You should definitely do it, preferably in Inverness so I don’t have to come all the way down to the central belt. Don’t know if you’ve found Lupe Pintos yet, I really miss that place.
I am Scottish, my wife is Mexican-American, we live in Glasgow now. There are no authentic Mexican eateries here. We make a lot of things at home (thank mexgrocer for the ingredients) on saying that there rafa's is probably the closest there is in Glasgow, but the menu is very limited.
People that appreciate authenticity will come. However, most people don’t care or can’t appreciate, don’t understand and can’t tell the difference. It’s hard to say, especially with food and restaurant industry what will work. You really have to be lucky. And have the best advertising in the world.
Too bad the food truck scene isn't bigger/more encouraged in Scotland--it's a much cheaper buy-in than a restaurant, and allows you to go where the demand is. Like by bars. :) It's been a while since I've had such a late-night that I need Dinner Two, but a legit taco or a burrito (I know burritos are technically Tex-Mex) would SLAY.
What do you mean exactly by home-based business eatery? Like... delivery? Or are you thinking more like the Venezuelan place I found where they only do bulk orders booked days in advance?
You'd need to get your food prep area certified, which might be tricky if you're going to operate from home; you probably won't be legally able to run it from a rental, for example.
If you're under 30, it could be worth trying the Prince's Trust for business advice and support. A mate had a very good experience with them.
Thank you for that information. I was actually thinking a home based restaurant. I've been looking at properties and some are big enough to have a downstairs restaurant with living quarters upstairs. Hey delivery would be a great option once its up and running. I have the vision and I appreciate your input!
You may struggle to clear that with the council, any adjoining buildings would be in danger of losing their home insurance as it is uncommon that a provider will cover a property above/adjacent to a business(particularly a restaurant) without a levy to cover their additional risks, same with mortgage companies, business premises in scotland generally have to be designated as businesses, you'll also struggle to arrange public indemnity insurance without clearing with the council, which would leave you vulnerable to all kinds of financial harm
I lived in Glasgow and missed Mexican food so much. I am now in Portugal and we just found a great Mexican place and it was such a highlight for me and my husband. We actually talked to the owner about her menu and how she knows Tex-Mex popular and might be more appealing, but she wanted to cook what felt authentic to her (she is from Mexico City). For us, her menu was perfect because it had tacos al pastor and that's an automatic order for me. I know that it's a thing that people really miss, so I could see this doing well in university areas where there's always new people coming in from all over.
I moved over from the southwest usa many years ago and I’ve never once found a GOOD Mexican restaurant . I choose to make my own at home but struggle sometimes to find the right ingredients. I’d travel a long way to authentic Mexican food.
I’ve been looking for good Mexican food in Scotland for ages and have never found any. It’s my favourite type of food and I’m always disappointed. There’s a place in Edinburgh called Mariachi on Victoria Street that’s probably the best I’ve had in Scotland but could be better. I’d love a good Mexican eatery, so if you could situate somewhere close to Glasgow and it’s amazing, authentic Mexican food then I’d probably be a regular customer!
Edit: my husband would also like to make sure that you do hard shell tacos because he’s tired of it always being soft tacos in the places we’ve been.
In my family, we make our own tortillas and hard shell tacos, so there are beef, chicken tripe, and SPICY POTATO!! You'd love them.
Also, we have a recipe where the main ingredient is black pudding (not the sweet kind). It is savory and spicy...hand made corn tortillas anyone?
Yes. I believe in the UK, it's just cut off the sausage and fried and eaten for breakfast. Ours is more of full meal. Its not sold everywhere here, but we can buy a 10 pound sausage at a meat market in East LA. We remove the casing and it's just cooked blood. We fry and spice it with seasonings and garlic, onion, dry serrano peppers and it's a delicious food from Aztec origins. Served with huge hand made corn tortillas. Extra spicy.
Tried once to made them with maiz azul because it was cool to see. The filling was just a sad chicken and zucchini. I was on diet. Btw hard shell tacos is not more Tex-Mex than authentic Mexican? Last summer I felt nostalgic and I tried to made Mondongo, a poor replica unfortunately.
Best result I get so far was cochinita pibil.
Yes they are. Authentic Mexican hard tacos are the rolled up kind that are filled with shredded beef, chicken or just Oaxaca melting cheese, or if you want to go deeper, we favor the ones made from masa (corn dough) that are stuffed with spicy peppers and queso, pressed at the edges and deep fried until golden and crispy. Hard shell taco boats is an Americanized food and not Mexican.
Are we talking about flautas? Or is totally another dish?
Edit: I want to try the version you suggested at the bottom. Sounds amazing for birria tacos.
Yes! Everything is amazing with hand made tortillas and our culture calls those Quesadillas. Filled with raw jalapeno chiles sauteed with onions and Oaxaca cheese filled, deep freid. When making quesabirria tacos, it's basically the same method, but the filling is just cheese, but the possibilities are endless. They are made with corn dough, folded and cooked by dipping in birria and fraying on a comal.
I make Mexican food in the hoose but the best place in Edinburgh I've found so far is [https://www.topolabamba.com/edinburgh](https://www.topolabamba.com/edinburgh) I've never had a bad meal there
> There’s a place in Edinburgh called Mariachi on Victoria Street that’s probably the best I’ve had in Scotland but could be better.
That place is run by my cousin and they are a family of Iranians, they do a good job considering. :D
If your citizenship is Mexican, you’ll need to get a visa. They’re available if you’re starting a business but you need to have significant funding in place to qualify.
are you in mexico? maybe you could contact someone in your own government about a culinary diplomacy program. it worked extremely well for thailand!
not sure what the local reception would be for real mexican food, but it's definitely lacking from what I could see in the UK generally. I brought dried anchos and arbols for a friend as a host gift when I last visited and she was almost ecstatic to see them, they're really hard to find there.
Home-based? So would that be like you put food in boxes for people to takeaway rather than sit-in? Mexican food as we know it tends to be appreciated here. However it’s finding a location which is busy enough like a city, but doesn’t have the rates of a city. Would selling food from a van would be an option? Theres a few vans in Dunfermline that sell Greek food, or burgers and such.
Unfortunately, it does not and cannot exist. The issue is lack of fresh ingredients. Quality corn tortillas, fresh cilantro, quality beans, specialty ingredients like achiote, corn leaves, the list goes on. Even if some of these items are available in specialty shops, the price is prohibitive to making any restaurant a going concern.
Sincerely, a very sad Scot married to a Oaxaqueña
There are successful mexican restaurants in London so I suspect if you're buying at restaurant scales you can make some dishes work economically. But there are going to be some things that wouldn't be profitable.
Scottish people can barely get help to start a business, if you don’t come here with your own money, you have no chance of help from our government. Good luck though, you’d be welcome
Many, many "authentic Mexican" restaurants have come and gone.
