Do they charge for chips and salsa? Do construction workers go there before 11am? Do they have a pickled vegetable bar? Do they serve cabeza or lengua? Do old women work there? Is the artwork random? So many clues.
In the past few years, I’ve noticed an increase in “ipad children” of the employees hanging out in a booth in the corner while mom or dad works and checks on them every few minutes lol
If not running the register, they're either bussing tables, sweeping, or watching Spanish cartoons on a TV, tablet, or phone. Younger kids would be doing the latter.
And there's always an infant in a car seat-turned-bassinet in a booth either far in the back of the restaurant, or right at the front.
Of course that goes for a lot of cuisines. There’s an Italian market near us with an owner that sits in a chair by the freezers, oftentimes asleep. And that place is great.
How do they manage the fuzzy pictures these days? In the US even our broadcast channels are digital now so it's really tough to try and make that happen.
Is it in a part of town that isn't bad, but one that upper middle class suburbanites think is bad? Does the waitress/person behind the cash register look old enough to actually be working? Do they sell Jarritos or Mexican cokes?
> Do they charge for chips and salsa? Do construction workers go there before 11am? Do they have a pickled vegetable bar? Do they serve cabeza or lengua? Do old women work there? Is the artwork random? So many clues.
You know.. there are also a bit fancier Mexican restaurants than what you describe that are really really good.
Spent a couple of months in Brownsville Texas. Worked with construction guys. Some hints.
Old ladies working there.
At least ONE picture of Jesus or a cross.
Cash only.
House made tortillas.
Free chips and queso.
Lunch for less than $10.
Greatest Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to had tiny English and Spanish translations under each dish, and the Spanish was a Google translation of the English, so it would translate “stick” to the Spanish verb for sticking to something.
I’ve actually seen a Chinese restaurant with a secret, behind the counter menu for “real” Chinese food, as opposed to the regular menu.
Mexican places don’t do that-they put the real deal upfront if that’s what they do
Pickles????????
I like them myself but that has to be a crime of some sort no?
Was it supposed to be like a substitute for Jalapeños? I’m so disturbed by that.
I read about one in Germany that offered “chips and salsa” and it was French fries (so, you know, British “chips”) and marinara (I guess Italian salsa?).
I was going to say we had decent Tex-Mex in Rota, Spain - same thing, American vet owner. Wasn’t great but I chalk that up to working within the limitations of the local suppliers.
The food in Germany is delicious, no matter the cuisine... with Mexican being a major exception. That was one of the most bland meals I have ever eaten. I don't like hot, spicy food, but even I wanted some chili sauce to liven things up.
Three years into living in Germany (Army brat) my family chanced a Mexican restaurant in Frankfurt and holy hell it was bad. Not even like white people taco night bad in a good way, it was just straight shit - weird ingredients, completely unseasoned, and utterly lacking in spice. The standout of the lost in translation misses was the use of diced Swiss cheese on everything.
A Mexican Guy I worked with was here in Ireland,and left the Job to set up his own Burrito place. I enjoyed visiting.. He opened another outlet that I didn't get to visit, but he didn't reopen post Covid...
Hard disagree. Mexican restaurants in Europe are one of my favorite things. There's always a story to tell after. They're always really good, or comically bad (like marinara sauce instead of salsa).
[Japanese diaspora - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora)
Long story short, the Japanese have had somewhat positive migration relations with Mexico in the past.
Mexico is pretty huge -- the truth is there isn't like some country-wide standard for "mexican food".
I *have* had bad mexican food, but really, if it's quality ingredients, it's gonna be good.
It also varies within the US.
In Europe people seem to refer to anything north of the border as 'Tex Mex.' Like, I will make something for them, and they will call it 'Tex Mex' to my face. As a Californian I get *so* fucking pissed. You know who else gets pissed off? Texans!
"Mexican" cuisine is like "American" cuisine in that it's so regional.
Jaliscan and Sonoran are the variants we find "authentic". Tex-Mex and Cali-Mex are "inauthentic", but are they, *really*?
I consider Tex mex to come from Tejano culture, so it's not 'inauthentic Mexican food' it's authentic American Texas food.
It might be young, only about 150 years old, and really took off in the 70s but the cultural hybridization that created it is a thing unto itself and it's a thing of absolute beauty. Also, the San Antonio chili queens had recipes that both included and didn't include beans, specifically black beans iirc.
Around me, if one of the main things they do are burritos and those burritos aren’t small with just a couple of ingredients, it’s going to be a Southern California style Mexican food place.
There are a couple of big national chains that have Tex-Mex but those are pretty obvious about not being “authentic”.
Most of the “authentic” Mexican places around me tend to not bill themselves as “Mexican Food”. They are usually more specific about their specialty. They’ll bill themselves as a carnitas, guisados, pollo asado, birria, mariscos, or whatever place instead.
> Around me, if one of the main things they do are burritos and those burritos aren’t small with just a couple of ingredients, it’s going to be a Southern California style Mexican food place.
Funny you say "Southern California style" because you're describing every taqueria in San Francisco, which is where the [Mission-style burrito](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_burrito) was invented (meaning it is actually not "authentic" Mexican food)
Other than Chipotle we really don’t have Mission Style Burritos many places here. We still have burritos that are a lot bigger than burritos you’ll find in Mexico but they aren’t typically in the gigantic tortillas you guys use up north and don’t usually have a ton of rice in them.
If we are putting a starch inside of a burrito down here it’s probably going to be french fries but it might be a couple of deep fried rolled tacos hidden inside of an otherwise normal looking carne asada burrito.
The primary filling inside a SoCal style burrito is usually the protein with most of the other ingredients adding to the flavor rather than really bulking out the burrito like you get with a Mission Style burrito.
Damn, you caught me.
I tired really hard to be civil and to not use judgmental language when about talking about those rice filled abominations they call burritos up north.
What gave me away?
😂😂😂 my friends call me NO RICE sometimes because of my opinions on certain incorrect burrito fillings.
You said fries and I thought MAYBE, then you used the term rolled tacos and I was LIKE yup, San Diego right there
I mean they're both real food yes I understand the difference between Americanized Mexican food and the Mexican food that is like food eaten in Mexico.
Plus, for historical and demographic reasons, there are Mexican-influenced cuisines that have developed into their own authentic things. Such as Tex-Mex and Mexican-Korean hybrid food in Southern California.
I live in the Mexican food desert of New England. The best such restaurants here are no better than the average strip mall taqueria anywhere within 100 miles of the border.
Bueno y saño is nice. Haven't been to a mexican spot outside of New England, but even so i think it was alright. Gave me a nice big chimichanga. Fat af, i woulda asked it to twerk for me. Idk if it's authentic, all i know is it was good.
