Miami's Mexican Invasion (of Restaurants, That Is)

[José Balido]

Mexican cuisine may be one of America's favorite "ethnics," and Miami may be the single most Latino city in the United States (not to mention an increasingly foodie town in many ways) -- but until recently, Miami has sucked soggy jalapeños when it came to high-quality, authentic fare from the land of tacos and tequila.

Instead, we had to make do with the same chains the rest of the country does: Baja Fresh, Chipotle Grill, Qdoba, On the Border, yada yada, along with an also so-so local mini-chain, El Rancho Grande. A couple of years ago Rosa Mexicano set up shop downtown with its high-end Mexicanoid fare, but I've found it underwhelming -- in fact, I once had a soup there so salty I had to start an emergency course of Diovan. For years now, the top contender has probably been Cantina Beach (below left), serving several traditional faves mixed with nouvelle-Mex at the Ritz-Carlton Key Biscayne; besides fare from Chiapas-born Andrés Paranges like yummy crab tacos and zesty ceviches, the star here is the setting -- a fetching thatch-roofed, oceanfront space open to the sea breezes -- and America's first in-house tequilier, who curates a collection of 80-plus tequilas. Meanwhile, on the cheaper end of the scale, I once had high hopes for an authentic-looking dive in Little Havana called Taquería El Mexicano, but it turned out to be the one thing Mexican food should never be: bland.

So for the most part, to track down authentic, good-quality Mexican in this town has long been practically misión imposible . For the real deal you had to head an hour south to Homestead (La Quebradita Taquería and La Cruzada get high marks) or two hours north to West Palm Beach. Yet the other day I found myself at a Miami event sponsored by the Mexican consulate called Sabores de México (Flavors of Mexico), in which ten South Florida restaurants received official appreciation for raising the local bar on this tasty cuisine (Rosa Mexicano was not on the list, by the way, but oddly enough Coconut Grove’s Señor Frog's, of all joints, was).

That’s when it hit me: We've finally got ourselves a bit of a Mexican restaurant boom; several have conspicuously just launched in recent months. There's elegant Talavera in Coral Gables, opened last fall, where Chef Oscar del Rivero serves up some crowd-pleasers mixed with dishes that aren't so common in U.S.Mexican restos, like cheesy huaraches and Sinaloan tacos de chilorio. Then, three months ago came El Mercadito (above right), a lively branch of a New York City chain, helping to pioneer a newly redeveloped area called Midtown Miami. The vibe is fun, the guacamole smooth, and Acapulco-born Patricio Sandoval's food pretty interesting, drawing from central Mexico as well as its Pacific and Gulf coasts. It's also on the pricey side -- and, for my taste, a little heavy on the sweet. Sandoval told me, "Our biggest challenge was finding Mexican ingredients and women who knew how to make fresh tortillas. We ended up having to go down to Homestead."

But my new favorite for taste-to-dollar value opened just this past week, on a back alley behind South Beach's buzzy Lincoln Road -- finally, a great Mexican joint in SoBe! Instantly popular, Tacontento ("Happytaco," right) more than lives up to its upbeat name, crammed with lots of primary colors, star-shaped piñatas and terracotta figurines, as it is. A Mexican friend of mine said it was a good sign to see the gyro-style rotating meat skewer in the kitchen for tacos al pastor. And boy, was that on the mark. The seasoning on those babies is perfect, and I also really dug the sopa azteca. I even discovered a few items that, in my experience, aren't so readily found in Mexican restaurants in the eastern U.S. -- I've certainly never come across them in Miami. Dishes like cebollitas asadas (roasted spring onions with a spritz of lime); strawberry cheese chimichangas; and horchata, a chilled, cinnamon-laced rice milk that’s like liquid rice pudding. The weird thing? Tacontento is neither Mexican nor American, but rather the first U.S. branch of a chain based in Guatemala, of all places. Close enough -- and just the latest sign that my long Miami Mexican dry spell is finally over.

[David Paul Appell]

Another spot worth adding to the list -- albeit well off the tourist track, in a strip mall at Biscayne Boulevard and 154th Street on Miami's so-called Upper East Side, is Chéen Huaye. This mod, cheerful little neighborhood spot serves some Mexican perennial crowd-pleasers (the lime soup is A+), but specializes in Yucatecan cuisine -- the cookery of the Yucatan peninsula. One of my faves here is Poc Chuc, pork marinated in sour orange and garlic, topped with tomatoes, onions, and cilantro.