Mexican cuisine options in the big city are heating up.
A crop of openings in recent years has seen the city of sail’s taco offerings expand. Many, the growing number of taquerias among them, serve traditional and regional specialties, while others cater to Tex-Mex or “Cali-style” varieties, or contemporary examples of culinary fusion.
They join a path worn by an ambitious clutch of chains that introduced Mexican-inspired food to Aucklanders in the past two decades. The first customer at Mexicali Fresh in 2005 reportedly asked what a burrito was, Mexico eatery debuted in 2012, and both companies count outlets around the country; Australian franchise Zambrero joined them in 2014 and Taco Bell was in town by 2019; but others, like Mad Mex, Taco Medic and Original California Burrito Company, weren’t so lucky.
And then there was Mexican Specialties, founded in 2000 by Jose Carlos de la Macorra and Maria Batiz, a cult favourite that saw foodies boasting of trips to Ellerslie. It was there that Eli Rivera, head of commercial at The Spinoff, finally found “real, authentic” food that reminded her of what she grew up with in California. “Chile relleno, beef tacos, good guacamole. It was really lovely.”
The business eventually changed hands, before folding in 2024. Since then, Rivera’s been keeping tabs on Mexican cuisine in Auckland. “I do feel like tacos are having a moment, maybe with authentic ingredients being more readily available, and I guess with Mexican migrants bringing their local flavours over to grace Aotearoa,” she says, and we’re finally seeing “real tacos come to the city”.
Unlike the franchising and scale of their forbears, Auckland’s newer entrants are largely single-location ventures that are independently owned and operated. Many are family businesses, bringing a personal and intimate knowledge of food to the city’s ever-expanding palates. There’s even public competition, evidenced by Broke Boy Tacos owner Sean Yarbrough sending a cease-and-desist letter to Taco Amaiz owner Alfredo Romero alleging a “breach of intellectual property”, including the marketing of birria tacos, before Yarbrough expressed regret and decided against legal action. Any beef appears to have been quashed, with the pair teaming up for a charity event in October.
So, with more taquerias in Tāmaki Makaurau than ever (and Mexico’s Independence Day marked on September 16) let’s look at eateries that have won fans, and how they did it.
Broke Boy Taco
A viral sensation thanks to its birria (beef slow-cooked for 16 hours) tacos, served in fried tortillas with consomé for dipping. Kentucky-born founder Yarborough’s personal backstory has also added weight to the success of the business. There are now three spots – Mount Albert, Birkenhead and Papakura – and a food truck in the expanding operation, which moved from a second-hand hotplate and pop-up stalls to its first store in 2023. Since then he’s racked up over 74,000 Instagram followers, collaborations with Duck Island and Watties, multiple news headlines and reviews, queues, and famous fans, most notably Israel Adesanya, who loved the place so much he became an investor.
Chocola
A cantina run by the original owners of Mexican Specialties, Jose Carlos de la Macorra and Maria Batiz started this spot a few years ago, originally on Apirana Ave before relocating to West Tamaki Road in Glen Innes. The menu is short and includes tacos (which are great) and beverages – all of which, alongside the very friendly service, have earned Chocola a five-star average on Google Reviews, no mean feat for a corner of the internet often full of nitpickers and the hard to please.
Cielito Lindo
A legendary spot, famously close to the mighty Waitākere Resource Recovery Park, this eatery is a pilgrimage for folk craving authenticity (co-owner Eliseo Delgado Munoz is from Morales) and flavour. The Spinoff’s own Hayden Donnell has declared the colourful Henderson taqueria’s fare “mind-blowing” and “the best Mexican food in Auckland”. Cielito Lindo does taco nopales (cactus), fish and other varieties, served on soft corn tortillas.
La Mexicana
Word of mouth has these as some of the best tacos in Tāmaki Makauru, and you’ll find them in the Grey Lynn shops and Milford’s Shakespeare Road. Traditional nixtamalised (pre-soaked) corn tortillas are their thing – co-founders Marco Muñiz and Fletcher Selaries are big on the health benefits of this gluten-free, high fibre variety, and use New Zealand-grown corn – and they’re doubled-up in each taco. Varieties include pork carnitas and steak asada.
Loco Bro’s Taqueria
A taqueria with two Auckland locations, Commercial Bay and Titirangi, the bros of its name, Josh Barlow and Brody Jenkins, met cheffing at The Grove, before turning their fine-dining-honed skills to tacos, which they serve on traditional corn tortillas with fillings like vegan chilli, chicken tinga (shredded chook with chipotle chilli and adobo sauce) and birria they make from a combination of beef and lamb.
Mr Taco
Opened in a tiny spot on Federal Street, before moving around the corner to Victoria (next to Mexican Cafe) this colourful little taqueria – and its moustachioed owner Manuel Moreno Gonzalez – presented a bright spot in the CBD during the pandemic years, and still do a busy trade with office workers, students and tourists who come for fillings of birria, pastor (pork), cactus and jackfruit.
Sagrado Cantina
This Saint Kevin’s arcade spot has only been open a few months (preceded by a night market chapter in 2024) and owners Jorge Nieto and Andrea Ramirez have already earned praise. The city’s food critics love it – Charlotte Muru-Lanning said “you won’t find cooking like this anywhere else in the city” – and public too. Dishes are authentic, like the rare-in-Auckland mole negro, many of which came from Jorge’s mother, and portion sizes are generous (good for a city beset by cries of shrinkflation. The roster of tacos includes a traditional lamb birria and “perfectly fatty” pork-belly carnitas, and come September 14 they’re hosting a Taco Fest in the arcade from 3-5.30pm, with $4.50 tacos and a mariachi band, ahead of Mexican Independence Day on September 16.
Taco Amaiz
One of the newer spots in town, this eatery can be found on Parnell Road and in Elliot Stables. Co-founder Alfredo Romero hails from Sonora – he uses hand-pressed tortillas for the chain’s signature birria tacos – and drew inspiration from Mexico’s vernacular architecture for the taqueria’s eyecatching red-and-white colour palette.
Taco Loco
With a prominent corner spot on Mount Albert Road and a vibrant exterior, you can’t miss this one. Inside you’ll find familiar fare like pork carnitas and chicken tinga, but also lamb barbacoa, cochinita pibil (pork) and mushroom birria, served on corn or flour tortillas. Like many of their peers, Roger Moraes and Marcelo Bianchess got their start with a food truck.
Tacoteca
Since opening in City Works depot 2023 this taqueria has had a captive audience, helped by genial co-owner Edmundo Farrera – familiar to many from La Fuente mezcal bar – and chef Jean Brito’s excellent food, which is authentic and inventive; the spicy 12-hour lamb barbacoa is a highlight, and the charred cabbage will change your mind about this vegetable, and their esquites and carnitas tacos are also recommended (by Eli who ate there this week).
The Lucky Taco
A high-visibility food truck that’s been rolling around Auckland since 2013, Otis and Sarah Frizzell started the business after visiting the US and Mexico City, where they studied at a cooking school. They’ve since expanded to an array of consumer products, including marinades and salsa, hot sauces and taco kits, and still operate the truck (which in a past life was used by The Checks).
Tokos Tacos
This cult hit can be found in Avondale, and you’ll likely see the queues before you see the shop. Owner Ben Fonua and his family returned to Aotearoa from Arizona, bringing their love of tacos with them. They set up Tokos in 2024 with a “ketogenic menu” that focuses on a very tight range of excellent tacos; choose between pork and beef birria or fish, and grab plenty of serviettes – these ones are juicy.