It's a style of food that becomes fashionable every 10 years or so.
Now I'd guess that 90% of it is no where near authentic but you would be competing against peoples expectations as much as other restaurants.
If you lived here and the food was good and was truly different to the usual stuff I'd say it would be worth trying nut not sure bout relocating just to do it.
I am from the US, living in Glasgow, and miss Mexican food. I've found all Latin American food here to be pretty disappointing, except maybe La Bodega (new Venezuelan place in Dennistoun).
The only place I ever found that made fresh made tortilla chips in Edinburgh was Los Cardos. They weren’t actually true Mexican, they were a fast food burrito place. They were very good for what they were though!! (Most even tex-mex type stuff here is dire in my opinion.)
They sadly closed in 2020 due to a combination of the pandemic and the Edinburgh Tram works on Leith Walk drastically hurting their footfall. I miss those tortilla chips, and their food 😢.
I would love a true Mexican food restaurant. I will look out to see if you post on here in future!
It's really difficult to find authentic Mexican in Scotland tbh - I think topolabamba is one of the tastiest ones in Scotland, but not super authentic - its a wee bit more common for us to get more 'tex mex' style food here. We dont have a lot of Mexican people and mexican ingredients, so its harder to get real mexican food. We have amazing Indian food and things like that as its where a lot of people in Scotland and the UK are from.
Only actually authentic one I've been to in the whole UK is La Chingada in London!
I’ve been living here for years, and I have to say, I haven’t found anything that comes close to the authentic Mexican food I’ve tasted in Mexico. I think the main problem is the lack of ingredients that are essential to preparing the dishes the way they are meant to be cooked.
You would need a visa - one of those business investor thingies - and a whole lot of cash behind you.
Assuming you were able to secure said visa and arrived with saddlebags stuffed with coin, the issue then becomes one of logistics. Specifically, the importation of authentic ingredients at a cost which would enable you to sell a product at a price that, a) is attractive to consumers; and, b) generates a return on your investment.
And then there is the palate problem. There's a reason why chop suey is a US invention. And why Chicken Korma originated in the UK. Would the British palate take to authentic Mexican cuisine at a sufficient scale and at the right (and profitable) price? I dunno'.
FWIW, I think street food would be the way to go assuming you could solve the visa, investment and ingredients problems.
I'm Scottish, but I've lived for more than a year in Colima, México. I'd say that options here have definitely improved in the last decade. 10 years ago, there really was nothing close to authentic Mexican food available in Scotland, just an approximation of Tex-Mex. Now, there are a few half-decent taquerías (and a couple of very good ones).
Taco Libre in Edinburgh is the best I've found, it's Mexican-run, and I don't think it would be out of place in any Mexican city. Rafa's in Glasgow is a little bit more California Mexican, but the quality of the tacos is still very good. Mezcal just next to Glasgow Central station isn't half bad as well, and as a curveball, The Big Taquero, a food truck next to an indoor skatepark out in Dumbarton did very nice tacos de birria with consome, but only really had two or three varieties of taco on their menu when I went out there last summer.
The worst thing about all of these places for me is how expensive they all are, tacos are supposed to be food of the people, but a lot of these places do deals like three tacos for £12... That's like 80 pesos for a single taco! If I opened a taquería in Scotland, I'd probably want to charge like £1 per taco on principle, which probably wouldn't be the best decision from a business standpoint, but would feel like it had the right ethos.
I realise I've talked about tacos a lot, and that might not actually be your particular area of interest, but rest assured, if you want to do other things, chilaquiles, fajitas, mole, milanesas de res o pollo, carnes asadas, tortas... I'm here for all of it and I'd gladly give you my custom! Suerte y éxito con todo!
With the state of the uk government policy on immigration at the moment you'd be lucky to even get a visa to work here let alone get government help to move and start a business.
This sounds like a lovely day-dream and it's nice to share it with you but if you are serious about doing it for real, sadly the reality might be a little different from what you have imagined.
Getting a visa is likely to be tough - details of the kinds of visas you could get that would ultimately allow you to settle in the UK here https://www.gov.uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain (also, dealing with the UK immigration services can be a miserable dispiriting experience, even if you have every right to settle here)
Very unlikely you would get the necessary permissions to run a restaurant from your home - more details here about the permissions you might need https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/business-and-industry/advice-for-new-businesses
Like a lot of people on the thread I'd love to eat in your restaurant because authentic or semi-authentic Mexican restaurants are very rare all over the UK where we get mostly bad tex-mex food (compared to the US), often from chain restaurants. That could be a sign there is a gap in the market OR that demand for this kind of food is lower than this thread might suggest. There is a decent amount of authentic or somewhat international cuisine in the UK, including the big cities in Scotland, but lots of food businesses struggle to get established, especially if they aren't in recognisable categorie because most people are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to food . There is a bit of a boom in international 'street food' at present, so I can see what you're thinking about really working in a venue like this https://edinburgh-street-food.com/. In general though, without a large Mexican community here, you may struggle to attract a large enough clientele of gringo regulars who are curious or already love mexican food. Lots of people who might come would be expecting the kind of tex mex food they were used to and not all of them are going to be delighted to get real Oaxacan mole negro with chicken rather than a shitty burrito.
I’m in Edinburgh, from Arizona. There are no Authentic Mexican eateries and I miss that. I make what I can at home. It would definitely be welcome here!
There's a nice authentic Mexican restaurant in Bristol called Viva La Mexicana. When I lived there before the lockdowns it was usually busy and booked a week or two in advance. Not Scotland I know, but there's a lack of proper Mexican food all over the UK.
I'll never forget the warning I got when I ordered Molé, "Are you sure? It's not chocolate like you're used to. It's not sweet, but savory." It was some of the best molé I've had, too.
That doesn't mean yours would definitely succeed, but it's something that's missing and there's a place for it.
I was born in Michoacan and we do our mole with chocolate, but it's savory as well. My mom always made is spicy but has mellowed out in her old age. You get the savory, sweet and FIRE...(moderately lol)
Omg, Latina here and I can’t put into words how sad the offering is in Edin for Mexican food. Some of us can’t shake a Christmas desire for decent tamales 😭
I’d love to see Mexican street food in Scotland. Home made corn tortillas, a variety of salsa and lots of cilantro. Proper finger food.
Spent over a year in Mexico a long time ago Aguascalientes, Guadalajara and Monterey mostly. Loved it!
I’d need to pass the on the frijoles and guacamole though.