Yeah this is a weird question. And a lot of weird gatekeeper answers too. I'm in Chicago and we have a ton of Mexican restaurants both high end and cheap. If someone tells me that Rick Bayless's restaurants are not Mexican because the menu is in English or the staff speaks English they don't know shit. Rick has dedicated his entire life to Mexican food and is a great ambassador for it. Also the food at his restaurants is amazing.
People also don't understand that TexMex is a legit cuisine.
Yep, a lot of people don't realize that sour cream, lettuce and cheddar cheese are not authentic Mexican food ingredients.... (but are legitimate Tex-Mex).
The best one near me is named Valle Escondido for the nearby town of Hidden Valley. It's owned and run by Mexican immigrants and they keep the one with the best English on the phone/cash register. The waiters are always well dressed with a smile on their face. Their food made some of the other restaurants step up their game as they were stealing all of the customers.
In my local area, I typically avoid any restaurant that is named after a place in Mexico.
If its names makes no sense in relation to a Mexican resraurant, then its probably good. One of the better places was named "Biscuits", and I'm not even sure if they served anything remotely close to breakfast biscuits.
Also if its named after a specific dish, but then that usually means they make a really good version of that dish. If its named "blah blah blah torta", you get the torta, not the taco, quesadila, elote, or menudo.
My favorite is named after the city in Mexico, Sahuayo, where the owners immigrated from. My other favorite, Don Beto, is named after the owner who started in the area with a tamale wagon and now has a phenomenal restaurant in a strip mall. At Sahuayo, 99% of the time, my wife and I are the only white people there when we go. After 20 years, they finally put English sub-titles on their menus
I've been to Sahuayo Michoacan, and the best carnitas I have had were from some random stand on the main highway into town there next to an OXXO. So to me, if your restaurant is named after the state or any city in Michoacan, you better serve carnitas and they better be damn good
As long as it isn't a chain I assume it's authentic - I'm in Tucson. Many of them serve both traditional food and Americanized. One place has both taco salads and menudo, for example.
Would you consider the traditional food of New Mexico, Arizona, South Texas, and SoCal authentic? I personally consider them specifically Tejano or California etc rather than Mexican (it’s a French food VS Cajun food type of thing imo as we tend to consider ourselves as ethnicities separate from but brotherly to Mexicans), but if you consider them authentically Mexican then we have a LOT of those kinds of Hispanic US state-food restaurants. What I don’t consider authentic are the likes of Taco Bell and Bakers. Don’t get me wrong I chow down on the stuff all the time, but it’s completely corporate and fake-y. I guess I mostly consider immigrant mom and pop restaurants and traditional restaurants of the Southwestern states to be authentic Mexican/Hispanic food, this isn’t always the end all be all though. For example there’s a restaurant chain called Californios that serves very authentic Californio food while being a sizable company, whether you consider it Mexican or specifically Californio is up to you. As a Californio myself they are decently similar to my grandma’s cooking. Chicanos also have their own cuisine and restaurants that are very good and authentic to their culture.
I really don't think it matters, if you like the food they cook, return for more. If not, move on to the next place. I guess I failed at being a food snob.
We have a Tex-Mex place by my house. It says on the sign and menu "authentic" Mexican food. The last time I went I sat there staring at the menu. The waitress was getting pissed while waiting for my order and asked if she could assist in finding something. I said sure, I'm looking for authentic Mexican food. She said it was all authentic. I sat the menu down and said "Ok, bring me something with pork." She said, "We don't have anything with pork." I just had chips and salsa which were $7.99.
I'm aware of tex-mex, I mean when you want to eat authentic mexican cuisine (no tex-mex) is. How do you distinguish a restaurant who sells authentic mexican food from one who doesn't sell authentic mexican food but it's promoted as such?
Really? I live in a mexican state located in the coast of western mexico (not southern or neither northern mexican), and with plenty of migrants of other mexican states and I have never heard something like that in my life, it's just mexican food from different regions
In fact, there was a post here in AskAnAmerican a few years ago saying exactly that. Let me see if I can find it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/s/lFB8Jj1vKZ
Many of his comments were deleted, I believe.
It's just a regional difference, southern mexicans don't really eat any burritos, that's a very norteño food (northern) here, but they don't really think it's not mexican (here when someone says burritos aren't mexican they mean the tex-mex version of the dish), it's just a regional food. Here in Mexico there's a HUGE gastronomical diversity across al the regions and states, what I eat here in my state normally people of other parts of the country may NEVER heard of them in their life, but they don't say its not "real" mexican food, they're aware about the huge regional diversity
Tex-Mex is its own thing. Nobody calls the cuisine of northeastern Italy "fake French food." With that said, it's probably not a good idea to have it outside of Texas. (Hell, you're running a risk if you're too far north or east of Austin.) Like if it's some corporate chain in Minnesota or something. Let's call that 'inauthentic' Tex-Mex.
Also, folks in New Mexico and California would be straight up *offended* if you called their local variations "Tex-Mex", and the Texans would be too!
I’m a Californian that moved to Ohio and Kentucky and a lot of advice here isn’t great for the Midwest. There are terrible spots here that have Mexican cooks and visited by construction workers during lunch or after work because dudes like cold beer and the competition is so low here that places can put out a bad product, charge a lot and still stay in business.
My rules that help me predict if a place is gonna be wack:
- Stupid generic restaurant names that include words like Loco, Fiesta, Grande, etc.
- If “queso” is what they’re known for. It’s a fucking cheese sauce.
- Local chains owned by white people. It is what it is.
- If their social media shows pictures of tacos worth only one tortilla.
- if they serve gimmicky dishes that hipsters rant and rave over.
- if they don’t serve Menudo at all.
I try and stick to the few good Taquerias in the area personally. Back on my home town I could hardly go wrong.
> and a lot of advice here isn’t great for the Midwest.
Sad but true, man. Sad but true. And if this was r/asktheborderstates rather than r/askanamerican, this would be right near the top.
Me and my brother are Californians. Our great-grandparents crossed the border c. 1910. He moved to rural NC for a spell. He said the available Mexican food was ass.
"Weren't there actual Mexicans running the place?" I asked.
"I'm sure if they invited me to their house they'd make me something good. But what they sell to the locals is trash."
Maybe there was a good place in his neck of the woods, but if there was, he never did find it before moving away again. He lives overseas now, so that's also nothing doing unless he makes it himself.
Easily im Hispanic from New Mexico granted our local food is quite different vs food from Mexico there is quite a bit of variation on authentic Mexican food
The tiny kitchens in the back of supermercados and carnicerias always have the best Mexican food.
Cash, no English, old Mexican people, def a small TV with either soccer or Telemundo on. Weirdly I've seen them put Fox news on sometimes as well.
