I Tried The Best Mexican Food In The World

TL;DR

Traveling across Oaxaca, Sinaloa, and Mexico City reveals that the best Mexican food spans humble home kitchens to Michelin-level restaurants, all united by respect for ingredients.

Key Points

• 1.Oaxaca's communal market grilling is a world-class experience. Charcoal grills line the entire market, vendors sell fresh chiles de agua found nowhere else, and the communal setup lets diners build a custom tasting menu from different meats, salsas, and vegetables.
• 2.Tía Elvia's home breakfast in Oaxaca produced the single best bite of the trip. Cooking over two bricks and a stone comal with no conventional equipment, her costilla frita (fried ribs in fresh tomato salsa) and original mole recipe earned a rare '10 out of 10, no changes' verdict.
• 3.La Teca's coastal Oaxacan chile relleno was called the best in the country. Chef Deyanira Aquino, a Teca woman from Istmo de Tehuantepec, stuffed the fried chile with tender meat, toasted nuts, and olives — briny, sweet, fresh, and fatty all at once.
• 4.Los Mochis, Sinaloa is an undiscovered seafood mecca that almost nobody covers. The aguachile birthplace and floating restaurant La Casita del Ostion served the best oysters and ceviche of the trip; Sinaloa's cuisine reportedly surpasses three-star Michelin aguachile attempts.
• 5.Burritos Beli in Los Mochis makes what may be the best burrito in the world. Hand-rolled translucent flour tortillas stuffed only with bean and meat — chicharron, barbacoa, or potato — with no rice or filler, perfectly salted and served immediately off the griddle.
• 6.Mexico City's Gaba restaurant produced the best tartare and best tripe ever tasted. A cured, aged, lightly smoked beef tartare on tostada rated 9.9–10, and a tripe dish from a chef willing to take risks earned repeated bites despite the host's long-standing dislike of tripe.
• 7.Quintonil, ranked number three in the world and number one in Mexico, delivered the best mole of the trip. The tasting menu blended Mexican tradition with Thai and Asian influences across courses including fried ant larva 'Mexican caviar,' a fine dining tlayuda with crab and galangal pipián, and a 10/10 burnt corn leaf dessert.
• 8.The conclusion is that the best Mexican food has no single winner — care and local ingredients matter most. Tía Elvia cooking over wood in her yard cared as much as Quintonil's fine dining team, and both delivered equally transcendent results at opposite ends of the price spectrum.