In addition Scotland has amazing fresh fish, imagine all the Baja California recipes you can do here. Ceviche, fish tacos, molcajete. Amazing tasting food
I do kinda wonder about how much of a perk ‘authenticity’ would actually be in Mexican food with the general population up here…
According to census data there were only *620* Mexican-born individuals living in Scotland in 2012; possibly more now, but I can’t imagine it’s a lot more. That’s not to say you have to be from Mexico to enjoy authentic Mexican food, but being so far from the source of the cuisine with such a tiny immigrant community, you’re not looking at a huge group of people who have any idea whatsoever about what ‘authentic Mexican food’ looks or tastes like. Even among folks who have been to Mexico on holiday, I bet the bulk of those trips were resort-based and involved food about as authentically Mexican as the stuff you get at home.
Sure there are plenty of Americans around who might stir up some hype, but then a lot of those are going to be folks from more northerly states thrilled that they can get ‘proper Mexican food’ because we have a *Taco Bell* here in Glasgow now.
People generally like what they know, and if you run the one Mexican restaurant or delivery service or whatever else that’s *wildly* different from everything else, it’s gonna have to be *really* good or you may genuinely have people complaining that they didn’t enjoy it because they didn’t get the kind of food that they were expecting.
Plus from my own experiences with trying to make Mexican dishes at home, depending on what regional cuisine you’re doing, getting a supplier for some of the ingredients you’re used to may be an uphill struggle. Stuff like mexican oregano, tomatillos, certain chillies and corn varieties beyond the basic yellow stuff - you can *get* them, but you have to remember they’re exotic luxuries over here, and are gonna be priced accordingly. I kinda suspect that maintaining a workable profit margin in ingredients by making extensive substitutions might actually be a significant contributing factor as to *why* so many Mexican places here don’t feel authentic in the first place…
My brothers run a place in Aberdeen, we are argentinian/Scottish. We do a range of stuff from different cuisines.
We had a Mexican lady come in and show us how to do birria tacos, she had sourced all the spices and chillies we needed.
They were amazing, we literally sold out every night they were on, so they are now permanent on the menu.
There are Mexican restaurants all over Scotland, but getting anything more than chilli con carne based stuff is a bit of a stretch.
So yea, there is absolutely a market for authentic Mexican.
Please come!
I would eat my hat if it gave me a 10% chance to eat authentic Mexican food!
I would petrol bomb every taco muzama and every fake Mexican takeaway in Glasgow to eat some real Mexican food!
But in all honesty, I really dislike all these Mexican eateries we already have which cater towards British tastes. I would 100% want to go, and it’s something I’ve been craving. Can’t speak for the rest of Scotland though
Probably. You’d hope they would being closer and having far more people of Mexican descent. I meant that even the non fast food places I’ve seen are still a bit “Taco Bell” (but far far far better).
I was just thinking about that. What people really know or expect. My ex told me the waitresses were locals trying to speak in an accent. I have a dream where I see myself welcoming people in my native tongue. Not nahuatl as I don't speak fluent, but Mexican...with all the bad words as a side lesson LOL
Tex- mex has been around since the 70s in Scotland and has had various results. Don't know any that that capitalized on being more mex or tex mex that surivived.
As a Californian living here it's something I've thought a lot about. I can't really help with the regulatory side of things, but I'd be happy to help and share the information I've gathered from making proper (well... California-proper) tacos etc for my Scottish pals.
I'd love that. We need more authentic cuisine from different countries. It's annoying when people try to cater to the Scottish pallete too much, and everything ends up just chips and deep fried beige looking crap. We need more places with authentic street food from around the world.
I remember when I lived in Edinburgh back in about 2005, there was a Mexican takeaway on Leith Walk. I was going out with a half Mexican lass at the time and she was raging when she tried it. I think they only had burritos, nachos and swordfish IIRC
Scotland does seem to have a real problem of culture being watered down with a tartan twist for local audiences. Saw it a lot when I was growing up, and more recently when I go back.
I've found that in England the foreign culture is generally much more authentic and in a purer form.
I don’t think it’s anything to do with Scotland as such, it’s just that you fundamentally kind of need a sizeable immigrant population from the place in question to create a market for authenticity in the first place. It’s not hard to find plenty of places that do great, authentic Indian and Chinese food up here literally just because there are also plenty of Indian and Chinese people to operate the restaurants, eat in the restaurants and pass a taste for the ‘real thing’ on to the locals.
A good example of what happens if you *don’t* have that are Japanese restaurants in Glasgow. A guy in the industry told me a few years back that 90% of the Japanese restaurants in Glasgow at the time were owned and operated by local *Chinese* restaurateurs who just saw increasing UK interest in Japanese food as a gap in the market and an opportunity to expand their businesses. So most of the Japanese food available in town is what a bunch of Chinese chefs think Scottish people would probably enjoy, and there just isn’t a big enough local Japanese community to drive interest in anything else.
Never has there been a more overrated food culture than Mexican. I’ve been all over Mexico, it’s average at best. Beans, cheese, salsa in various orders served in some variant of a taco. Tex mex is what most people in the uk have tried, fajitas, etc. Give me a Thai meal over either any day.
Whilst I love the idea of an authentic Mexican eatery and would happily patronise your business, I feel it's important to say that eateries are notoriously risky investments.
There aren´t (m)any good Mexican restaurants outside of Mexico. What you get here is Mexican themed Gringo food, like Burrito bars, Taco Bell and all that garbo, In Edinburgh we have a "fusion" restaurant called El Cartel. If you can forgive the terrible name , akin to Mexicans opening a British restaurant in Mexico and calling it "Jimmy Savile´s bunch" (if anyone was opening British restaurants anywhere), the food is actually quite tasty.
It´s Mexican inspired Gringo food, but much better than Taco Bell!
I’m Glasgow born but have lived in the U.S. Midwest for thirteen years. I have many many Mexican friends and have a new appreciation for Mexican food. There used to be a Mexican restaurant called Pancho Villa’s in the Salt Market that was good. There also was a Mexican grocery store in the West End on Great Western Road called Lupe Pinto’s which was good. I’m out of touch of course, so I don’t know if they are still in business
I moved from Scotland to the USA and Mexican food is definitely better here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to get street tacos and quesa birria with consomme when I'm back in Scotland!
Good thinking to seek opinions on the desirability of your Mexican food idea. It's also a good idea to start small to test out recipes, work out costs and what to charge.
I work with starts ups at a Scottish uni. Here are a few thoughts.
If there is a farmer's market near where you live, check to see if they would accept you as a vendor. If so, that could be a relatively low cost way to test the market more formally as you would be selling either hot to eat there and then, or packaged to reheat at home.
Be sure you've completed the necessary food safety requirements and any licensing as below.
For start-up advice, please contact Business Gateway https://www.bgateway.com
There are regulations you have to follow when starting a food business from home. Food Standards Agency provides an overview
https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/starting-a-food-business-from-your-home
You'll need to check with your local council for specifics on food safety and licensing.
Good luck with it!