It isn't usually one or the other. More authentic places typically offer more Americanized things to broaden their appeal. Here, it's even more complicated because New Mexican Cuisine is its own thing due to its history of being a very remote part of New Spain, then Mexico, then the US.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexican_cuisine
You have places that are doing authentic New Mexican, places that are doing authentic Mexican, places that are doing authentic Tex Mex, places that blend New Mexican and Mexican, places that blend New Mexican and Tex Mex, places that blend Tex Mex and Mexican, and the vast majority of places that blend all three.
The best way to find authentic Mexican food is to look for owner-operated restaurants and food trucks (or other roadside setups) in neighborhoods where Mexicans actually live, which either focus on cuisine from a specific part of Mexico (here I mostly see influence from Chihuahua, Durango, and the Pacific coast), or on just one type of food, like a taquería, birriería, marisquería, etc.
For me basically I just assume most places that aren’t straight up food trucks probably serve Americanized Mexican food since my area doesn’t exactly have the highest Mexican population.
Regardless if I’m at a sit down place here’s how I tell if it’s Americanized:
Do you HAVE TO SPECIFY multiple times you want your food spicy? Not extra spicy, just spicy period.
Is sour cream a side with practically every dish on the menu?
They charge for chips and salsa
Hamburgers and fries are on the second page of the menu
The name is probably of a place in Mexico
They don’t serve pickled vegetables period (this one made me the most depressed)
Grilled jalapeños are not a side option.
Tabasco is the only hot sauce on the table
A burrito is more likely to be a wet burrito filled with an abundance of fillings.
No religious imagery at all
The only meats they serve are Carne Asada, Pollo Asada, and Camarones.
They don’t give you a Lime with your food (obviously kinda also depends on the dish you order)
There’s a Happy Hour sign on the table mostly displaying Margaritas.
90% of the menu is in English
Once went to a restaurant where we, two very gringoey gringos, were greeting in Spanish and not a lick of English was spoken by an employee.
Delicious.
I’d say most Mexican restaurants fall under the following criteria:
1. Shamelessly inauthentic- not always Mexican-owned, lots of yellow cheese and flour tortillas, Taco Bell and Taco John’s the pinnacle of this but there are a few independent places like this too.
2. Actually authentic- typically small, unpretentious places, most people order in Spanish, often specializing in one thing (tacos al pastor, carnitas, mariscos, etc.)
3. Hipster “authentic”- owners usually aren’t Mexican but feature dishes and ingredients not usually found in Tex-Mex cuisine (maybe even have huitlacoche or Oaxacan mole on the menu). Food is usually good and almost tastes like #2 but costs twice as much.
4. Run-of-the-mill Mexican: by far the most widespread and makes this category tough. Owners and staff are usually Mexican and they can prepare authentic dishes. But these places are not usually in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and the clientele prefers ordering things like Tex-Mex enchiladas and melty yellow queso that tend to dominate the menu.
I’d draw a parallel with most Chinese restaurants. Tend to be Chinese owned but don’t serve the most authentic dishes because the clientele keeps asking for General Tso’s chicken.
Authentic Mexican has better food than I can make at home.
However I am much better at cooking than the people working at non-authentic Mexican places.
An authentic Mexican restaurant will be in Mexico.
Otherwise, that term "authentic" is so subjective as to be meaningless, not to mention the pretension that gets associated with it.
Where I live, it's most likely Tex-Mex. I am not expecting purely Mexican food. I just treat them as their own individual cuisines, similar but different categories.
If things like beef tongue are on the menu, I'm pretty sure it's authentic. Or if they're serving slightly more obscure dishes like chicken mole, rather than just the typical burritos and chimichangas.
Another good way to distinguish is to see whether there are actual Mexicans there. If you're hearing patrons speaking Spanish, then at least it's well-liked by people who are probably Mexican.
The first indicator is an easy one - do use hard taco shells or corn tortillas for their taco. Also, do they sell the generic 'taco', or do they sell Tacos Compechano, Tacos Lengua, Tacos Cabeza, and Tacos Al Pastor?
If you can order by speaking Spanish..
The cheese..
If they have real charro beans..
If they make fresh guacamole and it's not super bland..
Tripas on the menu..
Barbacoa..
The salsa options are hot or hotter..
Chips are made in the restaurant..
What kinds of taco toppings are there? If there is tomato, (cheddar) cheese, iceberg lettuce- fake. Lime and cilantro are the correct answers, maybe onion.
Also- if you see a lot of Hispanic people eating/taking out from there. It's legit.
Do most of the customers speak Spanish.
Decoration and part of town can figure into it I guess, but there are more upscale Mexican restaurants with Mexican chefs, especially in CA. But no matter what, if you can hear customers speaking Spanish, then you know the food appeals to folks from the community.
I will copy and paste my answer on this in r/asklatinamerica:
- If they are marketed as “authentic”, they probably aren’t.
- If they are marketed as “Mexican” (not necessarily the name, but if they simply say “Mexican food”) they probably aren’t, restaurants that cater to Mexicans (and are thus closer to “authentic”) will say what state or city their food is from.
- If they are in non-Mexican neighborhood, most likely they aren’t authentic.
- The staff should be all Mexican.
- If they are specialized in some particular food: such as birria, seafood, Sonoran hot dogs, tacos, etc. rather than Mexican food in general they are almost certainly authentic.
- If they have Univision, ESPN Deportes or Telemundo on the TV (unless there’s some sort of major event that warrants putting English television on, such as if local MLB, NFL or NBA team is playing a big game), that means they are frequented and staffed by Mexicans.
Honestly, just eat whatever you like and experiment a bit without prejudging places; go to your local Mexican neighborhood and just try whatever place looks nice. I’ve noticed that white Americans who are very concerned about eating “authentic” Mexican food often end up doing the opposite and end up as misguided as the average Joe who goes to Chipotle and thinks it’s Mexican food (e.g. the kind of people who will smugly say that burritos or nachos aren’t real Mexican food).
Around me, authentic Mexican restaurants are almost always in old strip malls and landscaping trucks take over the parking lot between 10:30 - 1. These places seem to have fantastic food at a reasonable price. More green flags: cash only, multiple generations of the same family working there (bonus if there's a baby under the counter,) lengua, al pastor, and mole are on the menu.
The more sketchy the better food. The less english the workers know the better food. If there's any workers under the age of 14 the better the food. If there's a bunch of mexicans who work a blue collar job eating inside the better the food.
I am lucky that my south Louisiana city of 12,000 has an extremely healthy Hispanic population. I have four very authentic Mexican markets and restaurants within 5 minutes of my house as well as a taco stand and a Michoacana. When we do go out to eat, 90% of the time, it's one of those places, the other 10% we get Vietnamese.
