More Maps

The Hottest New Cocktail Bars in New York City, June 2023

The 15 Hottest New Restaurants in Queens, June 2023

The 15 Hottest New Restaurants in Brooklyn, June 2023

More in New York See more maps

A gloved hand uses tongs to place a small quantity of stewed meat into a tortilla — A birria taco is assembled at Taqueria Coatzingo.

NYC’s 30 Essential Mexican Restaurants

Where to find the city’s best mariscos, mole, birria, and barbacoa

by Robert Sietsema Updated Apr 20, 2023, 4:55pm EDT

View as Map

A birria taco is assembled at Taqueria Coatzingo.

by Robert Sietsema Updated Apr 20, 2023, 4:55pm EDT

Look back 40 years, and New York’s Mexican restaurant scene was dominated by sizzling fajitas, cheese enchiladas, and nachos, but the city now boasts restaurants specializing in many regions, rivaled in this country only by Los Angeles. That shift can be credited in part to the severe 10-year drought that plagued the Mexican state of Puebla, forcing residents to relocate here, and immigrants from states like Guerrero, Morelos, and Michoacán followed. New York City is now home to an impressive array of Mexican establishments, from tiny taquerias to full-blown restaurants, featuring regional fare from the Yucatan to Sinaloa — plus higher-end spots where thrilling culinary inventions are occurring.

Here’s our collection of New York’s essential Mexican restaurants, including many classics and newer spots appearing on this list for the first time. Two quintessential food trucks are included, as are three bodegas.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

Read More

If you buy something or book a reservation from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics policy.

Taqueria Sinaloense

While much Mexican food in New York comes from the southern part of the country, Taqueria Sinaloense pulls from Sinaloa, a coastal state situated in the northwest. The restaurant opened in Marble Hill in 2018, after an unrelated business with the same name closed in Elmhurst. This one specializes in tacos, including tacos de canasta (“basket tacos”) filled with chorizo and grilled cheese and dipped in oil to keep them fresh, often sold by vendors or taken on picnics; and tacos gobernador, lusciously filled with shrimp and fresh chiles.

Open in Google Maps

113 W 225th St, The Bronx, NY 10463

Visit Website

A white bowl of red pozole with onion and bobbing bits of meat, next to a plate full of tacos overflowing with shrimp. — A bowl of red pozole next to tacos gobernador.

Also featured in:

La Morada

This small cafe in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx has succeeded in popularizing the food of Oaxaca at a reasonable price point, while also serving as a center of social activism under chef Natalia Mendez and family. Choose any of the colorful moles — negro, blanco, verde, and others — or a pambazo sandwich with chorizo and potato. Flautas, tostadas, and other antojitos are available, and we’re partial to the hand-patted, circular tlacoyos.

Open in Google Maps

308 Willis Ave, The Bronx, NY 10454

Visit Website

A table with plates of rice and beans, green and red moles, and other Mexican dishes. — Red, green, black, and white moles abound at La Morada.

Also featured in:

Santa Clarita

The Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood, easily accessible by subway from all corners of the city, has become a hotbed of Mexican restaurants in the last decade — and not just the Oaxacan gem La Morada, also on this list. Santa Clarita was founded in 1971 as a Puerto Rican and Dominican restaurant, but morphed into a Mexican one with a charming taco window, a more formal indoor dining room, and a relaxing porch connecting them. The al pastor cylinder twirling in the window is particularly good, but the tacos dorados (rolled tacos), enchiladas, or anything featuring shrimp are also recommended.

Open in Google Maps

237 Willis Ave #2, Bronx, NY 10454

A restaurant with a brownish red awning with the name of the restaurant and an giant order window visible on the left. — Mott Haven’s Santa Clarita restaurant.

Also featured in:

Las Delicias Mexicanas

This East Harlem gem specializes in standard Mexican fare with a nod to Mexico City and a tip of the hat to southern state cuisines. The pozole and huaraches are distinguished, and this is one of those places that has always served birria (as a huge soup with warm tortillas on the side rather than in crunchy red taco form). The meat is goat or lamb, rather than beef, and they provide plenty of finely chopped onions and cilantro, in addition to lime wedges. The birria also sports carrots for sweetness and tiny chickpeas.

