How is the Mexican food in your area?

[kevinb1994]

For me, I'd now avoid the St. Johns Town Center Moe's Southwest Grill location as that one has gone downhill in quality control. I'd also avoid (well, somewhat) TacoLu on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville Beach for the same reason(s), in addition to noise and overcrowding. Also, I'd avoid the newly-opened Burrito Gallery location that's also at the St. John's Town Center for similar reasons. On the other hand, I'd recommend the older Burrito Gallery location at Jacksonville Beach. We should be able to try out another locality, Cantina Louie, as soon as possible (they have a location nearby at the Deer Lake/Tinseltown area where the movie theater is, aka the Cinemark Tinseltown with XD, which is adding some more storefronts and restaurants, including an already-unnecessary Pizza Hut, an Insomnia Cookies, a Soupa Saiyan, and a Kazu Sushi Burrito to compliment existing storefronts and restaurants such as a Jersey Mike's, a Mellow Mushroom, and a Bento Asian Kitchen and Sushi).

[Flint1979]

We have quite a few mom and pop type Mexican restaurants here.  T&T Concessions is one of the best, El Rancho Grande, Los Cuetro Amigos,  Tino's, Vintage Pointe, Maria's, Coco Loco and some others.

[nexus73]

Plenty of places in Coos Bay-North Bend are around.  The ones that have an offputting taste from the lard/grease have been found and are now avoided, leaving one definite recommend, that being Margarita's.  You can get a nice lunch special for $6.95 served with chips, salsa and a spicy garnish on the side.  Spicewise, they are extremely flavorful. 

Rick

[Max Rockatansky]

Fantastic, my wife makes great Mexican Food and I have a top notch assortment of Taco Trucks within a ten mile radius.   Really you don't go for chains for good Mexican Food in Fresno, you either find a good truck or go to someone's house.  We even hired a taco truck from an scrap yard off of Golden State Boulevard to cater our wedding, really top notch stuff. 

Also, Mexicolas (the real Mexican brands and sugar cane sodas) are all over the place here rather than being a speciality.   Fresno has a ton of taco festivals, way more than any other city I've lived in too.  Another good place to get authentic Mexican Food is at one of the remates.  I prefer the one up at the Madera County Fairgrounds which is every weekend. 

[MNHighwayMan]

It sucks.

Also, despite what locals might say, Tasty Tacos is garbage.

[Rothman]

Here in upstate NY, it's surprisingly average.  Surprisingly because you'd think it'd be worse.  There are some dressed up Old El Paso wannabe places, of course, but a few authentic restaurants if you know where to look.

[KeithE4Phx]

I live in Arizona.  Mexican food places don't survive if they're not authentic (with one noted exception).  Even chains like Filiberto's are very good. 

OK, there's the one noted exception called Taco Bell, but that's not real Mexican food anyway. 

[J N Winkler]

Wichita has good Mexican and a discriminating customer base.  Unfortunately, there is a fair amount of restaurant turnover.  My gold standard for a number of years was tacos al pastor from Taqueria El Paísa (near 21st and Arkansas); it was family-owned and closed because the proprietor wished to retire and could not find takers even with the recipes included in the deal.  Taqueria El Fogón (at the original location near St. Joseph Hospital) has the tacos al pastor that come closest to El Paísa's.  Molinos (near Murdock and Waco) does very good taco salads and albondigas soup.

[english si]

Pretty much non-existent. There used to be a chain mexican restaurant in my town, but the parent company's experiment with having it there wasn't the success they wanted, so they swapped it (again - before it was Italian that was struggling as there were at least 2 other Italians within a small area) for a French bistro chain they owned. It wasn't great, but it was alright.

The nearby motorway services have a Mexican thing - very basic: they build you a taco, burrito, nachos, 'sombrero basket' (tortilla bowl), salad box or quesadilla by scooping items in out of buckets on the counter - a meat choice (or veg equivalent*), some bulk (beans, rice, veg, cheese), a salsa. It's pretty good for what it is, but the bar is set rather low.

There's a few Mexican places in the big towns. They aren't bad, but they aren't that good. We don't have that many Mexican immigrants in the UK to raise the level, or get us on proper Mexican food rather than Americanised versions adapted for English tastes (which tends to mean higher quality than the fast-food 'Mexican' chains in the US with a corresponding big price increase and smaller portions as they give you a higher proportion of the good stuff and less of the cheap filler, more attempt at authenticity).

*veg chilli, or paneer - which is Indian - and so both the Mexican place and the Indian place in the services sell the strange hybrid paneer in a tortilla. The Indian place serves the currys in tortillas as burritos and quesadillas (and uses the word 'Mexican').

[Max Rockatansky]

I live in Arizona.  Mexican food places don't survive if they're not authentic (with one noted exception).  Even chains like Filiberto's are very good. 

OK, there's the one noted exception called Taco Bell, but that's not real Mexican food anyway. 

