One night in July last year, V and I were exploring Mexico City’s Centro Historico, the city’s historic centre. It was the perfect balmy evening for a wander, for taking night photos and better yet, for sampling some of the street food!

The city’s main plaza, the Zocalo, is in the Centro Historico and is the world’s 2nd largest public plaza (second only to Moscow’s Red Square). During the day, it’s filled with street vendors, performers and tourists. At night, it’s practically empty save for a few people passing through.

During all our wandering, we came across this literal hole-in-the-wall taqueria. Apparently, one of the best taqueria’s in Mexico is a place called El Guero or Taco Hola in Avenida Amsterdam. Though this impostor had the same name, it was unrelated.


The meats all just sat in this makeshift hybrid bain marie and cooking dome. Questionable sanitary standards is all part and parcel of street food and this place had us raising our eyebrows.

The tacos were still pretty good though – especially at AUD 0.50 who can complain?!

Not far from the previous hole-in-the-wall is yet another one, Taqueria Los Cocuyos. We eyed the place suspiciously until a smartly dressed older lady and her equally smartly-dressed man, possibly her son, gestured us to try it. I asked if it was any good and from the few words I could make out from her enthusiastic response, it’s amazing tacos were so delicious that they were prone to holy miracles.

Pricier than the last joint (about AUD 0.75 per taco), we broke the bank and tried some. We weren’t disappointed.


They had a lot of mystery meats and looking back at it now, I wish my Spanish were better. I would have loved to have tasted Eye Taco.

I went with relatively safe options, the tongue, the tripe and the brisket. The tacos were hardly elaborate, simple really, but they all impressed. This was the definition of comfort food.
Bursting with fullness, I figured I could fill up the gaps of empty space in my stomach with one last one.
I was so pleased with the place I googled it as we walked away. Turns out, Anthony Bourdain visited this very taqueria in his show, No Reservations.

Replenished, we wandered back to our hotel in Zona Rosa. This time in search of dessert…

The word? After this initial try, street tacos were our go to meal for a quick, yet delicious pick-me-up. I could only wish we had hole-in-the-walls here that sold tacos this great!


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