11 Red Flags At A Mexican Restaurant, According To Experts

There are some incredible Mexican restaurants out there, in everything from hole-in-the-wall joints to fine dining establishments, but there's also some real duds. If you've never eaten at a place before, it can be hard to tell the difference. That's why it's important to know some Mexican restaurant red flags to help you avoid subpar spots, saving your wallet and your palate.

I spoke with three experts to find out what to avoid when scoping out a new place to eat. Chef Marisol Lopez of Tamaleria La Madrina in Brooklyn, New York; Brittney Anda, Director of Operations at Michelin-starred restaurant Expendio de Maíz in Mexico City; and Chef Franscisco Lopez of Alma BK in Brooklyn, New York all gave their opinions on some of the warning signs a Mexican restaurant might not be up to snuff.

Some of these you can tell simply by glancing at the menu or the decor, so they could prevent you from making the mistake of eating at a place that isn't worth it. Others might take a little more time to root out, but it might prevent you from giving somewhere a second chance if you assumed they might have just had an off night. Armed with these 11 red flags to look out for at a Mexican restaurant, according to experts, you need never again have a disappointing dinner.

Sure, there's a place for Tex-Mex restaurants. Sometimes you just want a sizzling plate of fajitas or a greasy chimichanga. But, when you're looking for a good Mexican restaurant, these can be a red flag. If you see a lot of generic Tex-Mex dishes on a menu, it's probably not a spot where you're going to get authentic, carefully prepared Mexican food.

"When I see a menu that treats Mexican food like fast food," says Chef Marisol Lopez of Tamaleria La Madrina, "I immediately question authenticity." She remarks that "overly Americanized dishes, generic Tex-Mex combinations, or tamales that clearly come from a factory" are all warning signs of this.

The truth about Tex-Mex food is that it is inspired by Mexican cuisine, but is Americanized, through years of being adapted over the border in Texas, and eventually beyond. For instance, burritos originate in Northern Mexico, but are generally eaten with minimal fillings. The huge, stuffed burrito that most of us know and love is an Americanized version. Likewise, chili comes from Mexican roots but was adapted into a Tex-Mex dish.

Other Tex-Mex and Americanized dishes include hard shell tacos, taco salad, and combo platters. "Serving beans, rice, meat, and tortillas all on one plate isn't really how we eat in Mexico," explains Brittney Anda of Expendio de Maíz. "We eat much more with our hands, and those components appear differently depending on the dish; they aren't all automatically served together."

If you find yourself scrolling through page after page when you go online to look at the menu of a Mexican restaurant, that's often a red flag. While you can stumble across great places to eat with big menus, it's normally a bad sign because it likely means the restaurant is trying to do too much, rather than focusing on doing a few things well.

"Mexican cuisine is huge, but a restaurant menu shouldn't try to cover the entire country," says Alma BK's Franscisco Lopez. He notes that an extremely large menu can be a sign that a kitchen is relying on pre-made components, because crafting everything from scratch wouldn't be feasible. "Even with three floors here at Alma, I've made sure each level has its own focus," he says. It offers "tapas and drinks in the Cantina, full entrees in the dining room, cocktails and late-night bites on the rooftop, rather than one long menu trying to do everything at once," he tells us.

"I think it's better to have ten dishes or fewer and focus on making those really well," says Brittney Anda. A larger menu becomes overwhelming, for the customer and the kitchen making it more difficult to maintain high standards. She remarks that restaurants with smaller menus are able to pay closer attention to quality and sourcing, where bigger menus make that harder to achieve.

All our experts agree that Mexican restaurants should be using fresh masa to craft tortillas in the kitchen. Making your tortillas at home is one of the ways to seriously upgrade your tacos, and the same goes for restaurants. If a Mexican restaurant doesn't make its tortillas in-house, this is a sign that it lacks care and attention to detail.

"The tortilla is the most important part of Mexican cooking," says Brittney Anda. "Even if it's just served on the side, it plays such a central role in how we cook and eat." This is why it's so crucial that they're made from scratch. "Tortillas that clearly came from a plastic bag" are one of Chef Franscisco Lopez's red flags — and we can totally get behind that.

