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Dishes from Lengua Madre.
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Where to Satisfy a Craving for Mexican Food in and Around New Orleans

The best New Orleans-area spots for tortas, enchiladas, moles, and more

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Dishes from Lengua Madre.
| Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

For all its cuisines, Mexican doesn’t typically come to mind when considering New Orleans food as a whole. Even so, there’s a plethora of options to satisfy a craving for what could be considered the perfect food: It’s textural (tender meats, crispy tortillas, juicy pico de gallo, crunchy lettuce, creamy guacamole), balanced (savory herbs, smoky chipotle, fresh citrus, spicy peppers, sweet cinnamon), and deeply flavorful, the result of simmering, steaming, and open-flame cooking.

For the most part, this group does not include Tex-Mex, Cuban, Honduran, or other Central American-Mexican spots. For stands or trucks that specialize solely in tacos, consult our guide to New Orleans’s best tacos.

Did we miss your favorite spot for Mexican cuisine in New Orleans? Let us know.

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Casa Garcia

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Believe it or not, this Westgate restaurant is one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the area — it was opened in 1984 by Octavio and Dorita Garcia. The original has outlasted two additional locations for good reason — the spacious dining room modeled after a plaza is homey and lively, a favorite for family celebrations. Highlights include tamales, seafood enchiladas, chile relleno, and the flan.

Chilangos Restaurant

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Leslie Garcia continues her late husband’s vision, honoring David Montes de Oca with a welcoming Kenner eatery brimming with traditional Mexican flavors. Chilangos Restaurant was de Oca’s post-Katrina dream a step up from the taco truck that served construction workers around town. He learned his taco-making skills from his uncle, a “chilango,” or resident of Mexico City.

Taqueria Guerrero

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The name of the game at Taqueria Guerrero is comfort food — begin on the huge menu with warming pozole or menudo, the well-known hangover cure, which seems to be extra curative here. Pastor, lengua, and tripas are always tender, never tough, and tortas and chimichangas are menu highlights. Don’t expect margaritas here, just beer, but there are all the best Mexican brews to choose from.

Loya's Mexican Restaurant

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Just a few years old, Loya’s is a great addition to the city’s Mexican cuisine — an unassuming storefront on a side street in Gert Town that invites with festive decor, warm hospitality, and traditional Mexico City-style food. Tortas, chile relleno, birria tacos, tamales, and warm, fiery salsa, freshly blended and served with paper thin, crispy chips — it’s all so, so good. Traditional breakfast dishes are served all day, and the family-run restaurant now has a liquor license and a menu of fun house cocktails; what more could you ask for?

Johnny Sánchez

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Step inside Johnny Sanchez on Poydras and it’s clear this isn’t your usual taco joint. Eye-popping art, modern lighting, and a sleek sophisticated vibe matches the menu (and prices). Still, partner/chefs Johnny Sanchez and Miles Landrem deliver the goods, from tacos stuffed with albondigas, Aaron’s grandmother’s recipe, to crispy P&J oysters and fried cauliflower. Specials are always worth a try, and margaritas are top-notch.

Johnny Sanchez
Johnny Sanchez
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Panchita’s Mexican Criolla Cuisine

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Cozy, authentic, homemade — that about sums up Panchita’s Mexican Restaurant on Carrollton Uptown, just steps from Lebanon’s Cafe. This family friendly homey spot offers Veracruz style specialties marked by fresh tomato sauce with olives and capers, without the heat of chiles. Try the al pastor and asada tacos, anything with mole, and a sno-ball or popsicle palate cleanser. Great prices.

El Pavo Real

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Broadmoor rejoiced when this cute corner cafe opened in 2015, as chef Lindsey McLellan quickly positioned it as a casual, family-friendly neighborhood joint; low-key and welcoming, reasonably-priced, and most of all, delicious. The tamales, mole, enchiladas, and all-day breakfast dishes are highlights of a succinct, fresh menu, and the drinks are some of the best in town, using fantastic house agua fresca game to liven up its margarita selection. If there’s a watermelon margarita, order it.

El Pavo Real.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Espíritu

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Tucked away on a side street in the Warehouse District, Espiritu Mezcaleria and Cocina is worth discovering on a few fronts. The restaurant offers modern, regional Mexican cuisine including tasty tacos, from crispy shrimp to Baja fish, to tortas, and ceviche, all best enjoyed with a flight of three housemade salsas. Then there’s the cocktail options — the restaurant’s co-owner Jason Mitzen is a master Mezcalier — and the bar is modeled after a Mexico City mezcaleria.

