This is what's on our list of the best Mexican restaurants in New York, Casa Enrique, LIC. Another Michelin flare, the Oxomoco wood oven, produces fantastic fish, barbecue and “chorizo” tacos made with beetroot, not to mention one of the best steaks we've ever eaten inside or outside of restaurants specializing in meat. We've always liked their frozen drinks (despite the cold season, the apple cider and apricot and blueberry options are perfect for the season) and there are also many other cocktails, wines and beers available. The owners of Bar Henry expanded to Queens with this Mexican restaurant with capacity for 40 people, specializing in regional cuisine from Cintalapa, Chiapas.
The brothers Cosme and Luis Aguilar pay homage to their late mother with traditional dishes, such as mole de Pollo and the Cochinito Chiapaneco (pork ribs marinated with guajillo), which are based on their recipes. The spot painted white leads to a garden in the back. Inside the bustling graffiti room that clings to the sand of its 80s incarnation, the waiters of Alcatraz stalk tacos from the order counter at a speed that would impress an athletic coach. Alex Stupak tacos are simple and are served on paper plates with side dishes that come in takeaway containers.
Tortillas made with Indiana corn that are nixtamalized (the kernels are cooked in lime water and peeled) and pressed at home every day are thin and elastic, with a delicate sweetness of corn. This Cosme spin-off is more informal than the big hit of Flatiron, with a smaller but delicious menu. Start with guacamole and chilaquiles, add a couple of shrimp, eggplant or suadero tacos, dive into the selection of three sauces and you've prepared a feast. Imbued with Mexico City's all-day restaurants, the 60-seat space features elegant black and oak furniture, a bar with white terrazzo tiles and green vegetation that covers the walls.
The team behind Colonie goes from American farmhouse cuisine to regional Mexican cuisine with this 60-person canteen in Dumbo. The team prepares market-driven south of the border dishes, reinforced with ingredients prepared from scratch, such as homemade sausage and hand-pressed tortillas made with traditional corn. You can literally taste the regions and cities that chef Cosme Aguilar's menu explores, and many dishes pay homage to his mother's memory with recipes from his childhood. Piaxtla's tender chicken enchiladas with mole can cause you to faint, thanks to an unexpectedly sweet but intoxicating sauce, with dark chocolate, raisins, almonds, cloves, cinnamon, chilies, garlic and sesame.
Enrique Olvera's elegant haute cuisine dishes, impeccable, expensive and fresh from the market, are among the most coveted in New York cuisine. It's a hot, sticky August day in Corona, Queens, and a taco teacher, a chef from Puebla and a food expert from Queens are looking inside the Tortas Neza food truck, analyzing owner Galdino Molinero's every move. The following is his guide to some of the best Mexican dishes on Roosevelt Avenue, with a little information about taco literacy, so that you too can delve into this immigrant cuisine that conquered a country. Named after her beloved 83-year-old grandmother, Carmen “Titita” Ramírez Degollado, the “matriarch of Mexican flavor” and owner of the legendary El Bajío in Mexico City, Casa Carmen is a new restaurant by the duo of brothers and co-owners, Santiago and Sebastian Ramírez Degollado.
Alex Stupak's burgeoning contemporary Mexican dining empire includes Midtown's flagship restaurant, Empellón Al Pastor in the East Village, Empellón Taqueria in the West Village, and the recently opened Empellón Taqueria in Waterline Square, on the Upper West Side. At Mesa Coyoacán, chef Iván García's favorite regional Mexican place, driven by products, organic ingredients and proteins from grass-fed animals, are mixed into classic dishes inspired by his childhood in Mexico City. But what makes this rather large part of Queens especially dear to him is the sense of community and Mexican pride that has taken root ever since immigrants from Oaxaca, Guerrero, the indigenous region of Mixteco and, above all, Puebla, began flocking to New York in the mid-90s. Dressed in a soccer shirt for the Pumas DHL (his favorite team), the owner Galdino Molinero runs Tortas Neza with his wife, Lilia, where they pay homage to the Mexican tradition of eating a cake while watching a game, but also to the old working-class neighborhood of Molinero in Mexico City, Nezahualcóyotl (or Neza), which bears the name of a famous Aztec poet-king.
The first place on Álvarez's list is a blue food truck where each of the 19 cakes on the menu is named after the Mexican soccer teams. As Casa Pública approaches its fifth anniversary, the restaurant's dedication to regional Mexican home cooking continues to transport diners to Mexico City (interior design inspired by art deco and all that). With eleven locations in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, this Mexican chain's famous Al Pastor tacos, known for their thinly sliced Mexico City-style pineapple dressed with pork, are very accessible to New Yorkers. With two chefs and a team of “mayoras” (esteemed older women) overseeing the menu, their traditional Mexican food focuses on recipes learned and improved by Titita.
It's exactly the type of establishment you'd easily find in the capital of Mexico (the owner, José Luiz Díaz, is from Mexico City) or, sometimes, in Los Angeles, but not in New York. .
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