Twin Cities Mexican food has gotten a lot more interesting in the last decade. The St. Paul West Side has been the heart of the scene since the 1970s. Northeast Minneapolis has the new wave with chefs taking masa seriously. And the taco trucks parked behind gas stations on Lake Street and Payne Avenue are doing the work nobody is writing about.
A Northeast taco bar from chef Jami Olson. Fresh masa for the tortillas, a tight rotating menu, and a bar program that takes mezcal as seriously as the kitchen takes the al pastor. The kind of place you end up at on a random Wednesday and remember why you live here.
Daniel del Prado’s masa-forward Mexican restaurant in Northeast. Heirloom corn ground in-house, regional Mexican dishes treated with French-bistro precision, and a room that hits every photograph it has ever been in. Reservations move quickly.
A St. Paul West Side institution operating since 1979. A full Mexican grocery, a panaderia, a restaurant, and a tortilleria all under one roof. Order at the counter or sit down for the buffet. Either way, you are eating at one of the most important Latino businesses in the metro.
Open since 1964 on the West Side. The chimichangas, the chiles rellenos, and the room itself are essentially museum-grade examples of mid-century Mexican-American restaurant culture in the Midwest. Margaritas come in actual goblets. Go on a Sunday.
Started as a stall in the Midtown Global Market and grew to a Northeast location. Sonoran-style flour tortillas, slow-cooked carnitas, and the kind of taco you order three of and immediately want a fourth.
A small Midtown Global Market stall doing the kind of careful, family-recipe tamales the Twin Cities has been blessed to have for decades. Get a half-dozen of mixed flavors and bring them home. The pork in red chile is the place to start.
A small Northeast restaurant doing Oaxacan tlayudas, mole negro, and the kind of regional Mexican that nobody else in the metro touches. The tlayuda is the size of a hubcap and exactly what you came for.
A Northeast institution focused on Yucatecan dishes you do not see elsewhere in the metro. Cochinita pibil, papadzules, salbutes. The horchata is made fresh and the whole place feels like a long quiet lunch even on a Tuesday.
A modern Mexican restaurant from the team at Tongue in Cheek. Heritage corn for tortillas, a sharp tequila and mezcal program, and a brunch program that puts most brunch programs on notice. Worth a Saturday in St. Paul.
A South Minneapolis neighborhood spot connected to the Parkway Theater. Margaritas in pitchers, enchiladas the way you remember them, and a dim warm room that has been the right move for cold-night dinners for decades.