What is the Best Mexican Restaurant in the Pittsburgh Area?
- Thread starter TheSpecialSauce
- Start date
La Palapa- South Side
La Catrina - Beechview
Las Velas - downtown.
Smoke - Lawrenceville
These are my favorite spots
On a related note, what's the best surfing spot in Pittsburgh?
See........I dunno. I like Edgar's and again the place in front of the Mexican grocery in Beechview.
I like real, like real Mexican "street" tacos. Ya got corn tortillas, meat, some onion and cilantro. Boom. You can add salsas, a squeeze of lime.
They don't have all of this stuff and fancy crema stuff and this filling and that they go all over the place. I am a purist on tacos.
I gotcha. But not all the tacos at the places I mentioned are the new fangled versions. My tastes are similar to yours so that’s my preference as well.
The stand in Brookline got hit with health violations. Oakland too. Nothing major if memory serves but they didn’t address them and got shut down. The same people who run the one in Beechview.
Franklin inn in North Hills closest to the Places in Texas That I went to with my son when he attended TCU. Real old time Mexican, run by a Mexican family I think.
Someone posted that Olive Garden is "good Italian food" so the bar isn't very high.
I never tried that place...and someday, maybe in 10 years when this virus runs it course I will be able to try.
Edgar's, Las Palmas, Las Velas, Bea Taco Town, and Baby Loves Tacos all make pretty solid tacos that I probably enjoy in the order that I listed them. Condado and Bakersfield are pretty mediocre chains as far as the food goes but they have really cheap booze and getting good tequila for prices that I don't understand is always a good thing. Tako and Smoke are good restaurants but are in no way Mexican.
Otherwise there are no good Mexican restaurants in Pittsburgh that are not taco based which is actually kind of embarrassing.
Otherwise there are no good Mexican restaurants in Pittsburgh that are not taco based which is actually kind of embarrassing.
I went to Franklin Inn years ago and was not terribly impressed. It is good food but the rep made it seem like more than it is.
I used to spend a lot of time in San Diego; after tasting Mexican food there, the Pittsburgh places just never tasted more than average to me ever again unfortunately.
I am surprised given the heat around the Pittsburgh food scene that a multitude of high quality places has not appeared. Pittsburgh, to me, seems like it would heavily embrace great Mexican food.
I used to spend a lot of time in San Diego; after tasting Mexican food there, the Pittsburgh places just never tasted more than average to me ever again unfortunately.
I am surprised given the heat around the Pittsburgh food scene that a multitude of high quality places has not appeared. Pittsburgh, to me, seems like it would heavily embrace great Mexican food.
There isn’t one.
Franklin Inn is ok. Owned since 1978 by Henry and Sue Cibula. Now run by their son.
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What's wild is that while we have no good Mexican food there are three good arepa places and two good pupusa places. I don't know why Mexican in particular is such a black hole in Pittsburgh.
my wife's from mexico and we lived in southern california for years. the best we've found is picante mexican grille in delmont
Does the arepa place in the parking garage downtown count as a good arepa places?
Arepittas? Yeah, I think that they're pretty tasty for a nice lunch bite. Not as good as Cilantro & Ajo but still good and better than most of our taco joints.
One of the vendors I use is nearby and when we get the all clear I'll give Picante a go...
Great Margarita's. If you do come say hi - we can almost walk there.
This may be in the minority, but not sure how authentic it is. I like it because I can order things not spiced or with cilantro which seems to fly in the face of "real" Mexican food. JMO.
I dare you to find a good Pierogi place in San Diego.
Fun Fact: Cilantro is grown from Coriander seeds.
They can be grown from my favorite ice cream bars - still hate, hair, hate it.
Like someone put a sliver of soap on my tongue.
fish tacos are so wonderful and seemingly impossible to screw up but most places do.
the best i've had are at this tiny little bar in outer banks. so small that it's almost a complete afterthought.
That is the kind if question that doesn’t get asked in Los Angeles. Here, the question would be “what is your favorite place for Oaxacan food?” Or “where is the best place for seafood Veracruz style?“ Or “where do they have the best blue corn tortillas (New Mexican cooking)?”
Masha and I both love Oaxacan food, and we frequent two different places. One specializes in dishes using chocolate mole; one specializes in green chile mole. Both are tiny hole in the wall places in East Hollywood. . Both are open for pickup only now and each is normally a 45 minute drive with traffic, but only 20 minutes now. We have been ordering by placing a phone order and having an Uber driver pickup the orders and bring them to us. After the first one he gave us his card and we call him direct and he does the deliveries off the books.
On the other hand, it is next to impossible to find a decent pierogi out here.
Masha and I both love Oaxacan food, and we frequent two different places. One specializes in dishes using chocolate mole; one specializes in green chile mole. Both are tiny hole in the wall places in East Hollywood. . Both are open for pickup only now and each is normally a 45 minute drive with traffic, but only 20 minutes now. We have been ordering by placing a phone order and having an Uber driver pickup the orders and bring them to us. After the first one he gave us his card and we call him direct and he does the deliveries off the books.
On the other hand, it is next to impossible to find a decent pierogi out here.
Exactly. But again, we have the smallest Latino population of any top 40 Metro area. Remember the fear of a "taco stand on every corner", well that is a good thing. Unfortunately that doesn't exist here. Got to try Franklin Inn, but Edgars, Las Palmas and the Beechview/Brookline crew have legit tacos, but it is an absolute shame there is not more. The Mex restaurants around here are really, really, really, mediocre.
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