Coming from San Diego, we didn’t expect to find great Mexican Food in Uruguay (San Diego has the best Mexican food around… I know you probably disagree if you’re from Texas, but that’s okay). Hopeful that we’d be wrong, we decided to look around Montevideo to see what Mexican restaurants Uruguay has to offer.
Our first couple weeks here, we were referred to Roma Tijuana Mexican Restaurant, located at Cnel Mora 533, as being a great Mexican food restaurant. So, we decided to check it out.
We ordered a chips and salsa sampler as our appetizer. Let’s just say we were very happy we brought our own hot sauce with us. The salsa was actually a slightly spicy ketchup, but we fixed that right up with some Tapatio and we were good to go.
I ordered enchiladas, and while they weren’t bad, they definitely weren’t what I was expecting. I thought enchiladas were supposed to be covered with sauce? Not at Roma Tijuana.
Brian got the fajitas. He said they weren’t too bad, but definitely nowhere near to what we’d get in San Diego.
Roma Tijuana is sort of like Mexican food meets Italian food. Interesting, but not what we were looking for. So, strike one in our search for good Mexican food in Uruguay.
We love roaming the streets of Montevideo in search of our next favorite restaurant. Last Friday night we came across La Lupita Mexican Restaurant. It’s located at Luis de la Torre 565, at the corner of Gregorio Suárez in the Punta Carretas barrio of Montevideo.
From the street, it doesn’t look like anything special. But, once you walk inside you know there has to be something special about this place. From the pictures on the wall to the red, white and green streamers across the ceiling, the décor screams Mexico.
The restaurant is small, so if you don’t get there early, expect a wait. The place was packed, and halfway through dinner, we noticed there was a line out the door. But, so far, I would say this is the closest thing to authentic Mexican food in Uruguay that we’ve found.
They served chips and salsa when we sat down. The sauce they served was very mild, but when we asked if they had salsa mas picante, our waitress happily brought out a bowl of spicy salsa (yah!) and a bottle of habanero hot sauce. We never even had to break out our own hot sauce at La Lupita.
I ordered the enchiladas rojas and they actually had sauce on them. They were good, definitely not as good as my homemade ones, but much better than the ones from Roma Tijuana.
Brian got the enchiladas verdes, which were also good, and a cerdo (pork) taco.
Zoë has had an enormous appetite lately, so we ordered her a plate of mini taquitos and tostadas. She just loved dipping the taquitos in the bowl of guacamole. Believe it or not, she finished off this whole platter!
La Lupita also serves Corona (which Brian happily ordered since we haven’t found Corona in too many places in Uruguay) and a full bar of tequilas (which we didn’t sample).
Overall, I would recommend La Lupita Mexican Restaurant if you’re looking for Mexican food in Uruguay. I’m sure we’ll stumble across a couple more Mexican restaurants before long, but for now, La Lupita will be our choice for Mexican food in Uruguay.
JDog says
Now I want Mexican food… Albertos here I come… Thanks guys!
Mark says
What is Uraguanian food like?
Brian and Chrystal says
Mark – Check out this blog for our answer: http://blog.exploringuruguay.com/2009/08/uruguay-food-exploring-the-food-of-uruguay.html