The best tacos in Mexico City

Earlier this year the Michelin guide released its first Mexican edition. Among the 18 grand establishments awarded at least one star was a cash-only taquería in the working-class San Rafael neighbourhood of Mexico City called El Califa de León. The only street-food stand to make the list, it has been open since 1968. And now, thanks to the Michelin star, it is probably the only taco stand in Mexico where the waiting time is up to three hours.

When I visited on a recent trip to Mexico City, the queue was a far more reasonable 25 minutes. The 10ft by 10ft taco stand is located in a run of similarly sized units on a busy pavement and the line snakes past the neighbouring menswear shop where an array of boxers, jockstraps and thongs are on display outside. There are four tacos on the menu at El Califa – three beef (tenderloin, rib and “gaonera” or fillet) and one pork (chop). They cost between 53 and 82 Mexican pesos (roughly £2 to £3). Each comes with a wedge of lime. You can add spicy green or red salsa. These are simple tacos (“elemental and pure” is how the Michelin guide describes them) distinguished by the quality of their freshly made tortillas and meat.

Ask the locals, however, about El Califa, and you might be surprised by the reactions. “Nothing special” is what one person told me; an indication of the wealth of exceptional taco shops in the city, and how loyal people are to their favourites. Everyone agrees, though, on the significance of having a taquería on the Michelin’s inaugural edit. Tacos originated in Mexico. Tacos remain central to Mexican culture. Eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner and at three in the morning by clubbers and barflies, tacos are a source of national pride. 

I fall hard for the mutton slow-cooked in a pit oven for hours

Tacos have now taken over the world, giving rise to everything from Taco Tuesdays to the popular Netflix documentary series Taco Chronicles. In London alone a handful of taco shops have opened this year, including Lucia’s in Hackney Wick and the much-hyped CDMX Tacos in Soho. Among reasons for the taco’s popularity is the obvious branding advantage that “taco” is easy to pronounce. Tacos are also quick to eat (just two bites) and require few ingredients: a tortilla, some meat (or similar) and salsa. Their biggest asset, though, is surely their deliciousness.

“A taco is a complex flavour bomb,” says London-based chef Santiago Lastra, who grew up in a small town south of Mexico City, and was the guide on my trip. “A taco has umami from meat caramelised on the plancha, creaminess from avocado, sweetness and spiciness from salsa, texture from crunchy onions, herbal notes from coriander, heat from chillies, kokumi [rich savouriness] from the calcium in tortillas, and acidity from lime.”

When he returns to Mexico City Lastra tends to indulge his favourite tacos at the no-frills Taqueria Los Cocuyos in Centro Histórico. These are made from different parts of the animal’s head and include “creamy” ojo (eye), “gelatinous” trompa (snout), “crispy” tronco de oreja (ears) and lengua (tongue). This time, however, Lastra whisks us to La Docena, an oyster and fresh seafood bar in the fashionable Roma district, where the meal kicks off with their signature grilled octopus tostada dressed with pineapple, raw onion, chilli, guacamole and coriander. It is followed by another local delicacy Lastra is keen for us to try, tacos de escamoles, whose key ingredient are rice-like grains that turn out to be ant larvae, otherwise known as Mexican caviar. A trip to the Mercado de San Juan (a traditional food market in the Cuauhtémoc district) brings more challenging varieties in the form of lion, tiger, crocodile and tarantula meat tacos, all apparently just for the tourists.

At other spots like Siembra Comedor and neighbouring Siembra Taquería in Polanco, the emphasis is on the quality of the tortillas. Here, they use locally grown seasonal corn, which is thought to promote biodiversity, more sustainable farming practices and better welfare among farming communities than the industrialised GM crops that have become dominant in Mexico. At Siembra this corn is turned into masa (through a process known as nixtamalisation) and then tortillas. The approach shows in the rich flavourful corniness and colour of their tortilla.

Leaving the city, we drive for two hours to Tepoztlán, Lastra’s hometown, where we visit the local food and craft market at its liveliest on a Saturday morning. Here women flip tortilla on giant comal (smooth, flat griddles). Vendors sell every kind of salsa including ones made from hibiscus, guava, tamarind, grasshopper and “Coca-Cola”. And customers jostle on benches with fans waiting to be handed breakfast tacos and quesadillas. I fall hard for a taco de barbacoa made with mutton slow-cooked in a pit oven for several hours. It comes with a restorative broth made from its drippings. 

A close second is the taco I have at Princesa Taquería, which sits across from Lastra’s former high school. This place was a regular childhood haunt. Outside, a taquero shears reddish marinaded pork off a vertical rotisserie. Pineapple and salsa will be added to turn out perhaps Mexico’s most popular variety, the taco al pastor. At 18 Mexican pesos, this may be the best 70 pence I’ve ever spent. 

Outside Mexico, tacos have been key in driving a growing appreciation for Mexican regional cooking and fine dining. At Sonora Taquería in London and Sonoratown in Los Angeles, for instance, you get the flour tortillas (instead of corn) that are a staple of the Sonora region in northern Mexico. At Lastra’s Kol in London’s Marylebone, the signature langoustine taco made with Scottish langoustine, sea buckthorn and sourdough tortillas epitomises the venue’s marriage of Mexican cuisine and British ingredients.

At Fonda, Lastra’s latest opening off Regent Street in London, the menu includes a Baya taco made with beer-battered cod, and a series of mains like slow-cooked short rib with mole poblano that come with corn tortillas. These dishes can be compiled into tacos or eaten like stews with tortillas like bread to scoop and mop up. “If everything goes wrong, I’ll move to Mexico City and start a taco van,” Lastra says, before correcting himself: “No, if everything goes right! To feed people tacos – that’s the dream.”

Lastra insists nothing beats the way tacos are cooked in their native country where high standards are a given: “Everything needs to be fresh, not pre-made and reheated. And everything is done at a rate of two to three hundred tacos an hour.” He adds: “A taquero has as much experience as a sushi master, so seeing a taquería get recognised by Michelin with hopefully more on the way makes me, as a Mexican, proud.” 

Ajesh Patalay travelled as a guest of Fonda

@ajesh34