Filiberto's was my go to place when I lived in Tempe.  Blue Burrito in Scottsdale was a place a used to frequent in Scottsdale since it was next door to my gym.  Guadalupe had some excellent markets on weekends back when I lived in the area.  Like you said the really good chains had authentic Mexican Food but I don't recall getting much of the Taco Truck/Stand variety until you got to Pima County or Yuma County.  I used to buy boxes or the Mexicolas every time I visited Tucson, Yuma or Nogales for work.   

[US71]

Mexican food makes me ill, though we have numerous places. Thai fried rice is almost as common around here.

[inkyatari]

In mytown we have Toby's, La Mex,and Paisanos (I thought it was an Italian place when it was being built.  Nope!)

All three are excellent.  La Mex is more upscale, Toby's has a diner feel, and Paisano's has a cafeteria feel.

[kphoger]

Wichita has good Mexican

My experience has been that most Mexican restaurants in Wichita have either (a) good, authentic flavor or (b) good-quality ingredients, but it's much harder to find a restaurant that has both.  And a lot of them have some obsession with covering everything in cheese sauce.  That's not Mexican.

[sparker]

San Jose, of course, has plenty of good Mexican restaurants.  My two favorites are Mexico Lindo, which has two outlets, one downtown (corner of Alameda and Race) and the other in south Willow Glen on Foxworthy.  Good food, nice atmosphere.  Less formal dining but equally fine as far as cuisine is a 3-outlet chain Tacos Al Pastor.  I usually frequent the one in Willow Glen on Meridian; there's another on Bascom near San Carlos and a third up in Berryessa on the east side.  They'll make you a burrito with a chili relleno in it!  IMO, can't get much better than that (their salsas, both red & green, are outstanding as well!). 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

It's Minneapolis. Spend your money on something better.

The first time I had Mexican in a place where crap won't cut it was San Antonio, and it was beyond better than anything I'd ever had here.

[Max Rockatansky]

In the Florida Keys I knew several people who made the 40 plus drive from Key West to Marathon to get what they considered to be Mexican Food.  I found that really the whole perception on what was Mexican food in Florida was all screwed up state wide and I never really found a place I actually liked.  Granted I was coming off places like Arizona, New Mexico and California at the time so nothing was going to stack up.  Cuban food, fried chicken and sea food on the other hand couple be found in some top notch places.   Likewise nobody out west really cooks a good bird and or knows how to serve fish aside from some coastal cities. 

[allniter89]

Taco Bell 'nuff said .

[US71]

Taco Bell 'nuff said .

Did someone say Taco Hell? 

[Max Rockatansky]

Taco Bell 'nuff said .

Did someone say Taco Hell? 

Well, they did win the Franchise Wars. 

[DTComposer]

San Jose, of course, has plenty of good Mexican restaurants.  My two favorites are Mexico Lindo, which has two outlets, one downtown (corner of Alameda and Race) and the other in south Willow Glen on Foxworthy.  Good food, nice atmosphere.  Less formal dining but equally fine as far as cuisine is a 3-outlet chain Tacos Al Pastor.  I usually frequent the one in Willow Glen on Meridian; there's another on Bascom near San Carlos and a third up in Berryessa on the east side.  They'll make you a burrito with a chili relleno in it!  IMO, can't get much better than that (their salsas, both red & green, are outstanding as well!). 

I've enjoyed both of those. A great neighborhood restaurant we found is Adelita's on Curtner near Leigh. More trendy/upscale but still tasty is Luna on the Alameda.

[Brandon]

In mytown we have Toby's, La Mex,and Paisanos (I thought it was an Italian place when it was being built.  Nope!)

All three are excellent.  La Mex is more upscale, Toby's has a diner feel, and Paisano's has a cafeteria feel.

I think La Mex is a small chain.  We have them over in J-town, and they're not bad, but I can find better.  Having a large Mexican immigrant community, we have quite a few choices over in Joliet, ranging from Friaco's to La Mex, to my favorite, Habenero over on Essington.  I've never had a bad dish there, and they have some rather spicy and flavorful ones.

[inkyatari]

In mytown we have Toby's, La Mex,and Paisanos (I thought it was an Italian place when it was being built.  Nope!)

All three are excellent.  La Mex is more upscale, Toby's has a diner feel, and Paisano's has a cafeteria feel.

I think La Mex is a small chain.  We have them over in J-town, and they're not bad, but I can find better.  Having a large Mexican immigrant community, we have quite a few choices over in Joliet, ranging from Friaco's to La Mex, to my favorite, Habenero over on Essington.  I've never had a bad dish there, and they have some rather spicy and flavorful ones.

I totally forgot, we have a Habanero Grill over here in Morris too.

[ce929wax]

We have Mi Pueblo here in Kzoo, which is pretty decent.  We have a new place called Los Amigas, but I haven't tried it because the reviews I have heard on the place aren't good.

The best Mexican food I had was a hole in the wall place in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  I can't remember the name of it.

[inkyatari]

The best Mexican food I had was a hole in the wall place in Carlsbad, New Mexico.  I can't remember the name of it.

I went to a real good one back in '96, in Artesia New Mexico called La fonda.

Best Mexican restaurant I've ever been to is Mi Nidito in Tuscon.