Best NYC Mexican Food

Being a native West Coaster with a Mexican mother, Mexican food = comfort for me. For some, mashed potatoes or macaroni and cheese makes them feel at home. For me, it is burritos, tacos, salsa, and cilantro. It is like cuddling up with a cashmere blanket in front of a fire. Unfortunately, New York has NO GOOD REASONABLY PRICED MEXICAN FOOD. I am against going to a Mexican restaurant and paying more than 10 dollars for beans and tortillas. I mean, really, how do the high end Mexican restaurants survive????

(I realize many of you may be reading to find out about today’s giveaway… coming at the end of the post!)

So, I was totally and utterly excited when I tumbled across this article that mentioned Tortilleria Nixtamal as one of the BEST restaurants in NYC. Not the best hole in the wall, not one of the cheapest eats, but one of the best restaurants in general. SOLD.

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Nixatamal serves affordable and good quality food. It is the type of Mexican food I love; dirty and cheap, without being dirty. The ingredients that they use are also fresh and high quality. Burrito Boy doesn’t even do that! The produce comes directly from Mexico via a locally owned distributor, the meat comes from the local butcher, the fish comes from Astoria Seafood, the cheese from a local producer of Mexican cheeses, and the salsa is made in house.

The menu itself is phenomenal.

Nixtamal has two locations — one in Queens and a stand in lower Manhattan. To find out the hours of operations, go here.

locations

locations

This past Saturday night, we decided to venture to Queens to check it out. And Eater was right… this place was GOOD! Like finger licking delicious! Here are some pics:

restaurant

Even the outside of the restaurant is super charming and cute. It is far -- especially in traffic (like we experienced) but worth it. Festive, fun, sweet atmosphere.

Galen and Carl

My sister, Galen, and her main squeeze, Carl, who is an incredibly talented comic book artist. And a nice quality guy.

AYN/KCN

The Josie Girl and her main squeeze, aka Better Half, The Josie Guy.

tamarind

Tamarind Margarita. But not really a margarita.

avocado salad

Avocado salad: Mixed greens with avocado, tomatoes, queso fresco, and tortilla strips. PERFECTION.

chips

Chips and Guacamole.

Enchilladas

Verde pork enchilladas with rice and beans.

tacos

Three tacos: shrimp, al pastor, chicken. Could eat 300 more of these.

Quesadilla

Quesadilla with bean and cheese. For something so simple, it was oh-so-good.

tres leche

And to finish off an incredibly filling and satisfying meal, tres leche cake. Oh yummers.

So there you have it, high quality Mexican food in New York City. I highly recommend going on an adventure to Queens (or lower Manhattan) and treating yourself to some good ‘ol Mexican comfort food. You will not regret it.

And now, the giveaway. As we are celebrating the first anniversary of the blog this week, we are offering another giveaway today (and there will be two more next week!) Monday, it was Levain Cookies. Wednesday, Natori beach towels. Today… a $100 gift certificate to Flywheel, my favorite place to workout. Official rules are here, but in short, to enter, sign up for our mailing list by entering your email address and hitting “subscribe” in the red box on the top of our right nav. Winners and more prizes to be announced next week.

Have a great weekend!

Anika Yael Natori, aka, The Josie Girl

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5 Comments

  1. This looks great. Manhattan has every food in the world except good Mexican. So weird!

  2. Yummyyy!! Defo checking the queens location out! The avocado salad looks amazing! Love Mexican food 🙂

  3. will def. try…queens location soon…everything looks great!
    must admit tamarind margarita is calling my attention…love that tartness
    westchester, ny- has some pretty good mexican food, too—lived on west coast during high school…
    and while puertorican, not many of us in hollywood/bev hills and coming from a raised on chinese food diet on the east coast…fell in love w/ mexican food …the two cuisines are a reverent comfort food love!

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