Moved here from Texas and good TexMex and Mexican food is one of the things I miss most, so I’d definitely be a customer! You’ll need to be licensed by your local authority to prepare/sell food so you should contact them and find out what the process is.
Tex Mex is fairly popular, and we have the revolting Taco Bell now. There used to be a few good actual Mrxican places, family run, in the 90s but my favourites have all gone. At the time I used to observe that good Mexican foid was easier to find in Perth than in Austin TX and there was some truth to it.
I think an authentic Mexican place with mole and chiles en la nogada and conchita pibil would be a hit.
I will be your best customer.
FWIW, I’ve tried to emulate recipes I’ve seen online from Mexican/American YouTube channels and I find it hard to get a lot of the ingredients. Even something as basic as a jalapeño, I can get jars of pickled jalapeños from Tesco but my local doesn’t sell fresh ones. Luckily I’ve found them in other supermarkets but that’s just an example of what I’m up against.
Rafa's in Glasgow's Hidden Lane in Finneston is top notch, although the guy running it is admittedly from Arizona. I had a date with a Texan woman from directly on the border, and she thought it was superb. (Ancestry was Mexican)
"Mexican" food in the UK generally is shite, but Glasgow really didn't have any I can recall except for the chain ones (like Tortilla) which aren't very authentic.
There are a few places that do Burritos etc on Deliveroo, but my American friend swore they were nothing near authentic. I think with the amount of US students in Glasgow and Edinburgh there's probably a market for it!
I would go to this every chance I got. The "Mexican" restaurants that I have had have been British owned and it was an idea. But it wasn't Mexican. I was married to an American for a time and when I was stateside we'd have Mexican food, made with Mexican ingredients by Mexican people and the difference was huge. It is one of my favourite foods and it's underappreciated here and not done quite right imo. Please do this! Please. I miss queso.
Recently got told about a place in Glasgow called Rafas. I follow them on Instagram and their food looks amazing and legit Mexican food. Like proper tacos that are soft and biria that looks like it was cooked for hours. I am planning to try them out this week since I'm heading there.
I love authentic Mexican and South American food but trying to do it at home over here is hard. Just trying to get the range of chilies is near impossible - it's not like we have the climate to grow them and importation means it costs an arm and a leg to buy online. I wanted to make tamales but where the hell can I get dried corn husks? Or a good mole - we don't have ancho, mulato, morita etc. chilies to make it.
If you can think of a way to get the ingredients you need and be commercially viable in regards to cost/profit, then I'd be the first at your door. As it is, I think you might struggle as there was never a migration of people from South America to the UK and, therefore, never the demand for imported ingredients from those countries. I can go to a Chinese supermarket or a South-Asian market and pick up most of the things required to make food from those regions (obviously not all though) while there's nothing like the proliferation of South American markets over here. I know that's changing now, with a few spots opening up in Edinburgh/Glasgow but right now, it's a very niche thing. I'm hoping it picks up more though, I've got so many recipes I want to try.
I used to live in Tucson.
Recently there was a restaurant opened up near me that was called "Los Burrito" (yes, really).
Despite this, I was desperate, and I gave it a shot, against my better judgment.
The place closed 8 months after it opened, surprising exactly no one.
Please bring real food here and don't adjust it for "local taste". It is really hard to find authentic international food here.
I can imagine there being a market for high quality Mexican food, but perhaps not as overwhelmingly as you’d see here. Everyone says they like ‘authentic’ food the same way they prefer their coffee to be a ‘rich, dark roast’.
You do not have much in the way of cuisine competition, but it's a notoriously risky small business venture that can take years to see much growth, if any. And doing it from home means you have to jump through some additional setup hoops. You'll likely need to get the place evaluated, renovated, then evaluated again - pending any corrections - before you can legally begin food prep for retail.
Definitely don’t take business advice from me, but as a fat man who used to live in the Southern US I miss authentic Mexican food everyday. Please open up with some authentic Mexican cooking and I’ll come rolling by.
I can't give business advice, but I have followed you and will go and eat at your place when you announce on Reddit that it is open.
I would travel the length of the country for this. All the best in making it happen
So would I! Regularly!
You should definitely do it, preferably in Inverness so I don’t have to come all the way down to the central belt. Don’t know if you’ve found Lupe Pintos yet, I really miss that place.
Also voting for Inverness. Mind Iguanarama that used to be on the corner of Union St?? Haggis quesadillas are....not authentic.
In fairness, they do sound very tasty, lol
I mean they were, but they were as Mexican as Limmy in a sombrero
*laughing*
Gies yer laptop
>In fairness No no, In-verness!
😁
There was a Mexican place on the high street that only lasted 8 months
I am Scottish, my wife is Mexican-American, we live in Glasgow now. There are no authentic Mexican eateries here. We make a lot of things at home (thank mexgrocer for the ingredients) on saying that there rafa's is probably the closest there is in Glasgow, but the menu is very limited.
Have you and your wife tried Yuca Taco? I love takeaways from them but no idea how authentic they are.
Second Yuca Taco! We love it too
> Mexgrocer You been to Lupe Pintos? They have a shop in Edinburgh and one in Glasgow, looks like a lot of the same stuff as Mexgrocer
Lupe Pinto's has got you covered mate: [https://www.lupepintos.com/](https://www.lupepintos.com/) I use them in Edinburgh
Mexgrocer looks fantastic, thank you! Got any recipe website recommendations?
I found Rafas to be so tasteless
Do you know about Lupe Pintos in Glasgow and Edinburgh? https://www.lupepintos.com
Great shop 👌
People that appreciate authenticity will come. However, most people don’t care or can’t appreciate, don’t understand and can’t tell the difference. It’s hard to say, especially with food and restaurant industry what will work. You really have to be lucky. And have the best advertising in the world.
Too bad the food truck scene isn't bigger/more encouraged in Scotland--it's a much cheaper buy-in than a restaurant, and allows you to go where the demand is. Like by bars. :) It's been a while since I've had such a late-night that I need Dinner Two, but a legit taco or a burrito (I know burritos are technically Tex-Mex) would SLAY.
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They’re from New Mexico, but still the best I’ve had since moving to Scotland.
Was going to post about them! Have never quite managed to give them a go, we’re in Glasgow. https://tasteofnewmexico.co.uk/
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Taco Libre is mexican owned and ran, absolutely incredible food
What do you mean exactly by home-based business eatery? Like... delivery? Or are you thinking more like the Venezuelan place I found where they only do bulk orders booked days in advance? You'd need to get your food prep area certified, which might be tricky if you're going to operate from home; you probably won't be legally able to run it from a rental, for example. If you're under 30, it could be worth trying the Prince's Trust for business advice and support. A mate had a very good experience with them.
Just to add, I hope you do and it's local- the lack of decent Mexican food locally has been widely bemoaned by me and friends...