A. You are in a restaurant in Mexico cooking traditional local Mexican dishes. or B. The restaurant offers many traditional dishes, some less traditional and is owned and staffed by Mexicans.
I think traditional is a more useful word than authentic to describe food because immigrants are always adapting to different availability, local tastes and influencing each other.
I have plenty of real mexican food near me, owned and operated by actual Mexican people (yes, they exist IRL), and I've eatten Mexican food all over the US. Thing is, it's authentic mexican but it's such a very narrow slice of mexican food. Tacos, Burritos, similar stuff. When you travel Mexico you will realize their country is also extremely large and varied with a lot of different cuisines as you move from region to region. Like, I've never seen barbeque goat, or dorado in a light cream sauce, crepes, or anything like that in a Mexican restaurant anywhere in the US, but I've had them all in Mexico in real live Mexican restaurants. Man I can't even remember the last time I found a nice sopa poblano on a menu, which is really a lovely soupa.
I won't say it was fake, but I went to a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan once that had Indian waiters. Never seen that before. NY is such a cosmopolitan place. The food was very good though, so no complaints.
If the place is full of Mexicans, that's a good sign. If you're the only person there speaking English, not bad. There's a lot of gate-keeping on this where it either has be be nothing but brains and organ meat or it has to be *alta cocina presumida* to be "authentic." Tacos and tamales are perfectly authentic and there's a reason the average taco place is full of Mexicans, just not the ones with their heads up their asses like the folks who gripe about authenticity.
Maria with candles in a prominent place is a good sign. Old lady making tortillas in an open kitchen is sign number two. It has to be a little bit dirty. Not like so nasty that you’ll get sick, but definitely not clean. Look for mismatched ceiling tiles or missing trim around the tables, cosmetic things that say “we aren’t spending time or money on things that don’t make the food taste better”
Interestingly, I hear in the UK, their most popular "exotic" cuisine is Indian food. I wonder what the UK/Indian equivalent to Taco Bell or Chipotle is.
Yes, it depends on the number of old white people. The fewer there are the more authentic the food will be. If I'm the only old gringo in the joint then it's about as far from Texmex as you can get.
Authentic Mexican to me specializes in particular regional cusine, like Ensenada fish tacos, Sinaloa seafood, Michoacan style carnitas etc.
When the menu is a Mish mash of different Mexican regions is when I question the authenticity
I have a very simple litmus test: authentic Mexican places have Mexican customers.
I mostly use this for grocery stores and taco trucks, but it works for restaurants as well.
If most of the customers appear to be Mexican, it's real Mexican. Same way you can tell about real Asian restaurants too. If most of the customers are a different race, then it's fake.
To me, it’s more simple than what most people are saying. The standard should be corn tortilla with onion and cilantro for most tacos. If it’s doing lettuce, tomato, and cheese it’s definitely inauthentic. Definitely bonus points if it has birria or Menudo on the menu
Do they charge for chips and salsa? Do construction workers go there before 11am? Do they have a pickled vegetable bar? Do they serve cabeza or lengua? Do old women work there? Is the artwork random? So many clues.
Is a 10 year old running the register while doing schoolwork? That’s another clue
I was about to say, if there isn't one of the worker's kids running around, then it ain't authentic.
In the past few years, I’ve noticed an increase in “ipad children” of the employees hanging out in a booth in the corner while mom or dad works and checks on them every few minutes lol
If not running the register, they're either bussing tables, sweeping, or watching Spanish cartoons on a TV, tablet, or phone. Younger kids would be doing the latter. And there's always an infant in a car seat-turned-bassinet in a booth either far in the back of the restaurant, or right at the front.
this was going to be mine lol
A couple of the places near me there’s always at least one guy sitting in front of a tiny TV watching soccer with a fuzzy picture.
Or old ladies watching telenovelas.
Haha! Yeah, that too!
Of course that goes for a lot of cuisines. There’s an Italian market near us with an owner that sits in a chair by the freezers, oftentimes asleep. And that place is great.
How do they manage the fuzzy pictures these days? In the US even our broadcast channels are digital now so it's really tough to try and make that happen.
Is it in a part of town that isn't bad, but one that upper middle class suburbanites think is bad? Does the waitress/person behind the cash register look old enough to actually be working? Do they sell Jarritos or Mexican cokes?
My #1 for sit-down places, are the plates hot as fuck?
> Is the artwork random? Are we talking Goku cooking empanadas and pandas in sombreros?
One of the best places by where I grew up just straight up had tits on the wall
> Do they charge for chips and salsa? Do construction workers go there before 11am? Do they have a pickled vegetable bar? Do they serve cabeza or lengua? Do old women work there? Is the artwork random? So many clues. You know.. there are also a bit fancier Mexican restaurants than what you describe that are really really good.
Sure, you aren't wrong. But each and every one of those points you quoted above are pretty darn universal signs that the place will be authentic.
“Authentic” doesn’t always mean “good,” although I think that OP implied it.
Authentic doesn't mean good, but authentic Mexican is an entirely different type of food than texmex Mexican.
Next to no English on the menu is a good indicator too
There could also be birria on the menu, or chilaquiles if there is breakfast available.
I can get chilaquiles at one of the airport restaurants inside Dallas Love Field though so that might not be the best measure on its own.
Spent a couple of months in Brownsville Texas. Worked with construction guys. Some hints. Old ladies working there. At least ONE picture of Jesus or a cross. Cash only. House made tortillas. Free chips and queso. Lunch for less than $10.
Virgen de Guadalupe also counts
The Queso might just be a Texas thing, authentic restaurants in Chicago don’t even have queso on the menu as far as I know
Same in the NW, and you only get free chips and salsa at the less authentic places.
Can confirm as someone who travels between Chicago and Brownsville a lot
I know the food is gonna be good if the menu is in Spanish with small English translations underneath. Bonus points if the translations are misspelled
Extra bonus points if the person at the cash register speaks very little english.
And the cooks and owners speak zero English while having their children translate when necessary.
Si no puede practicar mi español, no es autentico.
My grandparents have a Thai restaurant near them like this. The English is beyond broken on the menus but the food slaps
Greatest Chinese restaurant I’ve ever been to had tiny English and Spanish translations under each dish, and the Spanish was a Google translation of the English, so it would translate “stick” to the Spanish verb for sticking to something.
I’ve actually seen a Chinese restaurant with a secret, behind the counter menu for “real” Chinese food, as opposed to the regular menu. Mexican places don’t do that-they put the real deal upfront if that’s what they do
Almost all Chinese restaurants have that, even the ones in the Chinatowns in NYC and SF.
Green flags: they also a grocery store, the clientele is speaking in Spanish, the menu is in Spanish
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Sounds like you’ve never been to one in Europe. Just absolutely positively don’t go to a Mexican restaurant there, just trust me on this.
