After spending the past month profiling the best Mexican food in Korea, it’s time to make some distinctions. It’s too hard to come out and say ‘XYZ’ is best, simply because there are so many things to consider, of which importance varies depending on the patron. So it’s easier to break into some subgroups. We should add that not all Mexican restaurants were profiled in the blog, this past month, however, we have all known Mexican restaurants listed (with directions) on our wiki. Lastly, it should be noted that all of these restaurants might not feature a full Mexican menu, but as long as they have multiple Mexican items, then they’d be included (ie., this is why we’ve included The Holy Grill in our reviews, whereas family restaurants that have quesadillas and nachos on a broad menu might not make the cut.).
Best Taco
Choi’s Tacos
Best Burrito
Dos Tacos
Best Nachos
The Holy Grill
Best Margarita (tie)
The Holy Grill
On The Border
Best Real Mexican (or close to it, anyways)
Mexico (in Masan)
Best Place To Sit Down For A Few Hours
On The Border
Best Place To Eat Quickly Or Take Out
Choi’s Tacos
Best Ambience (tie)
On The Border
Los Amigos
Best For Low Budgets
Taco Chili Chili
Best For Birthdays or Large Parties
Los Amigos
Mexican Restaurant List in Korea
-Seoul and Gyeonggi-do area
Los Amigos
Casa Loca
Casa Maya
Choi’s Tacos
Cunga Conga
Dos Tacos
La Merce
Oasis
On The Border
Panchos
Taco Amigo
Taco Bell
Taco Chili Chili
Tom Tailor
Urbanos
-Busan
Taco
Taco al Puebla
Taco Loco
-Daegu
La Cantina
The Holy Grill
-Masan
Mexico
-Songtan
Las Casa
A topic of conversation that is likely to yield opinions out of any age group and gender is ‘who do you think is the prettiest/hottest female celebrity/actress/talent’. I suppose there should be a male version to this, but you’re not going to get many male students to chime in with their thoughts, whereas both genders tend to have preferences (ie., “Can you do my hair like XYZ”, “Can you do surgery on my cheekbones to look like XYZ?”, etc…) over who is the fairest of the fairer sex.
There’s a handful of current names that are most frequently talked about and I’m happy to profile each one. Let’s start with the 3 popular names uttered in plastic surgery-seeking circles:
The above picture shows Kim Taehee, Han Ga-in, and Song Hyekyo, plus quotes on how much it would cost to have plastic surgery to look like them.
1. Han Ga-in is the better deal, surgery-wise, but that doesn’t sway the vote as to why we think she is #1. It’s hard not to find any massive billboard with her face plastered on it. And its even harder to look away.
(From Naver Cafe)
2. Kim Taehee is hard not to make a case for #1, as she is another one that you see everywhere and steals your eyes right out of your head.
(From Image Bingo)
3. Cute, wholesome Lee Nayoung made her mark in Please Teach Me English and has never stopped rising. A tough call to make for #3, with Hyori nipping at her heels (Wow, I can get used to staying that sentence over and over.)
(From ImageBingo)
4. Any list cannot be without the Big Nasty. Despite being 29, Lee Hyori (pron. Hyo-lee) can be considered the elder stateswoman of most lists. Another one that makes people stop and stare in mid-sentence during any of her commercials.
(From Gombox Cafe)
5. Ivy’s emergence onto the music scene with her sexy songs and jaw-dropping (by Korean standards, anyways) videos makes her a lock on any list of hot Korean celebrities.
(From’s Moonshomme’s Cafe)
Cunga Conga in Myeongdong is kind of an anomaly of sorts. An African-themed restaurant featuring a menu with Korean and Mexican cuisine. But to rule out any confusion, it should be known that their tortillas are done very right and are the real draw. Worth a visit if you are in the area doing some shopping.
