Mexican Food and Cooking

Destination: Mission

Sanctuary for Salvadoran Food

Give me your tired, your poor, but most definitely your pupusas.

San Francisco Street Food Top Ten

Give me your tired, your poor, but most definitely your pupusas.

Comcast ads anger taqueria owners

Give me your tired, your poor, but most definitely your pupusas.

Tamales Bay

Give me your tired, your poor, but most definitely your pupusas.

Girls Gone Mild

Coastal Mexican cuisine, plus 15 — count 'em, 15 — different margaritas

Big Shot

Tasty Mexican specialties and serious margaritas in an impressive SOMA warehouse

Mexican Smackdown

Wrestling with the good, the bad, and the trendy

Din With Dinner

Visiting the same place two nights in a row finds two different restaurants: one deserted and calm, the other crowded and riotous

Brilliant Bites

Tacos by the sea and bocadillos downtown -- the new toys of upscale restaurateurs

Best Really Cheap Taco

El Metate

The Baja Way

Nick's crispy fish tacos are so irresistible we had to eat them in our car

Best Mexican

Oakland's divine Doña Tomás opens a nifty taqueria in Berkeley

Best Quesadilla

El Metate

Antojitos Antics

Calvin Trillin and assorted other out-of-town tipsters inspire a round of tacos

Best Taqueria

Pancho Villa

Weighty Matter

La Santaneca

Best Tamales

Barrasa Market

Building a Better Burrito

Tlaloc

Some Hot Tamales

Barrasa Market; La Limeñita; La Palma Mexicatessen; Panchita's; Roosevelt Tamale Parlor

Low-Key Fresh Mex

Papalote Mexican Grill

South of the (Mexican) Border

Papalote Mexican Grill

The Real "Fresh Mex"

Papalote Mexican Grill

Caddy Shack

Papalote Mexican Grill

Dish

Papalote Mexican Grill

In a Sweat for Green Chile

While Leticia's pulls in a margarita-swigging crowd, it's Pozole that fills the bill for regional Mexican specialties

Nopa offshoot Nopalito offers rustic Mexican fare

While Leticia's pulls in a margarita-swigging crowd, it's Pozole that fills the bill for regional Mexican specialties

Pop Review: A Taste of Oaxaca on Mission

Janine Kahn Tucked among the Mission's rampant taquerias, it's possible to find authentic regional Mexican food. An appealing new spot advertises its roots in its name: La Oaxaquena. Its tidy storefront, with tiny blue formica-topped tables and wooden chairs -- there are a few more seats perc ... More >>

Ocean Taqueria: Customizable Goodness as Big as a Human Limb

hypermodern/Flickr And you thought we were exaggerating.Choosing Mexican food usually means heading to the Mission, where the choices are plenty and the competition is stiff. For residents in Ingleside and the Sunset, the choices aren't as many, but there are a few taqueria standouts. One of ... More >>

Flavor over flash: Chilango breaks for authenticity

hypermodern/Flickr And you thought we were exaggerating.Choosing Mexican food usually means heading to the Mission, where the choices are plenty and the competition is stiff. For residents in Ingleside and the Sunset, the choices aren't as many, but there are a few taqueria standouts. One of ... More >>

Nine Restaurants to Vie for Top Honors at 'Fiesta Del Tamal'

marieclaire.com​CAMINOS-Pathways Learning Center, which offers computer literacy and workforce development programs to promote digital inclusion for Latina women, will host a daylong ode to tamales with Fiesta del Tamal. Attendees will get to sample varying regional styles of tamale from nine diff ... More >>

Cashew Cheese Isn't the Only Thing That Sets Gracias Madre Apart from Neighboring Taquerias

M. LaddSeriously nutty: Queso fundido of cashew cheese and Brussels sprouts.​Maybe the most surprising thing about Café Gratitude spinoff Gracias Madre? The week-old spot is decidedly nicer than other taquerias, without seeming fussy. The menu is 100 percent organic and vegan, with a few raw ... More >>

If You Thought a Carnitas Burrito Was Filling, Wait'll You Taste the Kalua Pork Version

The Hawaiian burrito: Just as lumpy-looking as the original.​There's a special place in the firmament for restaurants that do side-by-side cuisine: Not Chinese doughnuts, say, but Chinese Food and Donuts; not Burmese curry turkey sandwiches, but Burmese Kitchen and Larkin Deli. In the early part o ... More >>

Carnitas Burrito from La Taqueria

J. BirdsallAvocado is essential.​As a daily windup to the Weekly's Best of S.F. 2010 on May 19, we've teased out 92 of our favorite local dishes that taste like here. All the tasty details after the jump.

Gracias Madre has all of the vegetables and none of the cant of its parent

J. BirdsallAvocado is essential.​As a daily windup to the Weekly's Best of S.F. 2010 on May 19, we've teased out 92 of our favorite local dishes that taste like here. All the tasty details after the jump.

'Where Can I Get Tex-Mex Food?'

