The Best Mexican Food and Tacos in New York, Dish by Dish
Suadero from a Greenpoint counter, carnitas from a cauldron on 3rd Street, birria under the 7 train, a tlayuda the size of a hubcap, Pueblan chalupas on a weekend night — here is what to order, and where.
20 dishes · 20 kitchens
Much of New York's Mexican cooking has its roots in the south of Mexico — Puebla especially, and Oaxaca — and you can taste it on the streets where it settled: Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park, Roosevelt Avenue under the 7 train, Junction Boulevard, Wyckoff Avenue in Bushwick. In the last few years a new generation of taquerias has added Mexico City counters, Sonoran flour tortillas and carnitas cut by cut.
So this guide goes dish by dish. Tacos first — trompo, comal and cauldron — then birria and flour tortillas, the regional cooking of Oaxaca, Puebla and Chiapas, antojitos and tortas, mariscos, breakfast, and the restaurants that have taken Mexican cooking somewhere new.
A few ground rules. The best tacos are small, so order several kinds and go back for a second round. Trucks, carts and stands keep their own hours; a few take cash only, so bring some. And whatever else you order, eat the salsa.
Tacos: the trompo, the comal and the cauldron
Small, double-wrapped and best eaten standing up.
- 01
Suadero and tripa
Taqueria Ramirez · GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN
A Franklin Street counter built in the image of Mexico City's taquerias, down to a choricera and comal made in CDMX. The suadero is slow-cooked in fat until velvety; get the tripa crisp, then a round of al pastor and longaniza.
- 02
Carnitas surtida
Carnitas Ramirez · EAST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Taqueria Ramirez's younger sibling scoops pork from cauldrons of fat and chops it to order. The surtida mixes around ten cuts in one taco; then try them one by one, starting with lengua and trompa.
- 03
Al pastor and carne asada
Taqueria Al Pastor · BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN
A Bushwick counter by the DeKalb Avenue L. Get the al pastor crisp off the trompo and the carne asada, garlicky grilled beef under a scoop of jalapeño guacamole.
- 04
Al pastor, lengua and campechanos
Tacos El Bronco (truck) · SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN
The truck has held its corner of Fifth Avenue and 37th Street in Sunset Park since 2008. Order small tacos on doubled corn tortillas, several kinds at once, and cover them in the green tomatillo salsa.
- 05
Adobada on a flour tortilla
Los Tacos No. 1 (Chelsea Market) · CHELSEA, MANHATTAN
Chile-marinated pork cut from the spit at the standing-room Chelsea Market counter, opened in 2013 by friends from Tijuana and Southern California. The line looks long and moves fast.
Birria and flour tortillas
Two northern styles that have found a home in New York in the last few years.
- 06
Birria tacos with consommé
Birria-Landia · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
The original truck under the 7 train at 78th Street, where two brothers introduced Tijuana-style birria in 2019. Order tacos and a cup of consommé and dip as you go; the tortillas crisp in the fat.
- 07
Carne con chile on a flour tortilla
Border Town · GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN
Sonoran flour tortillas made with lard, soft and blistered, from a taco operation that started in a parking lot and opened its own corner restaurant in 2026. Add a frijoles y queso taco and the Cadillac margarita.
Oaxaca, Puebla and Chiapas
Moles, tlayudas and chalupas from the south of Mexico.
- 08
Enchiladas in dark mole
Ruta Oaxaca · ASTORIA, QUEENS
Oaxaca is the state of seven moles, and this Astoria room orders around them. Get the mole enchiladas or the pechuga en mole, start with choriqueso, and drink mezcal.
- 09
Tlayuda
Tlayuda Oaxaqueña Sr. San Pablo · CORONA, QUEENS
A disc of masa as wide as a steering wheel, grilled crisp, spread with beans and cheese, piled with meat and folded in half, from a cart in Corona Plaza. One feeds two.
- 10
Chalupas poblanas
Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile · JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS
Tortillas crisped in pork lard on a charcoal comal, then topped with red and green salsas, shredded pork and onions, from a weekend-night stand on Junction Boulevard. Cash only; a stack is a meal.
- 11
Lamb barbacoa and mole de Piaxtla
Casa Enrique · LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS
Chef Cosme Aguilar cooks from his family's kitchens in Chiapas in a small white room in Long Island City that held a Michelin star for years. The barbacoa and the mole are the dishes people cross the river for.
Antojitos, tortas and tortillas
Street snacks, sandwiches, and the tortillas everything else depends on.
- 12
Tacos árabes and a torta
Don Pepe Tortas y Jugos · SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN
Cumin-spiced pork, sweetened with pineapple, in small flour tortillas — tacos árabes, the ancestor of al pastor — at a Sunset Park torta-and-juice shop papered in neon signs. Add a torta and a fresh juice.
- 13
Tacos and a tostada on fresh tortillas
Tortilleria Mexicana Los Hermanos · BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN
A Bushwick tortilla factory with a few tables up front. Get steak and chorizo tacos on tortillas made on site and a tostada piled with beans, meat, avocado and crema; it's BYOB.
Mariscos
Aguachile, ceviche and tostadas, sharp with lime and chile.
- 14
Aguachile in a molcajete
Mariscos El Submarino · GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN
The Greenpoint branch of a Jackson Heights favorite serves aguachile negro, verde or rojo in a molcajete with tostadas, hotter than it first lets on. Add cheesy shrimp tacos and a michelada on the back patio.
- 15
Scallop aguachile negro and crab tostadas
Quique Crudo · WEST VILLAGE, MANHATTAN
Casa Enrique's seafood bar in the West Village is about twenty stools around a bar. Order the scallop aguachile negro, the fluke ceviche and at least one crab tostada.
Breakfast
Eggs, masa and longaniza, before noon.
- 16
Longaniza-and-egg breakfast taco (El Buen Dia)
El Lado Taco · ASTORIA, QUEENS
An Astoria taco shop that serves breakfast every day. Get El Buen Dia on flour with chipotle-peanut salsa, and the migas on corn.
- 17
Tortilla con huevo and the masa pancake
Cocina Consuelo · HARLEM, MANHATTAN
A sunny, walk-in-only room in Hamilton Heights from two Cosme and Eleven Madison Park alums. Fried tortillas with hoja santa, runny eggs and salsa roja for you; the thick masa pancake with honey butter to share.
Modern Mexican
Restaurants that start from Mexican tradition and take it somewhere of their own.
- 18
Duck carnitas
Cosme · FLATIRON & NOMAD, MANHATTAN
Half a roasted duck in cast iron with warm tortillas for building your own tacos, at Enrique Olvera's Flatiron dining room. Finish with the corn husk meringue, a dessert since the early days.
- 19
Tlayuda from the wood fire
Oxomoco · GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN
Greenpoint's Michelin-starred hearth runs everything through the fire, on house-ground masa. Get the tlayuda and a margarita, or come for the weekend brunch.
- 20
Enchiladas in tomatillo sauce
Fonda · PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN
Roberto Santibañez, born in Mexico City and trained in France, opened Fonda on Seventh Avenue in 2009. The enchiladas in tangy tomatillo sauce and the pork braised in adobo are the place to start.
Every kitchen here was confirmed open as of 2026-10-14. Menus change — confirm a dish is on before you make the trip.