Open in Google Maps

2109 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10029

Visit Website

A bowl of soup with carrots and meat in it, being lifted up in a spoon. — Goat birria at Las Delicias Mexicanas.

Also featured in:

Taco Mix

This Pueblan taqueria owned by Alejo Sanchez specializes in al pastor, as is probably evident from the giant pineapple-topped cone of pork swirling slowly in the window. There used to be a location on the Lower East Side, but only the original in East Harlem and a branch in Sunset Park remain. Get the mini taco, by all means: The tortillas are better and show off the meat with a few shards of fruit to greater advantage.

Open in Google Maps

234 E 116th St #1, New York, NY 10029

Visit Website

Tacos at Taco Mix Lower East Side. — Taco Mix specializes in al pastor.

Also featured in:

El Mitote

El Mitote, named after an Aztec dance, partly focuses on the street food of owner Cristina Castaneda’s native Guadalajara, but there’s also classic Mexican fare from around the country. An early afternoon brunch served every day might include wild mushroom tinga tacos, huevos rancheros or chilaquiles, and a stunning bowl of red chicken pozole that’s every bit as spicy as it looks, served with a crema-painted tostada on the side.

Open in Google Maps

208 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10023

Visit Website

A bowl of bright red soup with a slice of green avocado floating in it, and a tostada on a side plate. — The red chicken pozole at El Mitote.

Also featured in:

Tulcingo Del Valle

The mother of all Puebla bodega taquerias in town is Hell’s Kitchen’s Tulcingo del Valle, name-checking a town in the southern part of the state and offering a full menu ranging from goat barbacoa to pork ribs in salsa verde. It’s also one of the best places in town to score a chile relleno, stuffed with cheese and smothered in a sprightly tomato sauce. Keep your eye on chalkboard specials. It’s owned and operated by Irma Verdejo and family.

Open in Google Maps

665 10th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Visit Website

A cheese stuff chile flooded with tomato sauce, alongside rice and beans. — The chile relleno at Tulcingo Del Valle.

Also featured in:

Ruta Oaxaca

With a vibrant design featuring the color pink and a bar emphasizing mezcal and tequila (and an array of flavored salts to give them some added oomph), Ruta Oaxaca is one of the city’s best evocations of the cuisine of the southern Mexican state. Moles come in a rainbow of colors, representing ancient sauces whose history goes back to pre-Columbian times, and you can’t go wrong with the chicken bunuelos, served in a pool of dark mole Oaxaca, or the brighter mole coloradito, poured over a steak with melted chihuahua cheese.

Open in Google Maps

35-03 Broadway, Queens, NY 11106

Visit Website

A pitcher poised over a fish filet pouring on green sauce. — Fish with mole verde at Ruta Oaxaca.

Also featured in:

Mariscos El Submarino

This small storefront with a yellow mustached submarine for a mascot rolled into Jackson Heights in 2020, changing the game where Mexican seafood is concerned. There might be better ceviche in the five boroughs, but its aguachiles — fiery baths of shrimp, fish, and octopus — are unrivaled. They come served in a heaping molcajete, the volcanic stone vessels traditionally used to grind spices and make guacamole, with enough seafood to share. Try the refreshing verde version, or the aguachile negro, spicy as hell and seasoned with Maggi.

8805 Roosevelt Ave, Queens, NY 11372

Visit Website

The aguachile negro at Mariscos El Submarino in Jackson Heights comes served out of a hulking molcajete. — The aguachile negro at Mariscos El Submarino.

Also featured in:

La Estancia de la Espiga

When the weekend rolls around, Mexican food fans are faced with the perpetual question of where to get great barbacoa. At the time of writing, La Estancia de la Espiga is the best answer. Watch the goat and lamb steam in the window, then grab a seat in the semi-subterranean dining room, which is often filled with families from Guerrero, where proprietor Tomás Gonzalez is from. A pound of goat comes with a pile of fresh, hand-pressed tortillas (also cooked in the window) and chopped cilantro and onions, lemon wedges, radishes, and a couple of salsas.

Open in Google Maps

42-11 102nd St, Corona, NY 11368

Visit Website

On a green plate, a giant hunk of meat with onions and cilantro, and a side plate of tortillas. — A plate of lamb barbacoa at La Estancia de la Espiga.