Houston PressBeef Enchiladas From Larry's (in Houston): Real Tex-Mex​This week's reader question comes from E.T., who moved to the Bay Area from Houston a few years ago:I totally have a question, but after three and a half years of asking it, I'm beginning to suspect that the answer is "no." Is th ... More >>

Sunset's Best Burritos Guide Disses S.F.'s Finest

John BirdsallPure Gold?: Regular carnitas burrito (with guac) from La Taqueria.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. The burrito wars come home: At Sunset.com, Jan Newberry peels back the foil on what she reckons to be the West's best burritos. Like a plastic fork probing a Papalote Triple Thr ... More >>

Ask the Critic: Where Should I Lunch After a Trip to OAK?

gwen/FlickrOctopus tostada from Mariscos La Costa, just a few miles north of OAK.​Today, @aynsavoy Tweeted me to ask: Picking up my mother at OAK around noon; where should we go for lunch?The 140-character answer: El Huarache Azteca (3842 International Blvd., at 39th ... More >>

Don't Ask Michael Bauer Where to Eat Mexican. Ask Us

John BirdsallAntojito sampler at Haltun in the Mission.​On his blog this morning at Inside Scoop, Chronicle critic Michael Bauer misses the Tex-Mex combination plates he devoured in his Dallas days ― and bemoans the fact he can't find a good Mexican place in the Bay Area ― which seems tant ... More >>

Taqueria San Francisco's Al Pastor Burrito

Kevin Y./YelpTaqueria San Francisco, the quintessential San Francisco taqueria.​Tuesday, August 10, 2010There was a period ― basically, the '00s ― when I wrote off the burrito as gringo food, snubbing Mission taquerias in favor of Yucatecan restaurants, torta shops, and Oakland's taco truck ro ... More >>

La Torta Gorda: See what the fuss about Puebla cuisine is about

Kevin Y./YelpTaqueria San Francisco, the quintessential San Francisco taqueria.​Tuesday, August 10, 2010There was a period ― basically, the '00s ― when I wrote off the burrito as gringo food, snubbing Mission taquerias in favor of Yucatecan restaurants, torta shops, and Oakland's taco truck ro ... More >>

Antojitos Smothered in Toppings at Los Yaquis

Jonathan KauffmanQuesadillas with ham and cheese (and pork and avocado and...), $7.​ The Aguirre family, who run the colorful, congenial Los Yaquis on S. Van Ness and 15th St., are doing something no other San Francisco restaurant is: serving Jalisco-style botanas (snacks) and smothered antojitos ... More >>

Taco Libre: Nombe Chef Vincent Schofield Opens a Taqueria

Luis ChongThe mango salsa an Taco Libre's fish taco (lower left) is delicious.​Vincent Schofield has to be the busiest chef in San Francisco. He's executive chef at Nombe, still keeps an eye on the food at Darwin, and last Friday, Schofield and his partners opened Taco Libre, a casual, brightl ... More >>

Sunday: Tequila and Tamales, More or Less by the Bay

Tamales by the Bay​A Taste of Tamales by the Bay Where: San Francisco Design Center, 101 Henry Adams (at Alameda) When: Sat., April 17, noon-4:30 p.m. Cost: $45 ($50 after today) The rundown: This Sunday is a big day for single-food celebrations, as the Chocolate Salon and A Taste of Tama ... More >>

Tequila and Tamales by the Bay: Too Good to Pound

Maria Antonieta SolorzanoThe Whole Tortilla picked up the People's Choice Award.​Around 300 people breezed about the sunny atrium at San Francisco Design Center Sunday, munching tamales and sipping from baby shot glasses of tequila. It was the fifth year of Benchmark Institute's fundraiser Tequila ... More >>

What Taqueria Is Tasty Enough for an MS-13 Member to Risk Getting Shot?

View Tacos on 24th Street in Norteño Territory in a larger mapSF Weekly reporter Lauren Smiley followed up on her (stunning) cover story, "A Rat's Life," with a blog post yesterday, "The Insider's Guide to the MS-13 Gang." In between tidbits like not using gang funds to buy broken-down Impalas and ... More >>

Q&A With Nopalito's Gonzalo Guzman and Jose Ramos, Part 1: Everything From Scratch

Alanna HaleNopalito's co-chefs, Jose Ramos (left) and Gonzalo Guzman​Gonzalo Guzman and Jose Ramos, co-chefs of Nopalito, both grew up in Mexico -- in Veracruz and Guanajuato, respectively -- but ended up as cooks in San Francisco through very different paths. Before working together at Nopa, ... More >>

Q&A With Nopalito's Gonzalo Guzman and Jose Ramos, Part 2: 'We're Not Trying to Change the Authenticity of a Dish'

Alanna HaleNopalito's co-chefs, Jose Ramos (left) and Gonzalo Guzman.​Nopalito's co-chefs, Gonzalo Guzman and Jose Ramos, famously started off as cooks at Nopa whose food was so good owner Laurence Jossel built a restaurant around them. In part one of SFoodie's Q&A with the two chefs, Guzman a ... More >>

San Francisco's Top 10 Burritos

Alanna HaleNopalito's co-chefs, Jose Ramos (left) and Gonzalo Guzman.​Nopalito's co-chefs, Gonzalo Guzman and Jose Ramos, famously started off as cooks at Nopa whose food was so good owner Laurence Jossel built a restaurant around them. In part one of SFoodie's Q&A with the two chefs, Guzman a ... More >>

Nopalito Brunch Recycles Dinner Favorites

​Nopalito's famous Carnitas -- pork braised in milk and beer with cinnamon -- put them on the SF dining map, and those pleasantly tart, bright margaritas keep us coming back. On that note, there's good news and bad news for brunch-goers at the sustainable Mexican kitchen. The good: You can still e ... More >>