jfe

I live in El Paso, and with Juarez (not that I go there that much nowadays), you have all the Mexican food you can handle, literally

Maria Chuchena in Juarez is top notch, and it's $12-$20 per plate, not exactly cheap, but very good. You can expect to pay $20-$30 per person, without drinks.

alcathiax

We don't even need to go to Juárez now to experience what I think is the style of true ethnic food (any ethnic, anywhere you go in the world): roadside stands.

I recently went to one in El Paso. Although the name escapes my mind, I do remember going there recently with my dad and my sister. The stand's kitchen is inside a trailer and has both adjacent indoor and outdoor seating. I ate outside and watched the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Olympics on their outdoor widescreen LCD television while eating a plate of steak tacos and downing a few bottles of ice-cold beer. Good times. ^

cblaisd

The Aztec New Mexican Grill between Farmington NM and Durango CO. Possibly the best New Mexican-style Mexican food I have ever had. Extraordinary sopapillas stuffed with red-chile, cheese, and beans.

Cavillo's Mexican Restaurant in Alamosa, Colorado. Another amazing place, mostly Tex-Mex. I'm not usually a big fan of Mexican buffets but this was incredible (and the cook was putting out small trays of items at a time). You can also order off the menu, and if you ask if something that's on the menu is also on the buffet, they'll offer to do it and put it on the buffet. Best item: possibly the best red-chile enchiladas I've ever had.

jfe

Due to the increasing violence in Juarez, and with all the murders,kidnappings and extortions schemes there, a benefit for El Paso is that some good restaurants are relocating from Juarez into El Paso

Maria Chuchena (really good, but $$$$)
http://www.maria-chuchena.com/ourmenu.php?city=1&lan=1

Burritos Crisostomo (a very well known place in Juarez that has been there forever, or used to be now)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/crisostomo-el-paso

Those are at least some of the ones that are close to my house
But there is Villa Del Mar, Shangri-La (yes , it's Chinese, but pretty darn good) among some others

jbcarioca

Eduardo de San Angel in Fort Lauderdale, FL has the best Mexican food I've had outside Mexico City. It is seriously refined and has none of the standard tex-mex and cal-mex glop. http://www.eduardodesanangel.com/index.htm

The chef and owner Eduardo Pria, was formerly chef of the Mansion on Turtle Creek and studied in Spain. This is seriously excellent food and "worth a trip" as Michelin says.

mad1

San Francisco: Tropisueno, near 4th and Mission (Yerba Buena lane) - sit down type place, please do yourself a favor and get a tamal (sp?)

San Jose: La Victoria, multiple locations downtown -greasy, cheap, full of students. "Super" Corn quesadillas FTW

CMK10

In the Triangle I like El Corral in Durham:

http://www.allmenus.com/nc/durham/51658-el-corral/menu/

It's not the best quality or terribly "authentic" but the service is great, they have cheap beer and portions are good. It's the only place I've ordered shrimp fajitas and has a half dozen shrimp leftover after exhausting my tortillas.

Trav+

Mexican food is varied and good; I've spent some time in Arizona and am keen on Sonoran style food.

When in PHX I drive straight from the airport to here and get stuck in. The red enchilada sauce is majestic, so much depth of flavour .... superb.

A friend in PHX (her mother is Mexican) says if calabacitas is on the menu then she'll give the resto a try. We've also gone to the Ranch Market in Roosevelt Street for tastes of this 'n' that, with good results. But I still rate Carolina's. Mmmm.

cblaisd

El Taco Re in Colorado Springs is simply incredible

Doc Savage

Pepe Delgado's in San Luis Obispo, CA is great; I have dinner there every time I'm in town.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran...alifornia.html

lhrsfo

El Molino Central in Boyes Hot Springs, CA, just north of Sonoma.

CMK10

Los Agaves in Downtown Santa Barbara.

cubbie

I agree with those who say that Mexican immigrants are so widespread in the US that there is hardly any place, even the most rural counties of the most rural states out west, where you're far from a Mexican restaurant, and I think that's a good thing.

I'm a little surprised that, three pages into this thread, no one has yet mentioned Rick Bayless, perhaps the US's foremost authority on Mexican cuisine, and his restaurants in Chicago. I dislike the overused word "authentic" when it comes to cuisine, but if you're a traveller and you're looking for truly Mexican cuisine in the US, you need to pass through Chicago and eat at Rick Bayless's Topolobampo and/or Frontera Grill. Or at the very least, Tortas Frontera at Terminals 1, 3, or 5 at O'Hare.

VivoPerLei

Had an enormous difference of opinion with my wife on Topolobampo. In fact, she wasn't very happy with me for taking her there. I wouldn't recommend it for people who are happy with American style TexMex, but agree with you for those who want the really authentic experience.

In London my current favorite is Lupita. For TexMex eaters I would say Cantino Laredo

TMOliver

I used to travel to EP on occasion and there wasa little "family" place on the East side, La Paloma, which had Gorditas for which to die/to die for.

Shangri-La (originally on the main drag in Juarez, in my youth the best Chinese food this side of Asia, and always remembered as the name of a ship aboard which I "lived" for 3 years) lingers on, now in EP?

There are some, perhaps even I, who still live in a dark and earthy age of Mexican food, the era of Menudo, or whose standard of excellence was formed by the quality of the chorizo con huevos taken in the courtyard of a bordello the "Morning After".

....Or that remember that "Barbacoa", the real thing, comes from the head of a cow, calf, steer or even a bull, after long, slow, buried baking.

...and that East of the Sierra Madre, tortillas are made with mais, and tortillas de harina are for Christmas and Holidays.