By this I mean things like tacos and burritos, arepas, Argentine asados, Peruvian ceviche, mofongo, etc. Are there Latin American restaurants in your area?

26 comments

  1. Fray Bentos (which is, believe it or not, from Uruguay) is the only thing you’ll see regularly along with various ‘Tex-Mex’ style stuff in supermarkets. There’s a couple of odd products that I’ll see occasionally but those two are the regular ones that you’ll get nearly anywhere.

    There’s also a few Latin American restaurants, such as Mexican and Brazilian ones but I’m guessing they’re not really ‘realistic’ or authentic.

  2. I think inky Mexican quinine ve got its significant market share. Beside that, maybe Brasilian, but it’s niche.

  3. No, not really. In the bigger cities you find some Mexican style restaurants where you can buy burritos and nachos. I think in places like Amsterdam and Rotterdam you will find other Latin American cuisines. The only exception is Suriname’s cuisine, obviously due to the large Surinames community in our country. I don’t know if there are many restaurants, at least in my area, but I know several take away places to get yourself some delicious Surinames roti and other food from Suriname.

  4. I mean, its popular because there is a HUGE wave of latin american immigrants comming to Spain.

    So far, its pretty much a blood bath of multiple latin american countries fighting for relevance. Although, Arepas are currently taking the spot.

  5. It is not very popular, but a few restaurants are there, mainly Mexican and Argentinian restaurants, and something can also be found in supermarkets, but I would not call it as common as other cuisines.

  6. Not at all, I mean in major cities like Milan and Rome I’m sure you’ll find all sorts of restaurants but they’re not common. Mexican cuisine is the most popular one, but on average the quality is terrible compared to the restaurants I’ve been to in the US and in Spain

  7. I’m my city we have a couple of Mexican places.. not very authentic… and a new Peruvian restaurant.

    And I think an ‘Argentinian’ steakhouse or two as well.

    So, not unheard of but not really commonplace either.

  8. Mexican is probably the most commonly available here and most of what gets marketed to us as ‘Mexican’ is probably bad Tex-Mex food.

    In London you can find a few Peruvian joints (ceviche seems to be growing in popularity), there’s a Venezuelan place, Colombian, Brazillian, Mexican and a few generic ‘Latin’ restaurants. I think Latin American cuisines would be more popular here if we could get access to good quality, authentic food.

  10. Not really unfortunately but it’s definitely a growing market. The most popular currently here in Brussels is probably Brazilian churrasco restaurants

  11. Taco has been in Norway for ages and is eaten by most at a weekly basis. Otherwise other Latin and South American influences have come and gone for a while, particularly among restaurants and food courts in the more hip areas of Oslo as well as street food vans. Peruvian seemed to have a flash some years ago, but I don’t know if it ever lasted.

  13. Mexican food is getting more popular but have in mind that most places serve a Bulgarian interpretation of the Mexican dishes. Other than that, there’s a Cuban restaurant in my city and that’s about it

  14. Italy here: lots of peruvian restaurants, because there are many immigrants from Peru here where I live. Second place probably is fake Mexican and Brazilianmeat restaurants

  15. Is Suriname considered Latin American even though they speak Dutch?

    Anyway, there are a few Mexican places, and a few Argentinian steak houses, and quite a number of Surinamese places due to our shared history.

  16. I love empanadas, arepas and enchiladas. I’ve also tried hallacas. But i’ve been to Latin America and have friends from there.

    Most people here only know mexican food (we have quite a number of mexican restaurants in Budapest) and a bit of argentinian gastronomy (though i think mostly they are just familiar with argentinian beef).

    Other than that i don’t think so, though it depends on how open-minded a person is to try new things. I wish more people would get to know Latin American cuisine, as i personally believe it is fantastic and very diverse.

  17. A few “mexican restaurant” and quite a lot of generic fast food place that do burgers-pizza-kebab-tacos

  19. I have connections with Portugal, and not surprisingly there is a big cultural cross between Portuguese and Brazilian cuisine. Dishes like feijoada, bean stews and churrasco, barbecues show their Luso-Brazilian roots in the Portuguese kitchen. Here in the UK, many Portuguese delis actually do both sets of cuisines on offer.

  20. Its getting more popular in the UK. A lot of British people do have a bit of a kick for spicy food, but that’s been filled by what we generally refer to as ‘Indian’ restaurants/takeaways (in reality Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan cuisine that has in many cases been altered for British tastes to the point where many dishes are actually British in origin).

    Unlike the US we haven’t had much of a Mexican or Latin American diaspora.

    But things are changing there are more Latin American people in the UK these days and the food is becoming more popular – pretty much every major city and large town will have a number of Mexican restaurants these days and other Latin American cuisines are also increasing in popularity. In terms of where I live in Newcastle I’d say it’s probably Brazilian that’s growing the most. There’s a number of Brazilian restaurants that have become popular. There’s a particular Brazilian steakhouse called ‘Rio’s’ which is very popular with Bruno Guimarães (who plays Football for Newcastle United and Brazil) and his Newcastle teammate and fellow Brazilian Joelinton.

  21. Apart from mexican I’ve not seen much outside of London and Manchester.

    In London I know a lot of brazilian and argentinian places, plus a few cuban. Caribbean food is growing in popularity a lot, but thats mostly the former British islands, though of course there is a lot of shared cuisine between the islands (My favourite would be Trinidad).

    You’ll find tex mex (old el paso) in pretty much any super market, but I am not sure that really counts.

  22. It’s not a thing. You can find the needed ingredients in better groceries but they are all super expensive.

    For example, a small avocado costs 1.80€ in Germany. For the same money, you can buy 250g of pork Schnitzel meat.

  23. Here in Italy, They are not popular at all.

    Like, you can find some Latin American restaurants (here in Naples, there are some Mexican, Brazilian, Peruvian and Argentinian restaurants), but they aren’t that popular, compared to other cuisines.

    Japanese and Chinese are the two most popular cuisines here. They are the two biggest cuisines, after Italian one. Other popular cuisines, although less popular and famous than Japanese and Chinese cooking, are Indian, Middle Eastern cuisine in general (Kebab is REALLY popular) and Thai.

  25. Not really. Only foreign food place I remember is McDonald’s and even they closed. I believe they fucked up some licence thing.

  26. Sweden’s largest grocery chained aired [this commercial](https://youtu.be/Y8qRfsnSLjk), with the most Swedish dish there is, the same week as the Swedish National Day

    Regarding your examples…

    – I have of course heard about tacos, but I’m uncertain if our TexMex version count towards Latin cuisine.
    – First time I heard of ceviche was some months ago when it was served on a hamburger at Burger King
    – I know about burritos via American osmosis. But I have never tasted them, nor seen them sold anywhere. I might have seen a burrito place in Gothenburg once, but the bus quickly drove past it before I got a good look.

    So no, Latin cuisine is not big here (sans tacos). But I have the feeling it is just below the surface, slightly out of the public view, waiting for its big break. So if you’re in a large city I guess you might find a few good places.

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