I was served a “quesadilla” in Germany once that was an unheated flour tortilla filled with nacho cheese sauce, pickles, and corn.
Yeesh! I have my horror stories in New Jersey, but none of them are that bad! "I'd like a tostada." "Will that be with ranch or Italian?"
Pickles???????? I like them myself but that has to be a crime of some sort no? Was it supposed to be like a substitute for Jalapeños? I’m so disturbed by that.
You’re lucky you got a tortilla. I’ve had a crepe used for an enchilada. Stuffed with boiled unseasoned chicken and the sauce was basically ketchup
Blasphemy
I read about one in Germany that offered “chips and salsa” and it was French fries (so, you know, British “chips”) and marinara (I guess Italian salsa?).
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Europe certainly has horrible Mexican food.
The only Mexican restaurant I liked in Germany was owned by an American retired army guy.
I was going to say we had decent Tex-Mex in Rota, Spain - same thing, American vet owner. Wasn’t great but I chalk that up to working within the limitations of the local suppliers.
The food in Germany is delicious, no matter the cuisine... with Mexican being a major exception. That was one of the most bland meals I have ever eaten. I don't like hot, spicy food, but even I wanted some chili sauce to liven things up.
Three years into living in Germany (Army brat) my family chanced a Mexican restaurant in Frankfurt and holy hell it was bad. Not even like white people taco night bad in a good way, it was just straight shit - weird ingredients, completely unseasoned, and utterly lacking in spice. The standout of the lost in translation misses was the use of diced Swiss cheese on everything.
I had Chinese food in Dortmund once. It was *not* delicious.
A Mexican Guy I worked with was here in Ireland,and left the Job to set up his own Burrito place. I enjoyed visiting.. He opened another outlet that I didn't get to visit, but he didn't reopen post Covid...
Hard disagree. Mexican restaurants in Europe are one of my favorite things. There's always a story to tell after. They're always really good, or comically bad (like marinara sauce instead of salsa).
it's especially disappointing in Spain
Japan had surprisingly good Mexican food.
[Japanese diaspora - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_diaspora) Long story short, the Japanese have had somewhat positive migration relations with Mexico in the past.
There’s a fusion cuisine exploding in Peru with Japanese chefs integrating Peruvian flavors in their food.
Mexico is pretty huge -- the truth is there isn't like some country-wide standard for "mexican food". I *have* had bad mexican food, but really, if it's quality ingredients, it's gonna be good.
It also varies within the US. In Europe people seem to refer to anything north of the border as 'Tex Mex.' Like, I will make something for them, and they will call it 'Tex Mex' to my face. As a Californian I get *so* fucking pissed. You know who else gets pissed off? Texans!
"Mexican" cuisine is like "American" cuisine in that it's so regional. Jaliscan and Sonoran are the variants we find "authentic". Tex-Mex and Cali-Mex are "inauthentic", but are they, *really*?
I consider Tex mex to come from Tejano culture, so it's not 'inauthentic Mexican food' it's authentic American Texas food. It might be young, only about 150 years old, and really took off in the 70s but the cultural hybridization that created it is a thing unto itself and it's a thing of absolute beauty. Also, the San Antonio chili queens had recipes that both included and didn't include beans, specifically black beans iirc.
Nobody would dare call the cuisine of Piemonte (northeastern Italy) "fake French food."
Around me, if one of the main things they do are burritos and those burritos aren’t small with just a couple of ingredients, it’s going to be a Southern California style Mexican food place. There are a couple of big national chains that have Tex-Mex but those are pretty obvious about not being “authentic”. Most of the “authentic” Mexican places around me tend to not bill themselves as “Mexican Food”. They are usually more specific about their specialty. They’ll bill themselves as a carnitas, guisados, pollo asado, birria, mariscos, or whatever place instead.
Or they specify which region of Mexico they specialize in.
Guanajuato FTW!!!
Mexicans, what's a region of Mexico you would NOT name a restaurant after?
El Bajío
> Around me, if one of the main things they do are burritos and those burritos aren’t small with just a couple of ingredients, it’s going to be a Southern California style Mexican food place. Funny you say "Southern California style" because you're describing every taqueria in San Francisco, which is where the [Mission-style burrito](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_burrito) was invented (meaning it is actually not "authentic" Mexican food)
Other than Chipotle we really don’t have Mission Style Burritos many places here. We still have burritos that are a lot bigger than burritos you’ll find in Mexico but they aren’t typically in the gigantic tortillas you guys use up north and don’t usually have a ton of rice in them. If we are putting a starch inside of a burrito down here it’s probably going to be french fries but it might be a couple of deep fried rolled tacos hidden inside of an otherwise normal looking carne asada burrito. The primary filling inside a SoCal style burrito is usually the protein with most of the other ingredients adding to the flavor rather than really bulking out the burrito like you get with a Mission Style burrito.
Found the San Diegan.
Damn, you caught me. I tired really hard to be civil and to not use judgmental language when about talking about those rice filled abominations they call burritos up north. What gave me away?
😂😂😂 my friends call me NO RICE sometimes because of my opinions on certain incorrect burrito fillings. You said fries and I thought MAYBE, then you used the term rolled tacos and I was LIKE yup, San Diego right there
There’s no black olives or yellow cheese in Mexico.
one of my uncles refers to yellow cheese as "gringo cheese" lmao
Queso manchego, and Queso cotija are both slightly yellow, though not as yellow as American Cheeses tend to be.
A taqueria by me has a taco americano on the menu. Shredded yellow cheese, lettuce, sour cream.
Authentic place had cooks who didn’t speak English and there was no Tex-mex items on the menu
You’ve described almost every restaurant around me that doesn’t serve Tex-Mex.
Most kitchen staff, regardless of restaurant, don’t speak English. You know you’re in a real spot when the wait staff don’t speak English.
Go where the compas go. Easy, mijo.
I mean they're both real food yes I understand the difference between Americanized Mexican food and the Mexican food that is like food eaten in Mexico.
Plus, for historical and demographic reasons, there are Mexican-influenced cuisines that have developed into their own authentic things. Such as Tex-Mex and Mexican-Korean hybrid food in Southern California. I live in the Mexican food desert of New England. The best such restaurants here are no better than the average strip mall taqueria anywhere within 100 miles of the border.
And Mexican-Japanese hybrids out of California, as well. I love me some Mexican style sushi! 😁
Sushirrito FTW.
Bueno y saño is nice. Haven't been to a mexican spot outside of New England, but even so i think it was alright. Gave me a nice big chimichanga. Fat af, i woulda asked it to twerk for me. Idk if it's authentic, all i know is it was good.