Also featured in:

Taqueria Coatzingo

This taqueria run by Rufino Zapata and his family has been a beacon for Pueblan food in Jackson Heights for over two decades. “Taqueria” is perhaps too modest a term, since the current establishment occupies two storefronts, one of which doubles as a bar and dance hall. The cemitas are made on bread baked in the restaurant’s own panaderia. This is one of the city’s best and most reasonably priced Mexican restaurants in the city.

Open in Google Maps

7605 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Visit Website

Three cone shaped tacos with guacamole spilling out and chiles and radishes on the side. — Tacos spill over with guacamole and chiles at Taqueria Coatzingo.

Also featured in:

Birria-Landia

When this truck pulled up to 78th Street on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights in 2019, it was laden with birria tacos prepared in the style of Tijuana. Years later, there are still just four items on the menu — tacos, mulitas, tostadas, and cups of consomé — that draw crowds late into the night. The truck is operated by José Moreno, former chef at Del Posto, and his brother Jesús, who have since opened locations in Fordham Manor, Williamsburg, and on the Lower East Side.

Open in Google Maps

77-99 Roosevelt Ave, Jackson Heights, NY 11372

Visit Website

A corn tortilla is dipped into rendered beef fat, giving it an orange hue. Several other tortillas wait on the grill next to it. — The truck’s corn tortillas are dipped in rendered beef fat before heading onto the grill.

Also featured in:

The Best Dishes Eater NY Editors Ate in 2019, Mapped

Casa Enrique

Casa Enrique is New York’s first Mexican restaurant to earn a Michelin star, and it remains one of the city’s most affordable options in that category. Run by chef Cosme Aguilar, the menu includes cochinito Chiapaneco (pork ribs marinated in a bright red guajillo chile sauce), red pozole soup, and other dishes from his hometown of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state.

5-48 49th Ave, Long Island City, NY 11101

Visit Website

Black beans, yellow rice, and some bright red pork ribs in thick sauce. — Cochinito Chiapeneco, pork ribs that have been marinated in a sauce of guajillo chiles.

Also featured in:

Los Tacos No. 1

Los Tacos No. 1 is a corrugated metal structure within Chelsea Market that draws long lines at lunch and dinner. It does only a few things, but does them very well. Fresh flour and corn tortillas form the basis for pork adobada tacos, which will remind you of the pineapple-tenderized al pastor of Puebla. The beach favorite of grilled steak (carne asada) is also available, and either filling can be used to make a double-tortilla mula), gluing its tortillas together with cheese. Find other locations in Times Square, Grand Central, Noho, and Tribeca.

Open in Google Maps

75 9th Ave, New York, NY 10011

Visit Website

<span data-author="-1">A corn tortilla holds a mountain of grilled pork, pineapple, and salsa.</span> — An adobado taco at Los Tacos No. 1.

Also featured in:

El Cantinero

Before the city had food from Puebla, it had Tex-Mex, and one of our oldest local purveyors is El Cantinero. This dark, bi-level den just south of Union Square excels at sizzling fajitas, cheese enchiladas, and hard shell tacos, three staples of Tex-Mex cuisine. Nachos are carefully laid out the old-fashioned way with beans and melted cheese, and there are frozen margaritas by the bucketful.

86 University Pl, New York, NY 10003

Visit Website

Nachos topped with jalapeno, sour cream, and lettuce are arranged in a starburst pattern. — Nachos from El Cantinero.

Also featured in:

Eater Critic Robert Sietsema’s Top Gooey, Cheese-Filled Dishes in NYC

Oxomoco

With its austere white facade, set back from the street and occupied by an open-air seating area, Oxomoco channels the outdoor Mexican cafes of Los Angeles. A wood-fired oven is used to prepare tender lamb barbacoa for tacos, its signature dish. The more modern Mexican inventions are worth trying, too, including the restaurant’s vegetarian beet “chorizo” and a beef tartare tostada topped with grasshopper mayonnaise.

Open in Google Maps

128 Greenpoint Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Visit Website

A bustling dining room packs customers at tables and a high-top bar. — The bustling dining room at Oxomoco.

Also featured in:

Taqueria Ramirez

Taqueria Ramirez landed on a quiet side street of Greenpoint in late 2021, lighting up the neighborhood with a menu of meats stewed in a bubbling choricera. The taqueria has become as well known for its suadero (a thin strip of muscle between the ribs of a cow that’s chopped into taco meat) as its lines, which extend out the door and toward Franklin Street most days. It’s since nabbed a James Beard nomination and a spot on our list of essential New York City restaurants.