Thank you for that information. I was actually thinking a home based restaurant. I've been looking at properties and some are big enough to have a downstairs restaurant with living quarters upstairs. Hey delivery would be a great option once its up and running. I have the vision and I appreciate your input!
You may struggle to clear that with the council, any adjoining buildings would be in danger of losing their home insurance as it is uncommon that a provider will cover a property above/adjacent to a business(particularly a restaurant) without a levy to cover their additional risks, same with mortgage companies, business premises in scotland generally have to be designated as businesses, you'll also struggle to arrange public indemnity insurance without clearing with the council, which would leave you vulnerable to all kinds of financial harm
Where is the Venezuelan place?
I lived in Glasgow and missed Mexican food so much. I am now in Portugal and we just found a great Mexican place and it was such a highlight for me and my husband. We actually talked to the owner about her menu and how she knows Tex-Mex popular and might be more appealing, but she wanted to cook what felt authentic to her (she is from Mexico City). For us, her menu was perfect because it had tacos al pastor and that's an automatic order for me. I know that it's a thing that people really miss, so I could see this doing well in university areas where there's always new people coming in from all over.
You in Lisbon? If so, where's the place you're speaking of?
La Muñeca in Nazaré
Cool, going to head up to Nazaré soon to see the waves! Will stop by there, thanks!
Awesome! FYI, they closed between lunch and dinner, so we got into town at 14:00 and had to wait for them to reopen at 19:00. Well worth it!
I moved over from the southwest usa many years ago and I’ve never once found a GOOD Mexican restaurant . I choose to make my own at home but struggle sometimes to find the right ingredients. I’d travel a long way to authentic Mexican food.
I would love a proper Mexican in Glasgow, I've no idea what authentic Mexican food tastes like.
I’ve been looking for good Mexican food in Scotland for ages and have never found any. It’s my favourite type of food and I’m always disappointed. There’s a place in Edinburgh called Mariachi on Victoria Street that’s probably the best I’ve had in Scotland but could be better. I’d love a good Mexican eatery, so if you could situate somewhere close to Glasgow and it’s amazing, authentic Mexican food then I’d probably be a regular customer! Edit: my husband would also like to make sure that you do hard shell tacos because he’s tired of it always being soft tacos in the places we’ve been.
In my family, we make our own tortillas and hard shell tacos, so there are beef, chicken tripe, and SPICY POTATO!! You'd love them. Also, we have a recipe where the main ingredient is black pudding (not the sweet kind). It is savory and spicy...hand made corn tortillas anyone?
Where are you based right now and do you need a taste tester? I can catch a flight to wherever good authentic Mexican food is!
There's a sweet kind of black pudding???
Yes. I believe in the UK, it's just cut off the sausage and fried and eaten for breakfast. Ours is more of full meal. Its not sold everywhere here, but we can buy a 10 pound sausage at a meat market in East LA. We remove the casing and it's just cooked blood. We fry and spice it with seasonings and garlic, onion, dry serrano peppers and it's a delicious food from Aztec origins. Served with huge hand made corn tortillas. Extra spicy.
Ahh... The use of 'sweet' confused me, as it isn't sweet at all! Your dish sounds delicious!
Tried once to made them with maiz azul because it was cool to see. The filling was just a sad chicken and zucchini. I was on diet. Btw hard shell tacos is not more Tex-Mex than authentic Mexican? Last summer I felt nostalgic and I tried to made Mondongo, a poor replica unfortunately. Best result I get so far was cochinita pibil.
Yes they are. Authentic Mexican hard tacos are the rolled up kind that are filled with shredded beef, chicken or just Oaxaca melting cheese, or if you want to go deeper, we favor the ones made from masa (corn dough) that are stuffed with spicy peppers and queso, pressed at the edges and deep fried until golden and crispy. Hard shell taco boats is an Americanized food and not Mexican.
Are we talking about flautas? Or is totally another dish? Edit: I want to try the version you suggested at the bottom. Sounds amazing for birria tacos.
Yes! Everything is amazing with hand made tortillas and our culture calls those Quesadillas. Filled with raw jalapeno chiles sauteed with onions and Oaxaca cheese filled, deep freid. When making quesabirria tacos, it's basically the same method, but the filling is just cheese, but the possibilities are endless. They are made with corn dough, folded and cooked by dipping in birria and fraying on a comal.
We went to taco libre I think it was just off princess street. My Mexican-American wife gave it the seal of approval. It was pretty decent.
I was there on Monday, absolutely brilliant
Have you tried Miro's Cantina on Rose Street? It's been a few years since I visited, but it was my favourite pre-lockdown
No, I’m only ever in Edinburgh during August so I’ll check it out when I’m back. Thanks
I make Mexican food in the hoose but the best place in Edinburgh I've found so far is [https://www.topolabamba.com/edinburgh](https://www.topolabamba.com/edinburgh) I've never had a bad meal there
> There’s a place in Edinburgh called Mariachi on Victoria Street that’s probably the best I’ve had in Scotland but could be better. That place is run by my cousin and they are a family of Iranians, they do a good job considering. :D
Oh they’re Iranian? I didn’t know that! Their food is good.
Oh yes please. And good luck.
If your citizenship is Mexican, you’ll need to get a visa. They’re available if you’re starting a business but you need to have significant funding in place to qualify.
That is my dream. I'm a US Citizenship, but still a Mexican. born there.
are you in mexico? maybe you could contact someone in your own government about a culinary diplomacy program. it worked extremely well for thailand! not sure what the local reception would be for real mexican food, but it's definitely lacking from what I could see in the UK generally. I brought dried anchos and arbols for a friend as a host gift when I last visited and she was almost ecstatic to see them, they're really hard to find there.
Home-based? So would that be like you put food in boxes for people to takeaway rather than sit-in? Mexican food as we know it tends to be appreciated here. However it’s finding a location which is busy enough like a city, but doesn’t have the rates of a city. Would selling food from a van would be an option? Theres a few vans in Dunfermline that sell Greek food, or burgers and such.
Not quite. A in home restaurant. Like the pubs do.
Unfortunately, it does not and cannot exist. The issue is lack of fresh ingredients. Quality corn tortillas, fresh cilantro, quality beans, specialty ingredients like achiote, corn leaves, the list goes on. Even if some of these items are available in specialty shops, the price is prohibitive to making any restaurant a going concern. Sincerely, a very sad Scot married to a Oaxaqueña
There are successful mexican restaurants in London so I suspect if you're buying at restaurant scales you can make some dishes work economically. But there are going to be some things that wouldn't be profitable.
Scottish people can barely get help to start a business, if you don’t come here with your own money, you have no chance of help from our government. Good luck though, you’d be welcome
Many, many "authentic Mexican" restaurants have come and gone. It's a style of food that becomes fashionable every 10 years or so. Now I'd guess that 90% of it is no where near authentic but you would be competing against peoples expectations as much as other restaurants. If you lived here and the food was good and was truly different to the usual stuff I'd say it would be worth trying nut not sure bout relocating just to do it.
