How popular is Mexican cuisine in your country?

35 comments

1. Not popular and I guess not that authentic compared to the States. For obvious reasons. There isn’t many Mexican immigrants and communities here

2. It’s not really popular in the UK. There isn’t enough of a (noticeable) Mexican community. In big cities you might find restaurants which serve Mexican food, but it is most often inauthentic, catering to local tastes. There is no culture around eating Mexican food, as there is for Indian, Chinese and Thai food.

   Most people in this sub Reddit will be in the UK (you posted in askuk and not askreddit, lol).

   Hope this helps!

   Any particular reason why you’ve asked? Are you planning to set up a restaurant here? If it’s authentic and you can get enough space to offer live music, I have no doubt that it will do well in a diverse and bustling city like London, or any student city, if you can get the price at under £20 for a meal (or various tapas) and a drink. Also, consider street food! There is a popular place in London called [Borough market](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rrRy3z9h8xQ). There are plenty all over the city to be honest.

3. People like it but it’s hard to get authentic stuff. There are some “Mexican” chain restaurants but they’re largely shit.

   There are these Instagram friendly “street food” places which pop up at events that will do things like tacos and whatnot but the quality is hit and miss and it’ll likely be very expensive for what it is.

4. Canny surprised to see people saying Mexican food isn’t popular in the UK. I’d say it is. Probably not authentic but you’d be easily able to be in a even a small city or big town and easily find Mexican food. Loads of places are dedicated Mexican restaurants but hell even the cinemas and that sell nachos.

   And LOADS of people cook Mexican food at home weekly if not more than that.

5. Mexican food in the UK generally sucks. Nearly every mexican restaurant is a pretty crap chain with rehashes of the same unauthentic dishes. It’s pretty sad.

6. The big problem in the UK is they have no idea what true Mexican food is. There are a couple of restaurant chains that sell ersatz rubbish that they claim is Mexican food but is anything but. There are only a handful of places that sell anything like authentic Mexican food, but they are based in the big cities, which most British people do not visit.

   UK Supermarkets sell absolute rubbish ‘Mexican food kits’ where pre-made taco shells are filled with prepackaged powdered flavouring additives sprinkled on minced beef and topped with a packet of crushed tomatoes mixed with cumin masquerading as ‘salsa’. This would make a Mexican food aficionado weep.

   There are a couple of Mexican food ingredient importers that supply people who want to make their own truly authentic Mexican food at home. But this is expensive. I’ve had to buy a tortilla press to make my own corn tortillas at home.

   So beware the responses of ‘we have lots of Mexican food in the UK’ as they are likely referring to fish and chips served in a sombrero as some sort of Mexican food dish.

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8. I’d say it is popular but not authentic. Plenty of people I know make fajitas or tacos at home and most cities have a few mediocre chains (las iguanas, tortilla etc.).

   Having lived in the states the one thing I miss more than anything is easy access to good mexican food though. The UK really does do it terribly! Would kill for someone to open an authentic Mexican near me.

9. Honestly it’s been on a rise recently in the UK. Like very recent, in my city alone there are now 10 or so New Mexican restaurants all with different takes and none are older than 2 years.

10. I adore Mexican food so it’s not as commonplace as I’d like. Usually end up making it myself rather than buying it out at restaurants etc. Mexican and Caribbean food are always undervalued and I’d love more restaurants based around them

11. I like to make Tex Mex food. Rarely use the supermarket kits.

12. Fajitas, Quesadillas, Tacos, Enchiladas, Chilli etc. are very popular in the UK.

    I’m not sure how ‘authentic’ they are and the mexican chains I’ve tried have been a bit shite.

    I’ve been to Mexico several times and they had those dishes available, but could just be nore to cater for non mexican audiences who think that is the norm.

13. There’s a Mexican place here that does quite well, but that’s about it. As for authentic, I don’t know anyone that’s tried both that and real Mexican food so I couldn’t comment.

14. There was an independent Mexican restaurant in Loughborough where I grew up and it was the bomb. No idea how authentic it was since I’ve never been to Mexico nor had the privilege of being cooked for by a Mexican!

    Sometimes cook Fajitas, Enchiladas and Chilli at home – probably not authentically! It’s popular but not quite as popular as ‘Indian’, ‘Chinese’, ‘ Italian’ etc!

15. Quite popular but wildly inauthentic. If you ask someone whether they like Mexican, 90% of the time what they’re actually telling you is ‘I like Old El Paso kits.’ And why not, they’re tasty, but they’re massively removed from the real thing.

    I went to Mexico last year and was a bit surprised as to how big a difference the authentic stuff is from what I’ve had even in ‘good’ UK Mexican restaurants that aren’t the typical chains.

16. Not popular enough here in the UK and I know what most people would call Mexican Food elsewhere Stateside etc would not be considered Mexican Food in Mexico!

    That’s most Cusine though!