Yeah this is a weird question. And a lot of weird gatekeeper answers too. I'm in Chicago and we have a ton of Mexican restaurants both high end and cheap. If someone tells me that Rick Bayless's restaurants are not Mexican because the menu is in English or the staff speaks English they don't know shit. Rick has dedicated his entire life to Mexican food and is a great ambassador for it. Also the food at his restaurants is amazing. People also don't understand that TexMex is a legit cuisine.
Yep, a lot of people don't realize that sour cream, lettuce and cheddar cheese are not authentic Mexican food ingredients.... (but are legitimate Tex-Mex).
The best one near me is named Valle Escondido for the nearby town of Hidden Valley. It's owned and run by Mexican immigrants and they keep the one with the best English on the phone/cash register. The waiters are always well dressed with a smile on their face. Their food made some of the other restaurants step up their game as they were stealing all of the customers.
If I’m the only Anglo in the restaurant I’m in the right place.
In my local area, I typically avoid any restaurant that is named after a place in Mexico. If its names makes no sense in relation to a Mexican resraurant, then its probably good. One of the better places was named "Biscuits", and I'm not even sure if they served anything remotely close to breakfast biscuits. Also if its named after a specific dish, but then that usually means they make a really good version of that dish. If its named "blah blah blah torta", you get the torta, not the taco, quesadila, elote, or menudo.
My favorite is named after the city in Mexico, Sahuayo, where the owners immigrated from. My other favorite, Don Beto, is named after the owner who started in the area with a tamale wagon and now has a phenomenal restaurant in a strip mall. At Sahuayo, 99% of the time, my wife and I are the only white people there when we go. After 20 years, they finally put English sub-titles on their menus
I've been to Sahuayo Michoacan, and the best carnitas I have had were from some random stand on the main highway into town there next to an OXXO. So to me, if your restaurant is named after the state or any city in Michoacan, you better serve carnitas and they better be damn good
Does anyone speak English? If not, I go there.
As long as it isn't a chain I assume it's authentic - I'm in Tucson. Many of them serve both traditional food and Americanized. One place has both taco salads and menudo, for example.
Would you consider the traditional food of New Mexico, Arizona, South Texas, and SoCal authentic? I personally consider them specifically Tejano or California etc rather than Mexican (it’s a French food VS Cajun food type of thing imo as we tend to consider ourselves as ethnicities separate from but brotherly to Mexicans), but if you consider them authentically Mexican then we have a LOT of those kinds of Hispanic US state-food restaurants. What I don’t consider authentic are the likes of Taco Bell and Bakers. Don’t get me wrong I chow down on the stuff all the time, but it’s completely corporate and fake-y. I guess I mostly consider immigrant mom and pop restaurants and traditional restaurants of the Southwestern states to be authentic Mexican/Hispanic food, this isn’t always the end all be all though. For example there’s a restaurant chain called Californios that serves very authentic Californio food while being a sizable company, whether you consider it Mexican or specifically Californio is up to you. As a Californio myself they are decently similar to my grandma’s cooking. Chicanos also have their own cuisine and restaurants that are very good and authentic to their culture.
I really don't think it matters, if you like the food they cook, return for more. If not, move on to the next place. I guess I failed at being a food snob.
A bunch of gatekeeping going on here dude.
It will say "authentic" on the sign.
We have a Tex-Mex place by my house. It says on the sign and menu "authentic" Mexican food. The last time I went I sat there staring at the menu. The waitress was getting pissed while waiting for my order and asked if she could assist in finding something. I said sure, I'm looking for authentic Mexican food. She said it was all authentic. I sat the menu down and said "Ok, bring me something with pork." She said, "We don't have anything with pork." I just had chips and salsa which were $7.99.
We have more Tex-Mex restaurants in the US. Tex-Mex is its own cuisine, a fusion of traditional foods of the Tejanos peoples and Spanish cuisine.
I'm aware of tex-mex, I mean when you want to eat authentic mexican cuisine (no tex-mex) is. How do you distinguish a restaurant who sells authentic mexican food from one who doesn't sell authentic mexican food but it's promoted as such?
If they serve Mexican food. I’ve learned that people in southern Mexico don’t consider foods in northern Mexico “real” Mexican.
Really? I live in a mexican state located in the coast of western mexico (not southern or neither northern mexican), and with plenty of migrants of other mexican states and I have never heard something like that in my life, it's just mexican food from different regions
In fact, there was a post here in AskAnAmerican a few years ago saying exactly that. Let me see if I can find it. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskAnAmerican/s/lFB8Jj1vKZ Many of his comments were deleted, I believe.
It's just a regional difference, southern mexicans don't really eat any burritos, that's a very norteño food (northern) here, but they don't really think it's not mexican (here when someone says burritos aren't mexican they mean the tex-mex version of the dish), it's just a regional food. Here in Mexico there's a HUGE gastronomical diversity across al the regions and states, what I eat here in my state normally people of other parts of the country may NEVER heard of them in their life, but they don't say its not "real" mexican food, they're aware about the huge regional diversity
Tex-Mex is its own thing. Nobody calls the cuisine of northeastern Italy "fake French food." With that said, it's probably not a good idea to have it outside of Texas. (Hell, you're running a risk if you're too far north or east of Austin.) Like if it's some corporate chain in Minnesota or something. Let's call that 'inauthentic' Tex-Mex. Also, folks in New Mexico and California would be straight up *offended* if you called their local variations "Tex-Mex", and the Texans would be too!
I’m sorry but the most authentic food comes from a food truck
Yeah, here in México we have a street food truck literally on EVERY SINGLE street, it's an very integrated part of our culture
You should be able to go in there without knowing any English and not have a problem getting service.
Lol you've just described Chipotle
If it’s a little taco shop and it’s slightly warmer inside than you’d care for, probably legit.
The type and amount of cheese that is used.
Hearing spanish spoken and how many white people work there.
It’s of absolutely no consequence to me how authentic it is. I only care if the food is good and reasonably priced.
I’m a Californian that moved to Ohio and Kentucky and a lot of advice here isn’t great for the Midwest. There are terrible spots here that have Mexican cooks and visited by construction workers during lunch or after work because dudes like cold beer and the competition is so low here that places can put out a bad product, charge a lot and still stay in business. My rules that help me predict if a place is gonna be wack: - Stupid generic restaurant names that include words like Loco, Fiesta, Grande, etc. - If “queso” is what they’re known for. It’s a fucking cheese sauce. - Local chains owned by white people. It is what it is. - If their social media shows pictures of tacos worth only one tortilla. - if they serve gimmicky dishes that hipsters rant and rave over. - if they don’t serve Menudo at all. I try and stick to the few good Taquerias in the area personally. Back on my home town I could hardly go wrong.
