How To Spot A Traditional Mexican Restaurant

The Mexican food industry is rapidly growing in the United States. According to data from Pew Research Center, about one in 10 restaurants in the U.S. serves Mexican food, with 85% of U.S. counties having at least one Mexican restaurant. But with so many spots to choose from, it can get hard to tell which places serve traditional Mexican food, and which ones lack that traditional credibility (no offense, Taco Bell).

Rick Bayless, owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco, and Bar Sótano, told Chowhound that there are a few easy ways to spot a restaurant serving up authentic fare. "Traditional restaurants will usually offer the classic sides — frijoles de la olla or frijoles refritos, rice (tomato red or garlicky white) — plus a number of the long-simmered sauces like mole and pipian," Bayless says. He adds that he often looks for "moles and pipianes" on the menu, as well as "slow-cooked dishes like birria or barbacoa" to determine a restaurant's authenticity.

While scoping out your local Mexican restaurant, consider that cuisines vary throughout the country, so there could be slightly different menu options at certain restaurants, yet they could all be traditional variations of the cuisine. There are even plenty of different taco styles throughout Mexico. "There are a different set of dishes for the Yucatan and some of the coastal towns," Rick Bayless says.

Yucatan cuisine, for example, highlights smoky flavors, along with citrus and anchiote; many dishes also include habanero peppers. The region is most-known for pibil, a general term for foods roasted in a pib and infused with smoke and spices. If you're dining at a Yucatan-style Mexican restaurant, check for whether the dishes are cooked in a pib or not; that will help gauge how traditional the menu is. While any restaurant can serve Mexican food, there are other baseline ways to tell traditional versus nontraditional. Take a look at the tacos, for example. Tacos made with corn tortillas and topped with ingredients like onions and cilantro are often an indication of traditional Mexican cuisine — as opposed to flour tortillas topped with lettuce and shredded cheese.