Mexican Food in Minneapolis: Taquerias and Bakeries

Mexican food in Minneapolis runs along Lake Street and the south side, where taquerias, panaderias and tamale counters sit beside Central American kitchens that add pupusas and plantains to the mix. The best way to eat here is to order by the dish: tacos on the grill, bread from the case, a tamale in a paper bag.

Here are the dishes and how to judge them. The Lake Street corridor guide covers the street as a whole.

How do you judge Mexican food in Minneapolis taquerias on Lake Street?

Look at the tortilla and the meat. A good taqueria warms its corn tortillas on the griddle, doubles them when the filling is wet and lets the meat get a crust from the flat-top. The menu is short: carne asada, al pastor, carnitas, chicken, perhaps lengua or tripe. A salsa bar with two or three sauces, limes and radishes is the sign of a place that takes taste seriously.

Order three tacos with different fillings and rate each. The difference between them is the whole lesson.

Bring cash only if the sign says so, and read the board before the line moves. A kitchen that sells out of the best meat by mid-evening is a good sign, not a bad one. If the cook is chopping onions and cilantro to order, you are in the right place. Ask for the salsa that the staff eat themselves.

What should a Mexican bakery in Minneapolis have in its case?

A panaderia works from trays and tongs: you take a tray, choose from the case and carry it to the counter. Look for conchas with their shell-patterned sugar crust, empanadas filled with fruit, cuernos, polvorones and tres leches slices. Bread should smell of butter and sugar, not of the plastic wrap.

Go early for the best choice. A morning visit with coffee or hot chocolate is cheaper than a restaurant meal and often better.

Bread that is baked in the building tastes different from bread that arrives in a truck, and the case tells you which you are in. Buy one thing you know and one you do not, and eat the unfamiliar one first while it is fresh. Many panaderias also sell savory rolls for lunch, and the line at midday is full of people from nearby shops and schools.

Where do tamales in Minneapolis fit?

Tamales are a seasonal tradition and a daily staple. Corn dough steamed in a husk, filled with pork in red sauce, chicken in green sauce, cheese with peppers or something sweet, they are easy to carry and reheat. Around the winter holidays, the demand rises and some kitchens sell by the dozen, so ask ahead.

A good tamale is soft but holds its shape, with enough filling to taste in every bite. Eat it with the sauce, not without.

Do pupusas in Minneapolis belong on a Mexican food page?

They belong in the same neighborhoods. Pupusas are a Salvadoran dish, thick griddled corn cakes stuffed with cheese, beans or pork and served with pickled cabbage and a thin tomato sauce. Lake Street and the south side are home to Mexican, Salvadoran and other Latin American kitchens, and a visitor can eat across them in a day.

Do not treat them as the same cuisine. Order a pupusa and a taco on the same afternoon and compare the corn.

Which dishes make a good first visit?

Build a short order: two tacos, a tamale and a drink. Horchata or agua fresca balances heat, and a bowl of consome or a simple soup fills the gaps. If you are with friends, share and pass around. The goal is breadth, so no one is stuck with one dish.

A table that orders the same thing misses the point of the cuisine.

When you are unsure, ask the person at the counter what they would eat on their own break. The answer is often a dish that is not on the first line of the menu and that turns out to be the best thing on the table.

How do you eat Mexican food in a Minneapolis winter?

Choose soup, stew and anything steamed. Pozole, menudo on weekends, caldo de res and hot tamales are the dishes that reward a cold day, and many kitchens serve them in generous bowls. Tortillas and rice are the comfort sides, and a squeeze of lime and a spoon of chopped onion lift almost any bowl. Minnesota winters are long, so a plan that puts a hot bowl at the center of the day is a practical one.

The Midtown Global Market guide is useful on a day when you want many cuisines under one roof, and the Vietnamese food guide follows a neighboring tradition bowl by bowl.

How do you rate what you ate?

Rate the dish and name it: the al pastor taco, the concha, the pork tamale. Add tags such as Great Value, Good Portions or Quick Service, and a note on the salsa. For vegetarian choices, a rater's Vegetarian tag is a starting point, not a promise, so ask whether the beans and rice are cooked with lard.

A list of stops by dish helps a friend who asks where to find a good tamale.

More in the US food guides.

Open the Mosey app after your next taco crawl, rate each dish, add tags and save the stops to a list to share with friends.