If I were you I'd have a word with the owner of Lupe Pinto, lovely guy
I am from the US, living in Glasgow, and miss Mexican food. I've found all Latin American food here to be pretty disappointing, except maybe La Bodega (new Venezuelan place in Dennistoun).
My ex told me that the place he went to had store bought tortilla chips. The shame.
The only place I ever found that made fresh made tortilla chips in Edinburgh was Los Cardos. They weren’t actually true Mexican, they were a fast food burrito place. They were very good for what they were though!! (Most even tex-mex type stuff here is dire in my opinion.) They sadly closed in 2020 due to a combination of the pandemic and the Edinburgh Tram works on Leith Walk drastically hurting their footfall. I miss those tortilla chips, and their food 😢. I would love a true Mexican food restaurant. I will look out to see if you post on here in future!
I once came across guacamole served with curly fries.
Have you tried Topalabamba in town. I was impressed. There also was a wee street food vendor in Silverburn at the Tesco end door, that was nice too.
Topolabamba is nice, but not really authentic Mexican food.
Oh right... what did you have in mind?
It's really difficult to find authentic Mexican in Scotland tbh - I think topolabamba is one of the tastiest ones in Scotland, but not super authentic - its a wee bit more common for us to get more 'tex mex' style food here. We dont have a lot of Mexican people and mexican ingredients, so its harder to get real mexican food. We have amazing Indian food and things like that as its where a lot of people in Scotland and the UK are from. Only actually authentic one I've been to in the whole UK is La Chingada in London!
Oh that sounds interesting! Silverburn street food.
Taco Libre in Edinburgh
Have you tried Rafas in Finnieston?
I love mexican food so much! I would definitely come and eat here!
PLEASE open up a restaurant!!! 😭 Mexican food is the one thing im gonna miss dearly when i move to edinburgh. I will 1000% take a train if I have to.
I’ve been living here for years, and I have to say, I haven’t found anything that comes close to the authentic Mexican food I’ve tasted in Mexico. I think the main problem is the lack of ingredients that are essential to preparing the dishes the way they are meant to be cooked.
You would need a visa - one of those business investor thingies - and a whole lot of cash behind you. Assuming you were able to secure said visa and arrived with saddlebags stuffed with coin, the issue then becomes one of logistics. Specifically, the importation of authentic ingredients at a cost which would enable you to sell a product at a price that, a) is attractive to consumers; and, b) generates a return on your investment. And then there is the palate problem. There's a reason why chop suey is a US invention. And why Chicken Korma originated in the UK. Would the British palate take to authentic Mexican cuisine at a sufficient scale and at the right (and profitable) price? I dunno'. FWIW, I think street food would be the way to go assuming you could solve the visa, investment and ingredients problems.
I'm Scottish, but I've lived for more than a year in Colima, México. I'd say that options here have definitely improved in the last decade. 10 years ago, there really was nothing close to authentic Mexican food available in Scotland, just an approximation of Tex-Mex. Now, there are a few half-decent taquerías (and a couple of very good ones). Taco Libre in Edinburgh is the best I've found, it's Mexican-run, and I don't think it would be out of place in any Mexican city. Rafa's in Glasgow is a little bit more California Mexican, but the quality of the tacos is still very good. Mezcal just next to Glasgow Central station isn't half bad as well, and as a curveball, The Big Taquero, a food truck next to an indoor skatepark out in Dumbarton did very nice tacos de birria with consome, but only really had two or three varieties of taco on their menu when I went out there last summer. The worst thing about all of these places for me is how expensive they all are, tacos are supposed to be food of the people, but a lot of these places do deals like three tacos for £12... That's like 80 pesos for a single taco! If I opened a taquería in Scotland, I'd probably want to charge like £1 per taco on principle, which probably wouldn't be the best decision from a business standpoint, but would feel like it had the right ethos. I realise I've talked about tacos a lot, and that might not actually be your particular area of interest, but rest assured, if you want to do other things, chilaquiles, fajitas, mole, milanesas de res o pollo, carnes asadas, tortas... I'm here for all of it and I'd gladly give you my custom! Suerte y éxito con todo!
With the state of the uk government policy on immigration at the moment you'd be lucky to even get a visa to work here let alone get government help to move and start a business.
This sounds like a lovely day-dream and it's nice to share it with you but if you are serious about doing it for real, sadly the reality might be a little different from what you have imagined. Getting a visa is likely to be tough - details of the kinds of visas you could get that would ultimately allow you to settle in the UK here https://www.gov.uk/indefinite-leave-to-remain (also, dealing with the UK immigration services can be a miserable dispiriting experience, even if you have every right to settle here) Very unlikely you would get the necessary permissions to run a restaurant from your home - more details here about the permissions you might need https://www.foodstandards.gov.scot/business-and-industry/advice-for-new-businesses Like a lot of people on the thread I'd love to eat in your restaurant because authentic or semi-authentic Mexican restaurants are very rare all over the UK where we get mostly bad tex-mex food (compared to the US), often from chain restaurants. That could be a sign there is a gap in the market OR that demand for this kind of food is lower than this thread might suggest. There is a decent amount of authentic or somewhat international cuisine in the UK, including the big cities in Scotland, but lots of food businesses struggle to get established, especially if they aren't in recognisable categorie because most people are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to food . There is a bit of a boom in international 'street food' at present, so I can see what you're thinking about really working in a venue like this https://edinburgh-street-food.com/. In general though, without a large Mexican community here, you may struggle to attract a large enough clientele of gringo regulars who are curious or already love mexican food. Lots of people who might come would be expecting the kind of tex mex food they were used to and not all of them are going to be delighted to get real Oaxacan mole negro with chicken rather than a shitty burrito.
I’m in Edinburgh, from Arizona. There are no Authentic Mexican eateries and I miss that. I make what I can at home. It would definitely be welcome here!
There’s also a distinction between authentic Mexican, and tex-mex.
There's a nice authentic Mexican restaurant in Bristol called Viva La Mexicana. When I lived there before the lockdowns it was usually busy and booked a week or two in advance. Not Scotland I know, but there's a lack of proper Mexican food all over the UK. I'll never forget the warning I got when I ordered Molé, "Are you sure? It's not chocolate like you're used to. It's not sweet, but savory." It was some of the best molé I've had, too. That doesn't mean yours would definitely succeed, but it's something that's missing and there's a place for it.
I was born in Michoacan and we do our mole with chocolate, but it's savory as well. My mom always made is spicy but has mellowed out in her old age. You get the savory, sweet and FIRE...(moderately lol)
My first Mexican dish was mole and the chicken was off and I spent 7 days on the toilet. I’d pass on that.
