So, now that we’ve located New York’s best cheesecake as well as the best deli, it’s time to locate where the city’s best Mexican food can be found.  Especially since we recently celebrated Cinco de Mayo; there must have been some restaurants competing for the title a couple of weeks ago.

However, while New York is definitely known for its cheesecake and probably its deli, one isn’t quite sure if the same can be said for its Mexican cuisine.  True, there are approximately 600 Mexican eateries in the city, so there must be something worth munching about and thus talking about too.  At least, that’s what Michelle Gross of The Daily Beast set out to prove.

Gross checked out the following Mexican food haunts: Taco Mix (in El Barrio – aka Spanish Harlem); where one can enjoy listening to jukebox music while eating pork straight off the sport with corn tortillas.  Next there was Café Ollin known for its Oaxacan cheese, jalapeños, cow tongue (lengua) and the Mexican drink, tamarindo bebida.  Then there are the Sunset Park torta y tamale stands and of course the somewhat infamous and popular Rico’s Tacos bursting with the smell of simmering carnitas.  Filled with families and locals, it’s probably a good Mexican eatery as these are definitely not just first-timers hogging the joint.

But then it seems that if one wants to really say they have arrived vis-à-vis Mexican food in the city, they should check out La Esquina in Soho where the chiles rellenos and blue agave are something else.  Gross also went to check out El Parador Café, Hell’s Kitchen and Mercadito, in the East Village although the last one didn’t give her much to write home about.