Open in Google Maps

94 Franklin St, Brooklyn, NY 11222

Visit Website

A gloved hands hold a sieve of crumbly red meat over a vat of orange fat and oil, also filled with other meats — Meats are plucked from a bubbling choricera at Taqueria Ramirez.

Also featured in:

Lupe's East L.A. Kitchen

For homesick Angelinos and San Franciscans, New York boasts a couple of Cal-Mex spots, foremost of which is Lupe’s East L.A. Kitchen, where you can get cheese enchiladas in chile colorado, rolled potato taquitos, chile verde, and a full range of bulbous Mission burritos, an invention of San Francisco. This restaurant with a trippy diner setting and views of Sixth Avenue is operated by David Seixas.

Open in Google Maps

110 6th Ave #1607, New York, NY 10013

Visit Website

Potato stuffed taquitos snowed with cheese and sided with salad, yellow rice, and black beans. — Rolled potato taquitos at Lupe’s East L.A. Kitchen.

Also featured in:

Aldama

Fueled by mezcal and the thump of reggaeton from a live DJ, Aldama is the closest thing Brooklyn has to the hip, late-night restaurants and bars of Mexico City. Make a reservation for dinner — when dutifully constructed tacos al pastor and plates of vegan mole shine — or arrive later at night on weekends, when bartenders addle customers with frozen cocktails and small cups of tequila. The spot comes from owner Chris Reyes and chef Gerardo Alcaraz, an alum of the three-Michelin-starred Martin Berasategui in Spain.

Open in Google Maps

91 S 6th St, Brooklyn, NY 11249

Visit Website

A shot from outside Aldama shows patrons enjoying dinner inside the warmly lit bar room. — The front room at Aldama.

Also featured in:

Sobre Masa

Sobre Masa has shapeshifted more than once since opening in Brooklyn in 2020. The restaurant from Zack Wangeman, an alum of the Michelin-starred Per Se, started as a cafe in Williamsburg with breakfast tacos and some next-level conchas, before relocating to this address in Bushwick, where it operated as a taqueria in the back of a tortilla mill. The menu has since grown to include sweet potato ceviche and chicken enchiladas blanketed in red mole. As was the case from the start, tortillas are milled in-house and come in a variety of colors.

Open in Google Maps

52 Harrison Pl, Brooklyn, NY 11237

Visit Website

A hand plucks a tortilla from a stack of yellow tortillas. Beside it, two stacks of dark blue tortillas rest on a steel grate. — Sobre Masa doubles as a tortilleria.

Also featured in:

Santa Ana Deli & Grocery

Bodega taquerias from the state of Puebla abound in Bushwick, including this one named after the town of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco. The groceries at Santa Ana Deli & Grocery have withered to a few shelves, but still display a nice collection of dried and canned chiles. The menu, stenciled over the counter at the end of the room, is expansive with rolled tacos arabes in flour tortillas; rice-bearing tacos placeros that enfold other homely fillings like boiled egg and chiles relleno; and a wonderful burrito Santa Ana, sauced with the colors of the Mexican flag. The grocery was founded in the 1980s and is still owned and operated by Polo Teco and family.

Open in Google Maps

171 Irving Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237

A burrito is topped with white, green, and red sauces in the colors of the Mexican flag. — The Santanero burrito is sauced with the colors of the Mexican flag.

Also featured in:

For All Things Good Bed-Stuy

Few restaurants have been able to popularize the foods of Oaxaca like For All Things Good, a Mexican restaurant from proprietor Matthew Diaz, who has since opened a second location in Williamsburg. The small cafe is credited with jumpstarting the heirloom corn movement in New York City, where grains imported from Mexico are nixtamalized in-house and ground into masa used to make triangular tetelas and miniature tlayudas in various colors. Round out a meal with an iced horchata or atole, a thick beverage made from the versatile house masa.

Open in Google Maps

343 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11238

Visit Website

A trio of tetelas, blue red and yellow, sit on a white plate next to piles of red and green salsa — Tetelas come in a variety of colors at For All Things Good.