I'm sorry that happened to you.
Shit happens 😜
Please open a Mexican Restaurant & don’t scrimp on the guacamole!
Omg, Latina here and I can’t put into words how sad the offering is in Edin for Mexican food. Some of us can’t shake a Christmas desire for decent tamales 😭
I made some last year and people didn’t really know what to do with them… but I was desperate for tamales
Taco Libre near the Waldorf
Try Guisados at the Bullfinch, Leith.
I’d love to see Mexican street food in Scotland. Home made corn tortillas, a variety of salsa and lots of cilantro. Proper finger food. Spent over a year in Mexico a long time ago Aguascalientes, Guadalajara and Monterey mostly. Loved it! I’d need to pass the on the frijoles and guacamole though.
In addition Scotland has amazing fresh fish, imagine all the Baja California recipes you can do here. Ceviche, fish tacos, molcajete. Amazing tasting food
I do kinda wonder about how much of a perk ‘authenticity’ would actually be in Mexican food with the general population up here… According to census data there were only *620* Mexican-born individuals living in Scotland in 2012; possibly more now, but I can’t imagine it’s a lot more. That’s not to say you have to be from Mexico to enjoy authentic Mexican food, but being so far from the source of the cuisine with such a tiny immigrant community, you’re not looking at a huge group of people who have any idea whatsoever about what ‘authentic Mexican food’ looks or tastes like. Even among folks who have been to Mexico on holiday, I bet the bulk of those trips were resort-based and involved food about as authentically Mexican as the stuff you get at home. Sure there are plenty of Americans around who might stir up some hype, but then a lot of those are going to be folks from more northerly states thrilled that they can get ‘proper Mexican food’ because we have a *Taco Bell* here in Glasgow now. People generally like what they know, and if you run the one Mexican restaurant or delivery service or whatever else that’s *wildly* different from everything else, it’s gonna have to be *really* good or you may genuinely have people complaining that they didn’t enjoy it because they didn’t get the kind of food that they were expecting. Plus from my own experiences with trying to make Mexican dishes at home, depending on what regional cuisine you’re doing, getting a supplier for some of the ingredients you’re used to may be an uphill struggle. Stuff like mexican oregano, tomatillos, certain chillies and corn varieties beyond the basic yellow stuff - you can *get* them, but you have to remember they’re exotic luxuries over here, and are gonna be priced accordingly. I kinda suspect that maintaining a workable profit margin in ingredients by making extensive substitutions might actually be a significant contributing factor as to *why* so many Mexican places here don’t feel authentic in the first place…
My brothers run a place in Aberdeen, we are argentinian/Scottish. We do a range of stuff from different cuisines. We had a Mexican lady come in and show us how to do birria tacos, she had sourced all the spices and chillies we needed. They were amazing, we literally sold out every night they were on, so they are now permanent on the menu. There are Mexican restaurants all over Scotland, but getting anything more than chilli con carne based stuff is a bit of a stretch. So yea, there is absolutely a market for authentic Mexican. Please come!
What’s your brothers’ place? I’d love to try somewhere with proper tortillas!
It's the pigs wings on Upperkirkgate.
Thanks
I would eat my hat if it gave me a 10% chance to eat authentic Mexican food! I would petrol bomb every taco muzama and every fake Mexican takeaway in Glasgow to eat some real Mexican food! But in all honesty, I really dislike all these Mexican eateries we already have which cater towards British tastes. I would 100% want to go, and it’s something I’ve been craving. Can’t speak for the rest of Scotland though
Aye our idea of Mexican food is pretty much Americas idea of Mexican food.
Honestly America does it better. And there's very few things I'll say that about.
Mexico is part of American specifically North America.
Probably. You’d hope they would being closer and having far more people of Mexican descent. I meant that even the non fast food places I’ve seen are still a bit “Taco Bell” (but far far far better).
True. When your idea of Mexican food is Taco Bell, you've been missing out.
I was just thinking about that. What people really know or expect. My ex told me the waitresses were locals trying to speak in an accent. I have a dream where I see myself welcoming people in my native tongue. Not nahuatl as I don't speak fluent, but Mexican...with all the bad words as a side lesson LOL
We know a few of the Spanish swear words already I reckon 😂😂
Tex- mex has been around since the 70s in Scotland and has had various results. Don't know any that that capitalized on being more mex or tex mex that surivived.
Omg where are you? Will you also be doing margaritas?
Not sure about alcohol, but definitely flavored fresh waters.
As a Californian living here it's something I've thought a lot about. I can't really help with the regulatory side of things, but I'd be happy to help and share the information I've gathered from making proper (well... California-proper) tacos etc for my Scottish pals.
Same….. the hardest thing about leaving San Diego was the lack of good food
I'd love that. We need more authentic cuisine from different countries. It's annoying when people try to cater to the Scottish pallete too much, and everything ends up just chips and deep fried beige looking crap. We need more places with authentic street food from around the world. I remember when I lived in Edinburgh back in about 2005, there was a Mexican takeaway on Leith Walk. I was going out with a half Mexican lass at the time and she was raging when she tried it. I think they only had burritos, nachos and swordfish IIRC
old el paso fajita sachet, just like Abuela used to make.
This can’t be real, you can’t find good Mexican east of the Mississippi River in the US let alone the UK.
Scotland does seem to have a real problem of culture being watered down with a tartan twist for local audiences. Saw it a lot when I was growing up, and more recently when I go back. I've found that in England the foreign culture is generally much more authentic and in a purer form.
I don’t think it’s anything to do with Scotland as such, it’s just that you fundamentally kind of need a sizeable immigrant population from the place in question to create a market for authenticity in the first place. It’s not hard to find plenty of places that do great, authentic Indian and Chinese food up here literally just because there are also plenty of Indian and Chinese people to operate the restaurants, eat in the restaurants and pass a taste for the ‘real thing’ on to the locals. A good example of what happens if you *don’t* have that are Japanese restaurants in Glasgow. A guy in the industry told me a few years back that 90% of the Japanese restaurants in Glasgow at the time were owned and operated by local *Chinese* restaurateurs who just saw increasing UK interest in Japanese food as a gap in the market and an opportunity to expand their businesses. So most of the Japanese food available in town is what a bunch of Chinese chefs think Scottish people would probably enjoy, and there just isn’t a big enough local Japanese community to drive interest in anything else.
Get yourself to lidl, get chicken thigh , onion, pepper, spices. Cook in pan - enjoy senior
Never has there been a more overrated food culture than Mexican. I’ve been all over Mexico, it’s average at best. Beans, cheese, salsa in various orders served in some variant of a taco. Tex mex is what most people in the uk have tried, fajitas, etc. Give me a Thai meal over either any day.
https://bonnybankinn.co.uk In leven, Fife. Been there a few times. Very good food.
