These 11 Brooklyn Spots Have Some Of The Best Mexican Food In NYC

BROOKLYN, NY — New Yorkers looking for delicious Mexican food will have more than enough to choose from in Brooklyn, according to a new ranking.

Eleven Brooklyn eateries, more than any other borough, have landed on Eater's list of "NYC’s 30 Essential Mexican Restaurants," which ranked the best south-of-the-border cuisine across the city.

From inventive menus served in cocktail-lounge settings, to traditional food trucks serving up tacos, restaurants from several Brooklyn neighborhoods made the list, including several in Bushwick and an eatery just blocks from the Crown Heights border.

Here's a look at what the foodies had to say about the Brooklyn restaurants:

Oxomoco: 28 Greenpoint AveBrooklyn, NY 11222

With its austere white facade, set back from the street and occupied by an open-air seating area, Oxocmoco channels LA’s outdoor Mexican cafes. A wood-fired oven scents the air, and from it chef Justin Bazdarich pulls pork cheek carnitas, flank steak, and tender lamb barbacoa, all stuffed in tacos. Bigger feeds include a whole roasted branzino and bavette steak with chile ancho butter. Plenty of less-traditional inventions worth tasting include a charred carrot tamal smothered in hoja santa sauce, and a beef tartare tostada.

Paloma’s Bk: 1 Knickerbocker AveBrooklyn, NY 11237

This descendent of the Ridgewood restaurant also called Paloma’s, from owner and chef Fabiola Maldonado, has a much more ambitious menu than its predecessor and a cocktail-lounge atmosphere featuring a giant painting of a chanteuse behind the bar, and a musical performance space adjacent to the dining room. The menu strays to all sorts of regional Mexican places, though anchored in a small collection of Oaxacan moles. The scallop aguachile is particularly appealing, and one can’t go wrong with the tacos gobernador, a specialty of Sinaloa spilling buttery and tender shrimp out their ends.

Santa Ana Deli & Grocery: 171 Irving AveBrooklyn, NY 11237

Bodega taquerias from the state of Puebla abound in Bushwick, including this one named after the town of Santa Ana Xalmimilulco. The groceries at Santa Ana Deli & Grocery have withered to a few shelves, but still display a killer collection of dried and canned chiles. The menu, stenciled over the counter at the end of the room, is expansive, including rolled tacos arabes in flour tortillas; rice-bearing tacos placeros that enfold other homely fillings like boiled egg and chiles relleno; and a wonderful burrito Santa Ana, sauced with the colors of the Mexican flag. The grocery was founded in the 1980s and is still owned and operated by Polo Teco and family.

Nene’s Deli Taqueria: 14 Starr StBrooklyn, NY 11237

Sometimes it seems like Bushwick is nothing but a mass of birria, offered in nearly every corner of the neighborhood. Nene’s is wedged into a narrow bodega south of Maria Hernandez Park, where chef Andrés Tonatiuh Galindo Maria relocated his birria operation not too long ago, making a bewildering number of antojitos featuring his beef birra, running from mulitas to burritos to (gasp!) birria ramen. The mulita is particularly recommended due to its double complement of tortillas and generally soggy (in a good way) demeanor, and its surprise inclusion of guac.

Purépecha: 213 Smith StBrooklyn, NY 11201

This Cobble Hill restaurant owned by siblings Sandra and Willson Lopez is decorated with a colorful mural of Mexican motifs: a sugar skull, agave cactus, and ear of maize. It mounts a menu with many specialties from the state of Michoacán, directly west of Mexico City. Carnitas is a dish associated with the state, a pork confit that can be dry or almost soupy, here loaded into tacos and topped with guacamole. Other standouts include a Maruata taco of fried fish named after a beach town, and a grandma recipe of bean-stuffed enchiladas with a mild tomato sauce called enchiladas placeras.

Claro

This cozy and innovative spot near the Gowanus Canal partly specializes in Oaxacan food via chef T.J. Steele. Sure, there are moles, chorizo memelas, and the dressed flatbreads called tlayudas, but there are also hand-patted tortillas and shrimp tacos made therefrom, washed down with beer and mezcal. The logo is a woodcut of a happy goat paradoxically relaxing in a stewpot, and a backyard seating area is one of Brooklyn’s most glorious when summer rolls around.

Antojitos del Patron Mexican Snacks: 52 Lincoln RdBrooklyn, NY 11225

Part of a cluster of three restaurants on the same block owned by a pair of Guatemalan sisters, Brenda Castellanos and Ana Prince, Antojitos del Patron is a cozy cafe offering homestyle, corn-based Mexican food. Steamed in a banana leaf, the Oaxacan tamal is magnificent, a massive cylinder of masa drenched in a chunky pork sauce, a full meal in itself. Special types of tacos are available, including tacos arabes and tacos al pastor, both originating in Puebla.

Tacos El Bronco: 860 5th AveBrooklyn, NY 11232

I guess by now everyone knows to get the tiny tripa tacos at this amazing taco truck that parks opposite the Jackie Gleason Bus Depot, a stone’s throw from the Green-Wood Cemetery in Sunset Park. Note that the tripa here is not of the honeycomb variety, but is instead made from veal intestines. I guarantee both substances are equally good in a taco. Otherwise, steer in the direction of goat, calf tongue, veal head, or pork skin.

Don Pepe Tortas Y Jugos

Opened in 2003, Don Pepe presaged an era when the Mexican sandwiches called tortas were super-sized and rendered glamorous as massive feeds for any meal. Dozens upon dozens of sandwiches are offered, often bearing the names of Mexican states or foreign countries and laden with multiple meats. Juices are another focus of this rollicking cafe that also offers commonplace antojitos in an orange-colored dining room.

Coszcal De Allende: 6824 3rd AveBrooklyn, NY 11220

After a career operating restaurants in Manhattan, Veronica and Luis Felipe moved to Bay Ridge in 2010 and opened Coszcal de Allende, a delightful place that evokes the atmosphere of arts center San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. Tacos de cazadores (“hunters’ tacos”) feature a filling of chorizo, avocados, and cheese, while quesadillas arrive stuffed with mushrooms, squash flowers, or huitlacoche. The dish most characteristic of the city is enchiladas de Allende (also referred to as enchiladas Sanmiguelense), stuffed with cheese, mantled with more cheese, and smothered in a piquant salsa verde.

Doña Zita

For a dozen years, this wonderful canteen has lingered among the back alleys of Coney Island (on a thoroughfare absurdly called Bowery Street), dishing up gigantic versions of tacos, quesadillas, sopes, and other antojitos, but its most glorious production may be the Pueblan cemita, a sandwich so big your mouth can’t fit around it, with such a wad of fresh papalo leaves you can smell them as the sandwich is handed over the counter.

You can check out the full Eater NY best Mexican restaurants list here.