In 1989 when Collin Timms opened a Mexican restaurant in Bengaluru named after a river in New Mexico, Pecos, it bombed. People were simply not familiar with the cuisine. It is another story that Pecos eventually pivoted to selling beer and became the city’s favourite pub. Today, things are very different when it comes to Mexican food. Carne asadas and birria tacos are fast selling dishes in the city’s new age restaurants, that focus on regional dishes and authenticity. We trace this evolution and explore the new fascination Bengaluru has for the cuisine.

Chef Varun Pereira, the man behind the restaurant Comal, says, “There has been a huge increase in interest for Mexican cuisine. Even the Tex Mex places are now adding Mexican dishes to their menus. I feel it is a very unexplored cuisine. Mexican was never as popular as Italian or Asian. But there is a huge connect between Indian and Mexico.” At Comal you can dine on masa flour tortillas and chilaquiles. The focus is on using techniques, tools (comal means tawa) and ingredients. The tortillas are made with nixtamalization of corn flour and the enchiladas have mole sauce. Their best sellers are jackfruit flautas (rolled-up tacos), horchata, the rice-based drink, and carne asadas (grilled and sliced meat dish).

Varun, with co-founder Pratheek Reddy travelled to Mexico City for a month and ate in Michelin-starred restaurants and street tacos. “I am a big fan of Mexican cuisine, and there was always a gap in the market, and I wanted to bring my love for this food to India and Bengaluru.”

At Comal there are tables facing the open kitchen so guests can chat and give immediate feedback to the chefs. He says the Bengaluru diner is open to new cuisines, compared to other cities. “We get guests who are not familiar with the cuisine and want to be guided through, it is nice to have that option.”

Cantina culture

For restauranteur Rizwan Amlani, opening Mezcalita, a cantina-style establishment was a labour of love. When he was in his 20s, working as a chef in the US, he would go to Mexico often and it almost felt like home. His passion for the country and knowledge of the cuisine is evident as he describes to me the difference between a cantina, a taquería, and a fondita (it is a home-style eatery, if you are curious).

“A cantina is a friendly casual establishment. The bartends will know your name, it is a family affair. It is like an Irani cafe in Mumbai. I go to the same Irani cafe, my great grandfather went to.” Mezcalita has outlets in Mumbai and Bengaluru, and their top sellers are the Baja fish taco, pork carnitas and green enchiladas. The Bengaluru diner, he says, is the most experimental and curious. “My team is challenged every day because people ask a lot of questions. They want to know how it is cooked, what are the spices, why is it so familiar. This is rarer in Mumbai.”

Chocolate in my gravy?

Chinita is a one of the few Mexican restaurants that opened a decade ago. “When we first started, we spent a lot of time on the floor talking to customers, educating them about the cuisine and explaining the various dishes on our menu. Over the last 12 years, we’ve noticed that the cuisine has become more widely accepted and popular, and customers are more knowledgeable about Mexican food now,” says Sameer Mirchandani, the managing partner at the restaurant that has outlets in Koramangala and Indiranagar.

“I remember certain traditional Mexican combinations used to generate a lot of interest, such as chocolate and chilli in our chocolate chilli cake, and the idea of using chocolate in a main course like in our mole.” Their soft tacos, burrito bowls, chocolate chilli cake, and Mexican-style grilled corn have been some of the best-sellers from the start.

Another restaurant in Indiranagar serving regional Mexican food is the newly opened Comedor. With a vegetarian only menu, it has dishes such as chile relleno (stuffed chillies) that hail from the city of Puebla, and Sopa de fideo (a vermicelli soup with Spanish roots). Ingredients such as Mexican pepperleaf, masa flour, cojita cheese and the root vegetable jicama are used in the dishes.

Rizwan feels there are not enough Mexican spaces in India. “Bengaluru diners are experimental, but I feel like every market in India is still not ready to go down that path yet. However, there is scope in the future for regional Mexican food.” He compares it to how Asian food used to be monolith earlier, and now we have specialty spaces. “I would love to do an Oxacan restaurant someday.”

Published - August 13, 2026 01:19 pm IST