Also featured in:

13 Places to Dine Outside in Brooklyn Right Now

Claro

This cozy and innovative spot near the Gowanus Canal partly specializes in Oaxacan food. Sure, there are memelas, garnaches, and other hand-patted masa creations, but check out the rotating list of moles that blanket duck, sea bass, pork cheek, and other meats, that are perfect for sopping up with a tortilla. The logo is a woodcut of a happy goat paradoxically relaxing in a stewpot, and a backyard seating area is one of Brooklyn’s most glorious when summer rolls around.

Open in Google Maps

284 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Visit Website

A whole duck leg is blanketed in a pool of mole negro. — A duck leg blanketed in mole negro.

Also featured in:

Reyes Deli & Grocery

As businesses like Tulcingo Del Valle and Santa Ana Deli & Grocery go to show, some of the city’s best Mexican food is found in the kitchens of neighborhood bodegas. Don’t be deterred by the fact that most of the burritos here come with mozzarella cheese: Fillings like carne enchilada, cecina, and bistec more than compensate. On weekends, tamales (around $3 each), barbacoa by the pound, cups of atole, and other specials join the menu.

Open in Google Maps

532 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215

Visit Website

Signs advertising weekend tamale and atole specials hang at the front counter of Reyes Deli & Grocery, a Mexican bodega in Brooklyn. — Tamales and barbacoa join the menu on weekends.

Also featured in:

Antojitos del Patron Mexican Snacks

Part of a cluster of three restaurants on the same block owned by a pair of Guatemalan sisters, Brenda Castellanos and Ana Prince, Antojitos del Patron is a cozy cafe offering homestyle, corn-based Mexican food. Steamed in a banana leaf, the Oaxacan tamal is magnificent, a massive cylinder of masa drenched in a chunky pork sauce, a full meal in itself. Specialty tacos are also available, including tacos al pastor and tacos de calabacitas, the latter made with zucchini and corn kernels.

Open in Google Maps

52 Lincoln Rd, Brooklyn, NY 11225

Visit Website

A thick burrito smothered in tomato sauce and pork chunks. — An unsheathed Oaxacan tamal at Antojitos del Patron.

Also featured in:

30 Outstanding Tacos to Try in NYC

Tacos El Bronco

By now everyone knows to get the tiny tripe tacos at this amazing taco truck that parks opposite the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot, a stone’s throw from the Green-Wood Cemetery in Sunset Park. Note that the tripe here is not of the honeycomb variety, but is instead made from veal intestines. Both substances are equally good in a taco. Otherwise, steer in the direction of goat, calf tongue, veal head, or pork skin.

Open in Google Maps

860 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11232

A takeout container filled with green onions and a few double-wrapped tacos with vegetable and meat fillings. — Tacos, cucumber slices, and a bulbous green onion overflow from a takeout container.

Also featured in:

Don Pepe Tortas Y Jugos

Opened in 2003, Don Pepe presaged an era when the Mexican sandwiches called tortas were super-sized and rendered glamorous as massive feeds for any meal. Dozens upon dozens of sandwiches are offered, often bearing the names of Mexican states or foreign countries and laden with multiple meats. Juices are another focus of this rollicking cafe that also offers antojitos in an orange-colored dining room.

Open in Google Maps

3908 5th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11232

Visit Website

The Mexican sandwich called the torta, loaded down with multiple meats, string cheese, avocado, jalapenos, and many more ingredients. — An overflowing torta from Don Pepe Tortas Y Jugos.

Also featured in:

Taqueria El Gallo Azteca

A short distance from the ferry on soaring Victory Boulevard, tiny corner taqueria El Gallo Azetca, with only three tables and a few counter seats, has long been serving the taco needs of Staten Islanders. The quesadillas are equally celebrated, and Pueblan cemitas (round sandwiches on seeded rolls) are served complete with papalo leaves. Don’t miss the fabled hot dog torta.

Open in Google Maps

75 Victory Blvd, Staten Island, NY 10301

Visit Website

An overstuffed round sandwich with hot dogs, white cheese, and avocado, among other ingredients. — A hot dog torta at Taqueria El Gallo Azteca.