Anda goes one step further and believes that great Mexican restaurants should be nixtamalizing their own corn. This is the process of soaking and cooking corn in an alkaline solution before grinding it to make masa. "It's really important if they nixtamalize their own corn, or at least acknowledge where it comes from," she says. "Some restaurants will say which molino (grinder) they buy from, while others explain that they nixtamalize and grind the corn in-house." We wouldn't recommend avoiding restaurants that don't nixtamalize corn in-house, particularly in the U.S. where this is less common than it in Mexico, but it's a definite green flag that a restaurant cares.

Of all the mistakes you can make at a Mexican restaurant, one of the easiest to avoid is eating at one with gimmicky decor. The minute you walk through the door, you'll notice it as a clear red flag. This doesn't mean a good Mexican restaurant has to look polished. In fact, some of the best food out there comes from unassuming spots.

"If the decor feels like a caricature of Mexico, it usually means the food isn't the priority," says Chef Marisol Lopez. She notes that her restaurant is simple with a sense of warm hospitality. "We don't rely on exaggerated props; we let the food and hospitality speak for themselves," she adds.

Brittney Anda agrees. "Sometimes it's the neon lights or overly gimmicky decor that makes me stop and wonder who the restaurant is really for," Anda remarks. "Is it built for social media? Is it trying to attract people who care more about how the place looks than about the food?" She notes that it can be more of a feeling than one specific thing, but the look and atmosphere of a restaurant matters.

Francisco Lopez talks a little about how he approached decor at Alma BK. "I wanted our three floors to each have their own atmosphere: A lively taproom, a dining room with French windows, and a rooftop with skyline views, but none of it depends on clichés," he says. "I want it to feel like a real destination, not a costume."

You can tell a lot about a Mexican restaurant from its service. Sure, everyone is human and might have off days, but consistently forced or unfriendly service is a red flag. And, it might tell you more about the food than you'd imagine, because quality restaurants often perpetuate a good staff culture across the board.

"I think hospitality should feel warm and human," says Brittney Anda. "At our restaurant, we tell our staff not to be afraid of the guests. This is their house, and they should feel confident maintaining the energy they want the space to have." It might seem like the service shouldn't impact other parts of the restaurant, but it isn't always the case. "When service feels robotic or like people are afraid to interact with guests, that's usually a sign of a bigger issue," Anda notes.

We're not saying that you should walk straight out of the door if the staff at a restaurant don't greet you warmly. People can have bad days and sometimes amazing food can be brought to you by a surly waiter. It takes all sorts. However, if this is paired with other warning signs, you're probably not about to have an amazing meal.

The idea that the menu might look the same year-round is a myth about Mexican food that you can stop believing. In fact Mexican food is highly seasonal and changes with the produce that's available. So, if every time you head to a restaurant, whether summer or winter, the menu looks identical, it's a bad sign.

"In many Mexican households and among producers, cooking naturally follows what's in season," says Brittney Anda. "It's a healthier way to eat, but it's also about working with nature instead of against it." When chefs use seasonal produce, it usually tastes better and it's also an overall sign that they care about what they're making in the kitchen rather than trying to make things easier by keeping them the same.

"Seasonality is a big part of Mexican cooking," says Marisol Lopez. "Fresh corn, chiles, herbs, and produce change throughout the year, and the best dishes come from ingredients at their peak." She remarks that, at Tamaleria La Madrina, the tamale fillings are adjusted based on what's fresh and in season. They also serve seasonal drinks, champurrado and atoles in winter, and seasonal aguas frescas in summer. "Seasonality keeps the food honest and connected to tradition," she remarks.

"When I adjust the menu based on what's fresh and available, it's my way of respecting the cuisine," says Francisco Lopez of Alma BK. "Seasonal dishes let me show off creativity and tradition at the same time."

You might be able to get perfectly good Mexican food from a restaurant that sources everything from a standard catering supplier. However, if you want great food, a lack of acknowledgement of farmers or producers is a red flag. A truly passionate chef will think carefully about where they source ingredients, knowing that this can elevate a dish beyond something everyday.

Brittney Anda appreciates when restaurants acknowledge the producers they work with. "It's even better when you see produce arriving from individual farmers instead of everything coming off a truck," she says. "I understand that not every restaurant can shop at markets themselves because it's expensive and time-consuming, but if someone is overseeing quality control and knows where the ingredients come from, that makes a big difference."

It's an excellent sign when you read a menu and producers and farmers are mentioned, whether it's the local farm that grows a restaurant's produce or the molino that grinds the masa for its fresh corn tortillas. The fact is that these carefully sourced ingredients usually taste better than highly commercial ones, due to factors like farmers picking the tastiest varieties of vegetables rather than the ones with the highest yield. But, it's more than that. "Adding that human connection, knowing the people behind the ingredients instead of treating them as anonymous deliveries, is something I really value in a restaurant," Anda notes. 