I remember going to Casa Maya (까사마야) years ago when they were in Apgujeong. Great memories of margaritas on a patio. I don’t recall the food, off-hand, but this was the only Mexican place near me, when living in Seoul (Casa Loca’s former Apgujeong location hadn’t opened by that time, nor was Dos Tacos‘ in Gangnam), so my atttitude on the food was ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. That’s not to suggest it wasn’t good, it’s just that I was happy enough to be having it. I’ll have to defer to Ines Cho’s more candid review in the Joongang, when she visited Casa Maya’s new location in Hongdae after they closed the one south of the river.
Edit: What’s with Apgujeong being kryptonite for Mexican places? First Casa Maya moves, then Casa Loca’s place in Apgu and King Taco bow out. I’m still reeling from the loss of Shwing, even though that had nothing to do with Mexican. Dos Tacos is still in that area, though. But who knows for how long.
Keeping with the steady-eddy Mexican places that are well-managed and are likely to still be around whenever you stumble across this blog post, Dos Tacos (도스타코스) deserves mention for being among the best. They started out in, what I thought at the time, was a tough location to survive in. Just down from Kyobo building near Gangnam Station. But tucked away in a side street with zero frontage on the main strip. Just only relying on a well-placed sign surrounded by other restaurant signs and hoping word-of-mouth takes care of the rest. Well, it worked, as their Gangnam location always seems busy and they’ve also gone ahead and opened locations in Apgujeong and Hongdae. Hannah Bae of Joongang Ilbo reviews better than me, so I’ll let her vouch for the place:
Whoa, gyopo overload.
That was my first thought upon walking up to Gangnam’s Dos Tacos. The couple playing ping-pong outside had been speaking English, and when I got inside the tiny, crowded restaurant, I heard an endless chatter of English.
Because I live and work north of the Han River, I don’t frequent the south, especially the area around Gangnam Station. I guess I never realized how many Korean-Americans congregated there.
But considering the high hagwon concentration in the area, it’s no wonder this is where the better-off foreigners live.
This is also probably why the food at Dos Tacos is so good. I’m willing to bet that the Gangnam crowd knows what real ― er, American-style ― Mexican food tastes like.
My friend and I managed to snag a table, which luckily vacated a minute after we sat at the bar. After giving the menu a look, we were faced with a dilemma: Holler “yeogiyo” (“Here, please!”) as if we were at a Korean restaurant, or politely make eye contact with the waitress? It’s hard to say whether American ettiquette for dining out applies in gyopo wonderland.I’m still not quite sure which is de rigueur at Dos Tacos, but we were pressed for time so I opted for the holler. I ordered our chili fries (“Chili fries aren’t even Mexican, are they?” my friend pointed out), Cokes, a beef and avocado burrito, a chicken soft taco and a shrimp fajita ― only to be cut off by our waitress.
“This is for the two of you?” she asked in Korea, looking from me to my friend.
“Yes,” I answered. “It’s O.K.”
While I must admit I ordered more food than I normally would have for the sake of this review, I certainly hadn’t expected to be questioned about it. But I suppose that in ever weight-conscious Korea, it’s practically unheard of for petite women like my friend and me to pig out.
And did we ever.
The chili fries (7,500 won, $7.92) came first, with a healthy scoop of chili on top and hot, crispy steak fries on the bottom, salted to perfection. I didn’t care if they were “Mexican” or not ― they were good.
The fajita (5,500 won), while preassembled (the best part of fajitas, in my opinion, is putting them together yourself), was delicious. I didn’t get any shrimp in my first couple bites, but I found a substantial serving in the rest. There were some colorful grilled peppers inside, as well as a nice dose of spice. The flour tortilla, as on the taco and burrito, came nicely toasted.
The flavorful chicken in the taco (3,500 won) was marinated and came stuffed with nice, crisp greens. The beef and avocado burrito (8,000 won) was my favorite.
I miss my chipotle burritos from back home, which weigh about as much as a newborn baby. No one would mistake Dos Tacos’ burrito for an infant (that’s a good thing), but it’s certainly substantial.With little pieces of steak in every bite, smooth, buttery avocado and more leafy greens, the burrito was the best I’ve had on this side of the Pacific. That’s saying a lot, too, considering that I have a pretty good Mexican joint, Chili Chili Taco, right by my house.
