in the Braintree neighborhood is generally regarded as the best Mexican food in Boston. Hearty dishes, including enchiladas in salsa verde and a house specialty of chicken or beef stewed with potatoes in a smoky chile ancho salsa, are some of the favorites on the from-scratch menu. There’s sangria to wash it down, and desserts like plantains topped with cajeta (a goat’s-milk caramel) are worth saving room for. A friendly staff and festive, inviting atmosphere, with traditional wooden chairs and colorful South of the Border tchotchkes have kept Bostonites coming back for nearly 30 years.

Advertising
Las Cuatro Milpas, San Diego
  • Restaurants
  • Mexican
  • Logan Heights

This third-generation Mexican breakfast and lunch joint is a Barrio Logan classic famous for the kind of food your abuela might make, like carnitas, house-made tortillas, fried rolled tacos (a.k.a. flautas) and incredible salsa. At lunchtime, fanatical devotees line up to order at the counter and grab packages of tortillas to go. Seating is no-frills, prices are low and the place is cash only. Official closing time is 3pm, but get there earlier since favorite dishes sometimes run out before then.

L&J Cafe, El Paso, TX
Photograph: Courtesy L&J Cafe

18. L&J Cafe, El Paso, TX

For classic, stick-to-your-ribs Tex-Mex in a hole-in-the-wall setting that hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1927, El Pasoans know to head to L&J. The menu is borderlands comfort food: hearty soups (including everyone’s favorite hangover cure, menudo, or tripe soup, on weekends), burritos, fajitas and more—as well as Mexican breakfast. A saloon-style bar covered in historic photographs takes up most of the space, with a smaller dining room holding a dozen or so tables.

Advertising
El Charro Cafe, Tucson
Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/Daniel Lobo

19. El Charro Cafe, Tucson

El Charro opened in 1922 and now has three locations around Tucson, all open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. Beloved dishes include steak tampiqueña, served with an arsenal of accouterments; anything with carne seca, a flavorful semi-dried meat; plus burros, chimichangas and other dishes from Sonora state in Northern Mexico and the Arizona-Mex cannon. Portions are hulking, margaritas are strong and the surroundings always unpretentious and homey.

Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/Daniel Lobo

La Super-Rica Taqueria, Santa Barbara

20. La Super-Rica Taqueria, Santa Barbara

Despite all the French cooking, Julia Child was at heart a down-home kind of girl—so her taco preferences seem like something to be trusted. The legendary cook’s favorites came from this cheery little turquoise-and-white shack on Milpas Street, and she’s not its only well-known fan: word of the place’s most famous regulars (Katy Perry can be spotted here) is partly what inspires lines around the block at lunch and dinnertime. That and the cooking: Corn tortillas are freshly griddled in-house and roasted green chilies top many of the best dishes. The menu is sprawling, but highlights include the Super-Rica especial taco, made with marinated pork, roasted pasilla chilies and melted cheese, and the tamales, whose fillings change regularly.

Photograph: Courtesy Creative Commons/Flickr/Wally Gobetz

See the best Mexican restaurants by city

Advertising
Advertising
Recommended
    You may also like
    You may also like
    Advertising