Cauliflower taco from Espíritu.
Espiritu/Official

El Taco Loco

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El Loco is an alternative to Felipe’s, an assembly-line style spot that doesn’t sacrifice flavor for volume. It’s housed in an adorable building on a busy block of Carrollton Uptown with a small front dining patio that is usually full, where regulars order deeply savory meats including lengua, tinga, and conchitas pibil on tacos, queso-drenched nachos, giant frozen margaritas, and super burritos that, even with add-on guacamole, come in well-priced.

La Patrona

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The Riverbend neighborhood loved La Mansión, the fun, homey Mexican restaurant tucked away on Dublin Street (and its owners, Edwin Alonzo and Veronica Cardona), so it’s great news that they’ve recreated something similar in a more prominent address just a few blocks away. It’s probably best suited for takeout, but if Alonzo is around, it’s worth trying to chat him up (and to try one of his margaritas).

Tacos from La Patrona.
La Patrona

Casa Borrega: New Orleans Mezcaleria

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Open for dinner Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with plenty of outdoor seating available, Casa Borrega was an early adopter of Mexican food in the city and became a hub of Mexican, Central American, and South American culture along Oretha Castle Haley over the years. It’s now reopened after a brief hiatus with a shortened menu focusing on the three T’s: tostadas, tacos, and tortas. Fillings might include tongue, pumpkin blossom flower, or huitlacoche, a tasty corn fungus also known as Mexican truffle.

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Lengua Madre

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Yes, Lengua Madre is vastly different from most of the restaurants on this list — the buzzy restaurant is helmed by Ana Castro, who creates modern Mexican tasting menus in an incredibly chic, minimalist space in the LGD. While it might not be the Mexican most diners are used to, this food is game-changing, but rooted in tradition, and it shows in dishes like a luscious fontal tetela, mole with incredible depth of flavor, and cobia al pastor.

Snacks from a Cantina Monday at Lengua Madre
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Taqueria Corona

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With locations in New Orleans, Metairie and Harahan, Taqueria Corona is a popular sit-down bet for families and anybody craving ribeye carne asada. That rib-eye shows up in the tasty Philly cheesesteak taco with other options including crispy baja-style fish, pulled pork, and traditional spicy beef tongue. The house margarita is a good deal, made with fresh lime juice.

Taqueria Sanchez

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For Mexican on the West Bank, look no further than Taqueria Sanchez a tiny, bright roadhouse that greets diners as they hit Gretna. The green salsa is the key here, and don’t miss the menudo or tortas, both standouts on the vast, affordable menu.

Casa Garcia

Believe it or not, this Westgate restaurant is one of the oldest Mexican restaurants in the area — it was opened in 1984 by Octavio and Dorita Garcia. The original has outlasted two additional locations for good reason — the spacious dining room modeled after a plaza is homey and lively, a favorite for family celebrations. Highlights include tamales, seafood enchiladas, chile relleno, and the flan.

Chilangos Restaurant

Leslie Garcia continues her late husband’s vision, honoring David Montes de Oca with a welcoming Kenner eatery brimming with traditional Mexican flavors. Chilangos Restaurant was de Oca’s post-Katrina dream a step up from the taco truck that served construction workers around town. He learned his taco-making skills from his uncle, a “chilango,” or resident of Mexico City.

Taqueria Guerrero

The name of the game at Taqueria Guerrero is comfort food — begin on the huge menu with warming pozole or menudo, the well-known hangover cure, which seems to be extra curative here. Pastor, lengua, and tripas are always tender, never tough, and tortas and chimichangas are menu highlights. Don’t expect margaritas here, just beer, but there are all the best Mexican brews to choose from.

Loya's Mexican Restaurant

Just a few years old, Loya’s is a great addition to the city’s Mexican cuisine — an unassuming storefront on a side street in Gert Town that invites with festive decor, warm hospitality, and traditional Mexico City-style food. Tortas, chile relleno, birria tacos, tamales, and warm, fiery salsa, freshly blended and served with paper thin, crispy chips — it’s all so, so good. Traditional breakfast dishes are served all day, and the family-run restaurant now has a liquor license and a menu of fun house cocktails; what more could you ask for?

