The Best Mexican Food in Central El Paso

This is the oldest kitchen on the list and the one locals send visitors to first. It opened in 1927 as Tony's Place, on what was then the edge of town, and the family that runs it now is the fourth generation. El Pasoans still call it the Old Place by the Graveyard, because it backs onto Concordia Cemetery.

The reason it ranks first is that it is the broadest and the best verified. The chile relleno plate, the green chile enchiladas and the chile colorado are the orders that come up again and again in local coverage, and the restaurant publishes its own hours, address and phone, which more than half the places in this part of town do not.

Taconeta is the only kitchen in central El Paso with a current statewide credential. Texas Monthly placed it sixth on its 50 Best Tacos in Texas list, and the Visit El Paso tourism office confirmed the ranking in its own announcement. The taco that earned it is battered cremini mushroom over black bean puree with salsa macha.

It is a loud room and it is meant to be. The suadero, made with brisket confit, and the carnitas are the picks if you want something less inventive. Its own website was offline when we checked, so treat the phone number as the reliable way to reach it.

Casa Pantera opened on Pershing Drive in the summer of 2022 and is the reason Five Points reads as a dining neighborhood now rather than a crossroads. Santiago Estrada Jr, a Lower Valley native who trained abroad before coming home, runs the kitchen and co owns the place.

The cooking is built around a wood fire, and the dishes people come back for are the ceviche, the octopus and the mussels rather than the obvious plates. It is the one entry here where a reservation is genuinely useful.

Cónico is the most ambitious Mexican kitchen inside the downtown loop. Texas Monthly's write up singles out a slow cooked pork belly mole from Oaxaca served with a pear confit, and an aguachile from Sinaloa, which is a long way from the combination plate most of this city's Mexican restaurants are built on.

There is a serious taco list too, with crispy chapulines as the one people talk about afterwards. Every tortilla in the building is made the day it is served.

Paula Yardeni opened Kiki's in 1976 and named it after her daughter. Hector Latigo, who had managed the room, bought it when she retired in 2011, and the menu did not change. The adobe style building on the Piedras corner is small enough that it fills at both lunch and dinner.

Hispanic magazine named it one of the 50 best Hispanic restaurants in the country every year from 1997 through 2002, and chef Aarón Sánchez picked its beef machaca on an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate. The machaca and the green chile dishes are still what to order.

This is the menudo answer. The family has been making it on Alameda Avenue since 1968, El Paso Inc has given it the city's best menudo in its Best of the Best awards, and Texas Monthly notes that locals simply treat it as the best in town. A 2011 El Paso Inc profile put its usage at roughly 700 pounds of tripe a week.

It is a diner, not a destination restaurant. Caldo de res and burgers are on the same menu. Come for the bowl, early, and do not expect anything decorative.

Mamacitas sits at the corner of Kansas and Main, in the ground floor of the Hotel Indigo, and it is the most useful breakfast on this list because it opens early and takes reservations. The chilaquiles are the order.

It is the newest and the most hotel shaped entry here, which is why it is last rather than absent. If you are staying downtown without a car, it is the one place on this list you can walk to before anything else opens.