Also featured in:

30 Outstanding Tacos to Try in NYC

Coszcal De Allende

After a career operating restaurants in Manhattan, Veronica and Luis Felipe moved to Bay Ridge in 2010 and opened Coszcal de Allende, a delightful place that evokes the atmosphere of arts center San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Tacos de cazadores (hunters’ tacos) feature a filling of chorizo, avocados, and cheese, while quesadillas arrive stuffed with mushrooms, squash flowers, or huitlacoche. The dish most characteristic of the city is enchiladas de Allende (also referred to as enchiladas Sanmiguelense), stuffed with cheese, mantled with more cheese, and smothered in a piquant salsa verde.

Open in Google Maps

6824 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11220

Visit Website

Enchiladas smothered in cheese and sided with beans and rice. — Enchiladas de Allende at Coszcal De Allende.

Also featured in:

Where to Eat in Bay Ridge, One of Brooklyn’s Most Dynamic Dining Neighborhoods

Doña Zita

For a dozen years, this wonderful canteen has lingered among the back alleys of Coney Island (on a thoroughfare absurdly called Bowery Street), dishing up gigantic versions of tacos, quesadillas, sopes, and other antojitos, but its most glorious production may be the Pueblan cemita, a sandwich so big your mouth can’t fit around it, with such a wad of fresh papalo leaves you can smell them as the sandwich is handed over the counter.

Open in Google Maps

1221 Bowery St, Brooklyn, NY 11224

Visit Website

A giant domed sandwich held up to show how big it is. — Doña Zita’s chicken milanesa cemita.

© 2023 Vox Media, Inc. All rights reserved.

Link copied to the clipboard.

Taqueria Sinaloense

113 W 225th St, The Bronx, NY 10463

While much Mexican food in New York comes from the southern part of the country, Taqueria Sinaloense pulls from Sinaloa, a coastal state situated in the northwest. The restaurant opened in Marble Hill in 2018, after an unrelated business with the same name closed in Elmhurst. This one specializes in tacos, including tacos de canasta (“basket tacos”) filled with chorizo and grilled cheese and dipped in oil to keep them fresh, often sold by vendors or taken on picnics; and tacos gobernador, lusciously filled with shrimp and fresh chiles.

Open in Google Maps

113 W 225th St, The Bronx, NY 10463

Visit Website

A white bowl of red pozole with onion and bobbing bits of meat, next to a plate full of tacos overflowing with shrimp. — A bowl of red pozole next to tacos gobernador.

La Morada

308 Willis Ave, The Bronx, NY 10454

This small cafe in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx has succeeded in popularizing the food of Oaxaca at a reasonable price point, while also serving as a center of social activism under chef Natalia Mendez and family. Choose any of the colorful moles — negro, blanco, verde, and others — or a pambazo sandwich with chorizo and potato. Flautas, tostadas, and other antojitos are available, and we’re partial to the hand-patted, circular tlacoyos.

Open in Google Maps

308 Willis Ave, The Bronx, NY 10454

Visit Website

A table with plates of rice and beans, green and red moles, and other Mexican dishes. — Red, green, black, and white moles abound at La Morada.

Santa Clarita

237 Willis Ave #2, Bronx, NY 10454

The Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood, easily accessible by subway from all corners of the city, has become a hotbed of Mexican restaurants in the last decade — and not just the Oaxacan gem La Morada, also on this list. Santa Clarita was founded in 1971 as a Puerto Rican and Dominican restaurant, but morphed into a Mexican one with a charming taco window, a more formal indoor dining room, and a relaxing porch connecting them. The al pastor cylinder twirling in the window is particularly good, but the tacos dorados (rolled tacos), enchiladas, or anything featuring shrimp are also recommended.

Open in Google Maps

237 Willis Ave #2, Bronx, NY 10454

A restaurant with a brownish red awning with the name of the restaurant and an giant order window visible on the left. — Mott Haven’s Santa Clarita restaurant.

Las Delicias Mexicanas

2109 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10029

This East Harlem gem specializes in standard Mexican fare with a nod to Mexico City and a tip of the hat to southern state cuisines. The pozole and huaraches are distinguished, and this is one of those places that has always served birria (as a huge soup with warm tortillas on the side rather than in crunchy red taco form). The meat is goat or lamb, rather than beef, and they provide plenty of finely chopped onions and cilantro, in addition to lime wedges. The birria also sports carrots for sweetness and tiny chickpeas.

Open in Google Maps

2109 3rd Ave, New York, NY 10029