Salsa can be a big red flag at a Mexican restaurant. If there's a bowl of watery tomato salsa that looks like it came out of a jar waiting for you on the table, do a U-turn and walk straight out of the joint. It's a serious warning sign when Mexican restaurants don't make their salsas and moles from scratch. These are important parts of a meal and deserve to be approached with respect.

"Real Mexican cooking has depth; chiles, moles, salsas built from scratch, and when a kitchen skips that in favor of shortcuts, it shows," says Francisco Lopez. "At Alma, our moles and salsas come from my wife Margarita, who cooks from her Oaxacan roots," he adds. When you get something ready-made or brought in, it's a bad sign for the rest of the cooking. "If a place isn't putting in that kind of work on its base sauces, I wouldn't call it authentic," Lopez notes.

Not sure whether they're made in-house? It's fine to ask, but you'll also be able to taste it. "If the salsas taste flat or identical, that's a big sign to me," says Lopez. You can taste the care and attention that goes into a dish, and when that's missing, it shows. Lopez goes as far as saying that "salsa is the soul of Mexican cooking," so when that soul is gone the rest follows.

One of the habits you should avoid at a Mexican restaurant is always ordering the same thing. But, this can be down to a lack of interesting regional dishes, which is one of our restaurant red flags. Always having the same dishes on the menu — like tacos, flautas, enchiladas, and pozole — ignores the huge range of dishes eaten across the country.

According to Francisco Lopez, it's a bad sign when there are no regional dishes on the menu that come from real family history and aren't just the same five items everyone serves. A quality restaurant should have a menu that reflects where the chefs actually come from. "For me, that means cooking the Pueblan food I grew up with, and letting Margarita bring her Oaxacan moles and salsas into the kitchen alongside it," Lopez remarks. "It's food tied to an actual region and an actual family, not a generic idea of Mexican food," he adds.

It's a good sign if you see some lesser-known Mexican dishes on the menu. For instance, sopa tarasca is a hearty soup from Michoacán made from tomatoes and pinto beans, while pambazos are dense bread rolls from Mexico City that can be eaten with a range of fillings. Common regional dishes, but ones you won't find on an average Mexican restaurant menu.

Food being freshly prepared should be an absolute non-negotiable at Mexican restaurants, but you'd be surprised. Any spot that doesn't freshly prepare its food should be avoided. And, this is one of the reasons to avoid places with menus the size of a phone book, since it's basically impossible to make all that fresh.

"A quality Mexican restaurant shows its commitment through fresh ingredients prepared daily," says Francisco Lopez. There are all kinds of components that need to be made from scratch each day. Salsas, mole, tortillas, guacamole — these all need to be made freshly, in-house. And, each dish should either be made to order or made on the day, and fired and finished before serving. Some restaurants rely on prepared ingredients that are brought in or freeze and reheat dishes. This just isn't the same. You can tell when care and attention has gone into a dish, and when it's been overlooked and is lacking in freshness, and there's no doubt which is the better of those options.

If you're unsure, it's okay to politely ask the servers about whether certain ingredients are made freshly in house or whether they're brought in. A good restaurant won't mind answering this, but if the answer is vague or cagey, that's probably because you aren't going to like the answer.

If you talk to the staff in a Mexican restaurant and they seem to have little idea what they're talking about, that's a red flag. A quality restaurant will train its staff well, so they can answer most questions about the menu straight-up, talking passionately about the food and making helpful recommendations. A lack of care and knowledge shows broader problems with an establishment that might extend to the quality of the food.

"Another red flag is when you ask a server a question about a dish or an ingredient and they don't know the answer, and no one else does either," Brittney Anda remarks. "If nobody can tell you where the corn comes from, how something is made, or explain what's on the menu, that's a problem." It's okay if someone has to check with the kitchen for trickier questions, but if nobody can answer you and the servers have little interest in trying, you're probably not at a great restaurant.

"If the staff can't explain the dishes or doesn't know how they're made, that's a red flag," says Marisol Lopez. It's not just about the food, but also the culture and tradition around it. When the staff don't know anything about the food, it shows a lack of respect for the craft. "Mexican cuisine has history behind every recipe, the team should understand what they're serving," Lopez adds.