But I do have to mention the slightly messy process of paying our bill. With such low prices, I had no problem forking over the cash. But I had to ask the waitress several times for a takeout box for the excess food, which, as I learned in the end, she had misheard as “pastor.” The taco al pastor, which Dos Tacos serves, is a flat, open-face tortilla with all the fixings on top.
When I clarified what I’d actually meant at the register, the waitress let slip an expletive. And just like everyone else in the restaurant, she verbalized her thoughts in English.
I suppose a Best Mexican food in Korea series cannot go without some mention of Casa Loca. They came onto the scene in 2005 with the impact of a stick busting open a Piñata, bringing in a Mexican chef from Mexico City to oversee the kitchen, rolling out great branding, website, marketing, TV advertising, PPC ads for every possible Mexican keyword on Naver, etc…The food review TV programs lapped it up and also gave them some free exposure. Then the Apgujeong location opened and talk began to circulate of 2 other locations possibly opening up soon. Then, something must have happened internally, as the prestigious Apgujeong location has since closed and things quieted down. The Yeouido location still stands and churns out some of the finest Mexican that Seoul has to offer, with burritos, tacos, tostados, jalisco, and they’ve even tweaked a bit for any Koreans who are finicky, by offering accepted western staples, like steak and BBQ ribs.
Keeping with the Mexican series, we focus on something a little off of Seoul’s culinary radar. WAY off down to Masan, where you can find a small mexican restaurant simply called ‘Mexico‘, nestled in Masan’s popular nightlife area of Chang-dong (expect a wiki article on that local scene sometime soon).
‘Mexico’ doesn’t just sling out the token Mexican fare, but is much more authentic, offering real Mexican dishes like allambre, queso fundido, and salpicon. This place is the real deal, so much as that it should give Masan some pause for consideration from prospective teachers who have local job offers that would otherwise go unnoticed amongst offers from the bigger cities.
From MCJfood, a great Daum Cafe site that profiles restaurants in the Masan, Changwon, and Jinhae corridor.
While I’m spending most of my available wiki time on Sinchon, these days, I might as well start the Mexican series off with the famed Choi’s Tacos, in the local area.
Choi’s Tacos (초이스 타코) first appeared on the scene in the spring of 2005 and word-of-mouth has sprung like wildfire, ever since. Not just among expats, but moreso among Koreans. In fact, at any given moment, if you were to walk past Choi’s, you’d see that all seats in his small little place are almost always full of Koreans. That’s obviously the difference here. If you open up anything that plays well to foreign tastes, you better pray to god that Koreans will embrace it, otherwise you are dead in the water. In this case, Choi’s opened up in a vital location where pretty much anything would sell to at least somebody. Even Snot-Covered-Ass-On-A-Stick might even get people walking up to that location. Sinchon street locations seem to sometimes make the damndest of successes, like Mr.Wow and its huge line-ups, for instance. But the great location should not discount what great food is there. He’s likely paying a fair price for that spot and in an area notorious for high turnover and he has been there for 3 years. And that kind of recipe for long-term success can only come in the form of great food and the word-of-mouth that stems from it.
Choi’s Tacos circa 2006. From Yahoo 거기 profile.
Present day:
As an aside, I must say that I absolutely love Choi’s logo and branding. Props for understanding the importance of investing in that, particularly the patience to evolve over time.
Although we’ve documented all known Mexican places in Korea, on the wiki, the wiki has some restrictions due to the rules we’ve placed on it to try and offer a neutral POV. So I’ve decided to make a Best of Korea series and kick it off with Mexican food. There are a number of places that haven’t been to, nor have sampled a large cross-section of their menus, so its not going to be ironclad testimonies, moreso than profiling the experiences others have had and offering links and images. When I come back to Korea again, it’d be nice to take a week and do a cross-country tour of these places, maybe with supplementary video, and we can offer critiques and ratings based on best marg, best nachos, best burrito, best ambience, etc…But for now, I’ll put all of these in blog review format, to supplement their wiki profiles.