Johnny Sánchez

Step inside Johnny Sanchez on Poydras and it’s clear this isn’t your usual taco joint. Eye-popping art, modern lighting, and a sleek sophisticated vibe matches the menu (and prices). Still, partner/chefs Johnny Sanchez and Miles Landrem deliver the goods, from tacos stuffed with albondigas, Aaron’s grandmother’s recipe, to crispy P&J oysters and fried cauliflower. Specials are always worth a try, and margaritas are top-notch.

Johnny Sanchez
Johnny Sanchez
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Panchita’s Mexican Criolla Cuisine

Cozy, authentic, homemade — that about sums up Panchita’s Mexican Restaurant on Carrollton Uptown, just steps from Lebanon’s Cafe. This family friendly homey spot offers Veracruz style specialties marked by fresh tomato sauce with olives and capers, without the heat of chiles. Try the al pastor and asada tacos, anything with mole, and a sno-ball or popsicle palate cleanser. Great prices.

El Pavo Real

Broadmoor rejoiced when this cute corner cafe opened in 2015, as chef Lindsey McLellan quickly positioned it as a casual, family-friendly neighborhood joint; low-key and welcoming, reasonably-priced, and most of all, delicious. The tamales, mole, enchiladas, and all-day breakfast dishes are highlights of a succinct, fresh menu, and the drinks are some of the best in town, using fantastic house agua fresca game to liven up its margarita selection. If there’s a watermelon margarita, order it.

El Pavo Real.
Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Espíritu

Tucked away on a side street in the Warehouse District, Espiritu Mezcaleria and Cocina is worth discovering on a few fronts. The restaurant offers modern, regional Mexican cuisine including tasty tacos, from crispy shrimp to Baja fish, to tortas, and ceviche, all best enjoyed with a flight of three housemade salsas. Then there’s the cocktail options — the restaurant’s co-owner Jason Mitzen is a master Mezcalier — and the bar is modeled after a Mexico City mezcaleria.

Cauliflower taco from Espíritu.
Espiritu/Official

El Taco Loco

El Loco is an alternative to Felipe’s, an assembly-line style spot that doesn’t sacrifice flavor for volume. It’s housed in an adorable building on a busy block of Carrollton Uptown with a small front dining patio that is usually full, where regulars order deeply savory meats including lengua, tinga, and conchitas pibil on tacos, queso-drenched nachos, giant frozen margaritas, and super burritos that, even with add-on guacamole, come in well-priced.

La Patrona

The Riverbend neighborhood loved La Mansión, the fun, homey Mexican restaurant tucked away on Dublin Street (and its owners, Edwin Alonzo and Veronica Cardona), so it’s great news that they’ve recreated something similar in a more prominent address just a few blocks away. It’s probably best suited for takeout, but if Alonzo is around, it’s worth trying to chat him up (and to try one of his margaritas).

Tacos from La Patrona.
La Patrona

Casa Borrega: New Orleans Mezcaleria

Open for dinner Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with plenty of outdoor seating available, Casa Borrega was an early adopter of Mexican food in the city and became a hub of Mexican, Central American, and South American culture along Oretha Castle Haley over the years. It’s now reopened after a brief hiatus with a shortened menu focusing on the three T’s: tostadas, tacos, and tortas. Fillings might include tongue, pumpkin blossom flower, or huitlacoche, a tasty corn fungus also known as Mexican truffle.

Josh Brasted/Eater NOLA

Lengua Madre

Yes, Lengua Madre is vastly different from most of the restaurants on this list — the buzzy restaurant is helmed by Ana Castro, who creates modern Mexican tasting menus in an incredibly chic, minimalist space in the LGD. While it might not be the Mexican most diners are used to, this food is game-changing, but rooted in tradition, and it shows in dishes like a luscious fontal tetela, mole with incredible depth of flavor, and cobia al pastor.

Snacks from a Cantina Monday at Lengua Madre
Randy Schmidt/Eater NOLA

Taqueria Corona

With locations in New Orleans, Metairie and Harahan, Taqueria Corona is a popular sit-down bet for families and anybody craving ribeye carne asada. That rib-eye shows up in the tasty Philly cheesesteak taco with other options including crispy baja-style fish, pulled pork, and traditional spicy beef tongue. The house margarita is a good deal, made with fresh lime juice.

Taqueria Sanchez

For Mexican on the West Bank, look no further than Taqueria Sanchez a tiny, bright roadhouse that greets diners as they hit Gretna. The green salsa is the key here, and don’t miss the menudo or tortas, both standouts on the vast, affordable menu.

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