17. I don’t think you’d really go to anywhere in Europe/Africa/Asia for Mexican food because it’s geographically too far removed from the source to have any real authenticity, if authenticity is what you’re after. But that can be said of all cuisines. Unless any countries within those continents have had an influx of migrants from the source nation(s). The same way you’d be hard pressed to find a really good Vindaloo in the US compared to the U.K. or Fish and Chips in Colombia or Bunny Chow in Canada or Massaman Curry in Gabon. That’s not a dig at any of those nations by the way. Mexican food is very popular in Europe, but to say that’s it’s always awful is a little unfair, there just aren’t many Mexican people here opening up authentic chains. Maybe we need an ad-campaign there inviting them over 😂

18. We’ve got a Mexican restaurant in our little town in the middle of England, no idea how authentic it is as never been to Mexico but it’s delicious

19. My wife is Mexican so we’re always on the look out for tasty Mexican food. Most British people associate Mexican food with a watered down version from the US which is a shame.

    In London, there’s a a few good places, ranging from relatively high end fancy stuff (Mestizo) to quite a few places that are more focused on tacos.

    Outside of London it’s much harder to find actual Mexican food vs. Tex-Mex (nachos etc.) or California-style burritos that far too big and loaded with rice. There is a chain called Wahaca which is reasonably authentic but they’ve closed a fair number of their sites so harder to find.

    That being said, it’s not too challenging to get some of the ingredients – there’s a few places online to buy a lot of the basics (though fresh ingredients such as Mexican cheeses and jicama are really expensive) and in Bristol (where I live) there’s a shop called Otomi which sells mexican products – always good fun trying out lots of different hot sauces.

20. Yeah, UK is tex-mex. I do like the big chunky California style burrito though! Easy, beany, quesadilla recipes are a bit of a staple at home though 🙂

21. > Please share what country you are from/in

    It is AskUK, I think the majority of us are in the UK.

22. As someone from England who lived in Mexico for a bit, the food here is somewhat popular, but pretty much nothing is authentic. I’ve never found a place in the UK that does accurate Tacos al pastor, even places run by actual Mexicans. Tortillas are nearly always wrong. Sour cream and other Tex-Mex ingredients are quite common.

    There are a couple of online shops in the UK that sell tortillas that are pretty close. Also you can order stuff like Chili Guajillo, achiote, etc. I’ve used this to make some fairly decent Tacos al pastor at home.

23. Bar near me does Mexican food – never been to Mexico so I can’t vouch for authenticity but they do make their own tortillas and it seems fairly legit (The Tacos at least, some of the other stuff definitely isn’t). I mostly just go there for beer though!

24. It’s honestly a bit horrible in the UK. We have some chain restaurants but the quality of the food is really dire. We don’t have many Mexicans here so I’m guessing what we get is only a low grade approximation of Mexican food made by people who have never been to the country.

    I mean it’s got all the right stuff in it to be nice – spice, beans, tomatoes, corn breads, cheese ect but some how what they do to it here just tastes of cheap supermarket tomato sauce and tabasco.

25. Don’t know about the country.

    But the mrs no1 choice is mexican and we have it regularly at home.

26. Brit married to a Mexican living in England here. Mexican food is very popular here, but it’s not very authentic. People don’t know the difference between Mexican and Tex-Mex and some really basic staples of Mexican food are very hard to get hold of (like corn tortillas, tomatillos, or any variety of Mexican cheese). People know about stuff like tacos and quesadillas but you wouldn’t get things like huaraches, chilaquiles, menudo or molletes here. People here would probably be horrified by menudo, TBF.

27. Doubt it’s authentic as such but a lot of nice burrito places around these days. As something of a connoisseur, my personal favourites are street food chef in Sheffield and boojum in Belfast. Least favourite is taco bell, absolute rubbish.

28. Basically all mexican/italian food in the UK is made by Romanians pretending to be mexican/italian

29. How popular? Fairly

    How authentic? Not at all in the majority

    Quality? No better or worse than our other foods.

    You would need to go into the bigger cities to find more authentic restaurants, and even then, they’ll rarely be ‘actually mexican authentic’

    You could say that for most ‘imported’ foods.. Indian food in the UK isn’t authentic to India.. it’s a localised version of it.

30. Most the things British people think of as being Mexican are Tex-Mex, i.e. American.

    You do sometimes get a food truck claiming to serve “authentic Mexican tacos”, but the chefs, ingredients and recipes aren’t Mexican so I don’t know what the authenticity is supposed to be.

31. We don’t have many Mexican restaurants or takeaways. There are a few ‘burrito’ places, but they are not common.

    However, Chili con carne and fajitas are extremely common home-cooked meals.

32. I was going to agree that lots of British people eat a few bastardised Mexican dishes but the authenticity isn’t there. However, here in deepest darkest west Wales we’ve got a brilliant small street-food style Mexican place (El Salsa) which makes it’s own tomatillo sauce and tries hard to bring proper Mexican flavours to its food and it’s always very busy. -So like many different cultures’ food, if it’s tasty British people will keep coming back for more.

33. I have been working in Manzanillo for the past 12 months. Mexican food is very popular here. It is also very good.

34. Virtually all Mexicans outside of Mexico live in North America (seriously go Google it – the figures will blow your mind) so it’s difficult to get the real thing rather than Tex-Mex.

35. Virtually all Mexicans outside of Mexico live in North America (seriously go Google it – the figures will blow your mind) so it’s difficult to get the real thing rather than Tex-Mex.