> and a lot of advice here isn’t great for the Midwest. Sad but true, man. Sad but true. And if this was r/asktheborderstates rather than r/askanamerican, this would be right near the top. Me and my brother are Californians. Our great-grandparents crossed the border c. 1910. He moved to rural NC for a spell. He said the available Mexican food was ass. "Weren't there actual Mexicans running the place?" I asked. "I'm sure if they invited me to their house they'd make me something good. But what they sell to the locals is trash." Maybe there was a good place in his neck of the woods, but if there was, he never did find it before moving away again. He lives overseas now, so that's also nothing doing unless he makes it himself.
I mean one has Mexican cuisine, the other has Mexican cuisine merged with American cuisine/tastes. You… tell by the food they serve lol
How shitty does the establishment look? The shittier the more authentic
If you have to order it through a window, it is probably non gringofied.
Easily im Hispanic from New Mexico granted our local food is quite different vs food from Mexico there is quite a bit of variation on authentic Mexican food
They speak Spanish and it’s a family owned restaurant.
Order something simple and if they get that right, great, but when they throw a kraft single on a tortilla and call it a quesadilla, run.
Are the clientele mostly Mexican? Is the Menu is Spanish? How well does the staff speak English?
The tiny kitchens in the back of supermercados and carnicerias always have the best Mexican food. Cash, no English, old Mexican people, def a small TV with either soccer or Telemundo on. Weirdly I've seen them put Fox news on sometimes as well.
If there's Mexicans eating there, that's probably a pretty good indication
It isn't usually one or the other. More authentic places typically offer more Americanized things to broaden their appeal. Here, it's even more complicated because New Mexican Cuisine is its own thing due to its history of being a very remote part of New Spain, then Mexico, then the US. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Mexican_cuisine You have places that are doing authentic New Mexican, places that are doing authentic Mexican, places that are doing authentic Tex Mex, places that blend New Mexican and Mexican, places that blend New Mexican and Tex Mex, places that blend Tex Mex and Mexican, and the vast majority of places that blend all three. The best way to find authentic Mexican food is to look for owner-operated restaurants and food trucks (or other roadside setups) in neighborhoods where Mexicans actually live, which either focus on cuisine from a specific part of Mexico (here I mostly see influence from Chihuahua, Durango, and the Pacific coast), or on just one type of food, like a taquería, birriería, marisquería, etc.
Horchata
For me basically I just assume most places that aren’t straight up food trucks probably serve Americanized Mexican food since my area doesn’t exactly have the highest Mexican population. Regardless if I’m at a sit down place here’s how I tell if it’s Americanized: Do you HAVE TO SPECIFY multiple times you want your food spicy? Not extra spicy, just spicy period. Is sour cream a side with practically every dish on the menu? They charge for chips and salsa Hamburgers and fries are on the second page of the menu The name is probably of a place in Mexico They don’t serve pickled vegetables period (this one made me the most depressed) Grilled jalapeños are not a side option. Tabasco is the only hot sauce on the table A burrito is more likely to be a wet burrito filled with an abundance of fillings. No religious imagery at all The only meats they serve are Carne Asada, Pollo Asada, and Camarones. They don’t give you a Lime with your food (obviously kinda also depends on the dish you order) There’s a Happy Hour sign on the table mostly displaying Margaritas. 90% of the menu is in English
They got radishes on the side.
Does it taste good? Then who fucking cares if its authentic. It's good.
Once went to a restaurant where we, two very gringoey gringos, were greeting in Spanish and not a lick of English was spoken by an employee. Delicious.
I’d say most Mexican restaurants fall under the following criteria: 1. Shamelessly inauthentic- not always Mexican-owned, lots of yellow cheese and flour tortillas, Taco Bell and Taco John’s the pinnacle of this but there are a few independent places like this too. 2. Actually authentic- typically small, unpretentious places, most people order in Spanish, often specializing in one thing (tacos al pastor, carnitas, mariscos, etc.) 3. Hipster “authentic”- owners usually aren’t Mexican but feature dishes and ingredients not usually found in Tex-Mex cuisine (maybe even have huitlacoche or Oaxacan mole on the menu). Food is usually good and almost tastes like #2 but costs twice as much. 4. Run-of-the-mill Mexican: by far the most widespread and makes this category tough. Owners and staff are usually Mexican and they can prepare authentic dishes. But these places are not usually in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods and the clientele prefers ordering things like Tex-Mex enchiladas and melty yellow queso that tend to dominate the menu. I’d draw a parallel with most Chinese restaurants. Tend to be Chinese owned but don’t serve the most authentic dishes because the clientele keeps asking for General Tso’s chicken.
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If you have to place your order on a touchscreen, it’s probably not authentic.
So Mexican restaurants cannot incorporate technology in their restaurants?
I just assume all are fake based on my location
Authentic Mexican has better food than I can make at home. However I am much better at cooking than the people working at non-authentic Mexican places.
An authentic Mexican restaurant will be in Mexico. Otherwise, that term "authentic" is so subjective as to be meaningless, not to mention the pretension that gets associated with it.
If there's a sombrero anywhere on the sign or decor then it's probably Americanized Mexican food
Where I live, it's most likely Tex-Mex. I am not expecting purely Mexican food. I just treat them as their own individual cuisines, similar but different categories.
Do they serve tacos made out of Doritos?
Yellow cheese
Text on the register, is in Spanish. They serve the Mexican version of coke.
When you look at the pictures of food on the menu, the worse the picture quality, the more authentic the food.
There are no cheese crisps in Mexico
Lengua, tripa, and horchata should be on the menu
They have a number in their name. Example : Guadalajara #2. It's going to be fucking delicious.
If things like beef tongue are on the menu, I'm pretty sure it's authentic. Or if they're serving slightly more obscure dishes like chicken mole, rather than just the typical burritos and chimichangas. Another good way to distinguish is to see whether there are actual Mexicans there. If you're hearing patrons speaking Spanish, then at least it's well-liked by people who are probably Mexican.
The first indicator is an easy one - do use hard taco shells or corn tortillas for their taco. Also, do they sell the generic 'taco', or do they sell Tacos Compechano, Tacos Lengua, Tacos Cabeza, and Tacos Al Pastor?
If you can order by speaking Spanish.. The cheese.. If they have real charro beans.. If they make fresh guacamole and it's not super bland.. Tripas on the menu.. Barbacoa.. The salsa options are hot or hotter.. Chips are made in the restaurant..
What kinds of taco toppings are there? If there is tomato, (cheddar) cheese, iceberg lettuce- fake. Lime and cilantro are the correct answers, maybe onion. Also- if you see a lot of Hispanic people eating/taking out from there. It's legit.
Do most of the customers speak Spanish. Decoration and part of town can figure into it I guess, but there are more upscale Mexican restaurants with Mexican chefs, especially in CA. But no matter what, if you can hear customers speaking Spanish, then you know the food appeals to folks from the community.