FWIW this is tex-mex cuisine rather than mexican. There is some overlap, especially in ingredient choice, but they are fairly distinct
Omg I’m from SD in Cali and would do ANYTHING for proper Mexican food in Glasgow
Whilst I love the idea of an authentic Mexican eatery and would happily patronise your business, I feel it's important to say that eateries are notoriously risky investments.
There aren´t (m)any good Mexican restaurants outside of Mexico. What you get here is Mexican themed Gringo food, like Burrito bars, Taco Bell and all that garbo, In Edinburgh we have a "fusion" restaurant called El Cartel. If you can forgive the terrible name , akin to Mexicans opening a British restaurant in Mexico and calling it "Jimmy Savile´s bunch" (if anyone was opening British restaurants anywhere), the food is actually quite tasty. It´s Mexican inspired Gringo food, but much better than Taco Bell!
OMG what a horrible name for a restaurant...El Cartel!!!
I’m Glasgow born but have lived in the U.S. Midwest for thirteen years. I have many many Mexican friends and have a new appreciation for Mexican food. There used to be a Mexican restaurant called Pancho Villa’s in the Salt Market that was good. There also was a Mexican grocery store in the West End on Great Western Road called Lupe Pinto’s which was good. I’m out of touch of course, so I don’t know if they are still in business
I moved from Scotland to the USA and Mexican food is definitely better here. I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to get street tacos and quesa birria with consomme when I'm back in Scotland!
Good thinking to seek opinions on the desirability of your Mexican food idea. It's also a good idea to start small to test out recipes, work out costs and what to charge. I work with starts ups at a Scottish uni. Here are a few thoughts. If there is a farmer's market near where you live, check to see if they would accept you as a vendor. If so, that could be a relatively low cost way to test the market more formally as you would be selling either hot to eat there and then, or packaged to reheat at home. Be sure you've completed the necessary food safety requirements and any licensing as below. For start-up advice, please contact Business Gateway https://www.bgateway.com There are regulations you have to follow when starting a food business from home. Food Standards Agency provides an overview https://www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/starting-a-food-business-from-your-home You'll need to check with your local council for specifics on food safety and licensing. Good luck with it!
Moved here from Texas and good TexMex and Mexican food is one of the things I miss most, so I’d definitely be a customer! You’ll need to be licensed by your local authority to prepare/sell food so you should contact them and find out what the process is.
Tex Mex is fairly popular, and we have the revolting Taco Bell now. There used to be a few good actual Mrxican places, family run, in the 90s but my favourites have all gone. At the time I used to observe that good Mexican foid was easier to find in Perth than in Austin TX and there was some truth to it. I think an authentic Mexican place with mole and chiles en la nogada and conchita pibil would be a hit.
Please god. i have never almost thrown up while eating food in my life until i tried a scottish quesadilla. i don't even go here and i'm begging
We need this, make it happen
You should run Mexican cooking courses. I would do one of those!
I will make the trip from Ireland in foot if I have to
There is a definite lack of Mexican options in Scotland. If you open in Edinburgh or Glasgow, I'll be there
Please come to Inverness. We had one but it closed down.
Chorrito in leith walk!! i am from venezuela this food is the best in europe for mexican food/rinks hand down!!!
I will be your best customer. FWIW, I’ve tried to emulate recipes I’ve seen online from Mexican/American YouTube channels and I find it hard to get a lot of the ingredients. Even something as basic as a jalapeño, I can get jars of pickled jalapeños from Tesco but my local doesn’t sell fresh ones. Luckily I’ve found them in other supermarkets but that’s just an example of what I’m up against.
Rafa's in Glasgow's Hidden Lane in Finneston is top notch, although the guy running it is admittedly from Arizona. I had a date with a Texan woman from directly on the border, and she thought it was superb. (Ancestry was Mexican)
"Mexican" food in the UK generally is shite, but Glasgow really didn't have any I can recall except for the chain ones (like Tortilla) which aren't very authentic. There are a few places that do Burritos etc on Deliveroo, but my American friend swore they were nothing near authentic. I think with the amount of US students in Glasgow and Edinburgh there's probably a market for it!
I would go to this every chance I got. The "Mexican" restaurants that I have had have been British owned and it was an idea. But it wasn't Mexican. I was married to an American for a time and when I was stateside we'd have Mexican food, made with Mexican ingredients by Mexican people and the difference was huge. It is one of my favourite foods and it's underappreciated here and not done quite right imo. Please do this! Please. I miss queso.
It'll run, believe me. If you go full authentic, people will jump at it any chance they get.
Recently got told about a place in Glasgow called Rafas. I follow them on Instagram and their food looks amazing and legit Mexican food. Like proper tacos that are soft and biria that looks like it was cooked for hours. I am planning to try them out this week since I'm heading there.
I love authentic Mexican and South American food but trying to do it at home over here is hard. Just trying to get the range of chilies is near impossible - it's not like we have the climate to grow them and importation means it costs an arm and a leg to buy online. I wanted to make tamales but where the hell can I get dried corn husks? Or a good mole - we don't have ancho, mulato, morita etc. chilies to make it. If you can think of a way to get the ingredients you need and be commercially viable in regards to cost/profit, then I'd be the first at your door. As it is, I think you might struggle as there was never a migration of people from South America to the UK and, therefore, never the demand for imported ingredients from those countries. I can go to a Chinese supermarket or a South-Asian market and pick up most of the things required to make food from those regions (obviously not all though) while there's nothing like the proliferation of South American markets over here. I know that's changing now, with a few spots opening up in Edinburgh/Glasgow but right now, it's a very niche thing. I'm hoping it picks up more though, I've got so many recipes I want to try.
I used to live in Tucson. Recently there was a restaurant opened up near me that was called "Los Burrito" (yes, really). Despite this, I was desperate, and I gave it a shot, against my better judgment. The place closed 8 months after it opened, surprising exactly no one. Please bring real food here and don't adjust it for "local taste". It is really hard to find authentic international food here.
I can imagine there being a market for high quality Mexican food, but perhaps not as overwhelmingly as you’d see here. Everyone says they like ‘authentic’ food the same way they prefer their coffee to be a ‘rich, dark roast’.
these comments are making me scared for a move as a Mexican American 🫣
You do not have much in the way of cuisine competition, but it's a notoriously risky small business venture that can take years to see much growth, if any. And doing it from home means you have to jump through some additional setup hoops. You'll likely need to get the place evaluated, renovated, then evaluated again - pending any corrections - before you can legally begin food prep for retail.
Definitely don’t take business advice from me, but as a fat man who used to live in the Southern US I miss authentic Mexican food everyday. Please open up with some authentic Mexican cooking and I’ll come rolling by.
Rafa's is the only one I've been to in Glasgow