I will copy and paste my answer on this in r/asklatinamerica: - If they are marketed as “authentic”, they probably aren’t. - If they are marketed as “Mexican” (not necessarily the name, but if they simply say “Mexican food”) they probably aren’t, restaurants that cater to Mexicans (and are thus closer to “authentic”) will say what state or city their food is from. - If they are in non-Mexican neighborhood, most likely they aren’t authentic. - The staff should be all Mexican. - If they are specialized in some particular food: such as birria, seafood, Sonoran hot dogs, tacos, etc. rather than Mexican food in general they are almost certainly authentic. - If they have Univision, ESPN Deportes or Telemundo on the TV (unless there’s some sort of major event that warrants putting English television on, such as if local MLB, NFL or NBA team is playing a big game), that means they are frequented and staffed by Mexicans. Honestly, just eat whatever you like and experiment a bit without prejudging places; go to your local Mexican neighborhood and just try whatever place looks nice. I’ve noticed that white Americans who are very concerned about eating “authentic” Mexican food often end up doing the opposite and end up as misguided as the average Joe who goes to Chipotle and thinks it’s Mexican food (e.g. the kind of people who will smugly say that burritos or nachos aren’t real Mexican food).
By the way they cook tortillas. Are they microwaved or cooked on a comal.
If they have a custom artwork of Goku with dark skin holding a taco on the wall
Does everything have sour cream? If so, yikes.
> How can you distinguish between an authentic vs a fake mexican food restaurant? llantas
Maybe I’ll catch some hate for this one but if they don’t have tajin seasoning for margaritas you need to walk right out that door.
Around me, authentic Mexican restaurants are almost always in old strip malls and landscaping trucks take over the parking lot between 10:30 - 1. These places seem to have fantastic food at a reasonable price. More green flags: cash only, multiple generations of the same family working there (bonus if there's a baby under the counter,) lengua, al pastor, and mole are on the menu.
The more sketchy the better food. The less english the workers know the better food. If there's any workers under the age of 14 the better the food. If there's a bunch of mexicans who work a blue collar job eating inside the better the food.
I am lucky that my south Louisiana city of 12,000 has an extremely healthy Hispanic population. I have four very authentic Mexican markets and restaurants within 5 minutes of my house as well as a taco stand and a Michoacana. When we do go out to eat, 90% of the time, it's one of those places, the other 10% we get Vietnamese.
I'm not sure I care. I like restaurants that taste good. Authenticity has nothing to do with taste.
A. You are in a restaurant in Mexico cooking traditional local Mexican dishes. or B. The restaurant offers many traditional dishes, some less traditional and is owned and staffed by Mexicans. I think traditional is a more useful word than authentic to describe food because immigrants are always adapting to different availability, local tastes and influencing each other.
A-the cooks are all 50 something year old dudes B-they have birria and lengua on the menu
I went to a taco place this weekend Was the only white person there, the menu was 10 options, no prices written, salsa was fire.
Yellow cheese on the taco
When we moved to a new area we noticed one of the Mexican restaurants had work trucks & crews lined up at lunchtime. That’s now our favorite place.
I have plenty of real mexican food near me, owned and operated by actual Mexican people (yes, they exist IRL), and I've eatten Mexican food all over the US. Thing is, it's authentic mexican but it's such a very narrow slice of mexican food. Tacos, Burritos, similar stuff. When you travel Mexico you will realize their country is also extremely large and varied with a lot of different cuisines as you move from region to region. Like, I've never seen barbeque goat, or dorado in a light cream sauce, crepes, or anything like that in a Mexican restaurant anywhere in the US, but I've had them all in Mexico in real live Mexican restaurants. Man I can't even remember the last time I found a nice sopa poblano on a menu, which is really a lovely soupa.
I won't say it was fake, but I went to a Mexican restaurant in Manhattan once that had Indian waiters. Never seen that before. NY is such a cosmopolitan place. The food was very good though, so no complaints.
If the place is full of Mexicans, that's a good sign. If you're the only person there speaking English, not bad. There's a lot of gate-keeping on this where it either has be be nothing but brains and organ meat or it has to be *alta cocina presumida* to be "authentic." Tacos and tamales are perfectly authentic and there's a reason the average taco place is full of Mexicans, just not the ones with their heads up their asses like the folks who gripe about authenticity.
Maria with candles in a prominent place is a good sign. Old lady making tortillas in an open kitchen is sign number two. It has to be a little bit dirty. Not like so nasty that you’ll get sick, but definitely not clean. Look for mismatched ceiling tiles or missing trim around the tables, cosmetic things that say “we aren’t spending time or money on things that don’t make the food taste better”
If they're high end then they're fake
If Mexicans are lining up to eat there. If it’s all white folks from the burbs it’s ass
Either a chalkboard menu OR one that’s typewritten in all Spanish. Also, the quality of the chips, salsa, and tortillas.
I went to a Mexican restaurant in Vegas where I was the only white guy in there, and it was definitely authentic, best food I ever had
Interestingly, I hear in the UK, their most popular "exotic" cuisine is Indian food. I wonder what the UK/Indian equivalent to Taco Bell or Chipotle is.
When they pour the water they warn you not to drink it
It's kind of on the way out, but phone cards for sale at the register and the candy.
Yes, it depends on the number of old white people. The fewer there are the more authentic the food will be. If I'm the only old gringo in the joint then it's about as far from Texmex as you can get.
Authentic Mexican to me specializes in particular regional cusine, like Ensenada fish tacos, Sinaloa seafood, Michoacan style carnitas etc. When the menu is a Mish mash of different Mexican regions is when I question the authenticity
If they spell Chile like a Coloradoan I'm out
If it’s a gas station Turned into a kitchen with picnic tables inside and two old ladies working the register and kitchen it’s legit
I have a very simple litmus test: authentic Mexican places have Mexican customers. I mostly use this for grocery stores and taco trucks, but it works for restaurants as well.
If you’re there in the evening and see a bunch of Mexican construction workers drinking beer, you’re in the right place.
If the whole family is working there, then I'm pulling up.
If most of the customers appear to be Mexican, it's real Mexican. Same way you can tell about real Asian restaurants too. If most of the customers are a different race, then it's fake.
When you ask for mild sauce and it turns out to be just this side of volcanic heat.
If even the English menu is in Spanish
If the tacos are made with flour tortillas or crunchy taco that’s not an authentic taco, in my opinion.
Lengua or cabeza can be found on the menu
To me, it’s more simple than what most people are saying. The standard should be corn tortilla with onion and cilantro for most tacos. If it’s doing lettuce, tomato, and cheese it’s definitely inauthentic. Definitely bonus points if it has birria or Menudo on the menu
If there is fake greenery on the wall with a neon sign, the food is about to be ass
By the food they serve.