This unassuming strip mall spot serves several platters that promise days worth of leftovers. The Sinaloa platter comes with a chicken tamale, a chicken enchilada, and a cheese-stuffed chile relleno, all complemented by pinto beans, Mexican rice, sour cream, and pico de gallo. Don’t skip dessert, especially the dense and decadent homemade tres leches cake topped with whipped cream.

Taqueria is in the title, but this strip mall spot, tucked just inside the Beltway in Adelphi, Maryland, offers a full-on fonda experience. A small dining room with tables covered in green-and-white checkered cloth is the stage for a midnight-black mole Poblano that’s captured the attention of critics for years. Simpler pleasures like rich, creamy refried beans stand out, too. Proprietors Bernardo and Clara Vargas also own Panaderia El Mexicano, the bakery in the same lot.

David Perez and Carolina McCandless, the owners of this tidy cocina in Takoma Park, first met while working together at an organic vegetarian Mexican restaurant in San Francisco, so it stands to reason they put a a premium on ingredients. Perez leads the kitchen, grinding masa from heirloom Mexican corn and braising slightly sweet carnitas with Negra Modelo and oranges. Crunchy pepitas add a pleasantly surprising crunch to quesadillas that can be ordered with vegan cashew cheese. Weekend brunch brings an opportunity to sample masa waffles served sweet, with fruit, mezcal mascarpone, and maple syrup, or savory, with smoked ham, Oaxacan cheese, queso fresco, and jalapeno vinaigrette. The restaurant is relocating within the neighborhood some time this summer, per an employee, and the team will soon replace the old Cielo Rojo space with a San Francisco-style San Pancho Burritos.

The pictographic menu at La Placita boasts 20 different tacos, offering specialties and off-cuts such as cecina (salty dried beef), oreja (pig ear), and trompa — labeled in English as pig lip but technically part of the snout — that’s braised until it yields a rich texture not all that different from the fat cap of a ribeye steak. Even late in the afternoon on a weekday, there’s a line for the ordering counter at the expansive taqueria covered in knickknacks that appears to be the epicenter of the “Little Mexico” along Edmonston Road in Hyattsville. Visit La Flor de Puebla bakery next-door for a slice of tres leches cake.

DC Corazon looks like it came out of a Lite Brite box. Owner Josefina Darui painted the facade fuscia, splashed the dining room walls with canary yellow and deep ocean blue, and commissioned cocktails in other neon-glow colors. The mole, by contrast, is chocolate-tinged red but just as memorable. Order it on chicken leg or a plate of “mole mignon” with shrimp and a side of soft blue corn tortillas. Customers will also find one of the more intriguing vegetarian tacos around town: jamaica (hibiscus flowers) sauteed in achiote paste for al pastor preparation.

When he debuted Anafre in November 2019, months before the pandemic hit D.C., Alfredo Solis separated it from his other D.C. restaurants with a focus on coastal dishes like Yucatan shrimp tostadas, fried oyster tacos, and vuelve a la vida, a spicy Sinaloan-style seafood cocktail brimming with crab, shrimp, octopus, and oysters. Those three remain, but the chef has adapted by adding a pizza oven to fire off chile relleno pies and a section of sandwiches such as a grilled steak jibarito with caramelized onions and cilantro jalapeno aioli.

This spring, Salvadoran chef-owner Mauricio Arias turned his former Columbia Heights Italian eatery Ossobuco into a color-soaked destination for vibrant ceviches, al pastor tacos, mahi mahi tostadas, churros, bright salads, and spicy margaritas. Maiz 64 alum Cristian Saucedo helps Arias execute the Mexican cuisine pivot, which includes making tortillas with imported corn flour from Mexico. A bar splashed with “Soup of the Day: Tequila” neon signage sends out creative cocktails like a “Naked in Tulum” with Aperol, mezcal, and passion fruit. Arias is also behind Rinconcito Café and Tortino in Shaw.

This family-run newcomer in Adams Morgan is the real deal. A bright pink-painted facade leads the way to a lengthy Mexican menu full of stellar street tacos on corn tortillas (14 in all), plus fajitas, enchiladas, tortas, burritos, tostadas, enchiladas, chilaquiles, quesadillas, birria ramen, queso, all-day breakfast dishes, weekend-only tamales, and more. Its fruity aguas frescas are not to miss. Enjoy takeout orders inside a studry wooden streatery adorned in colorful banners.

Sibling chefs Alfredo and Jessica Solis opened El Sol in 2014, and D.C.’s Mexican food scene hasn’t been the same since. Try one of Alfredo’s favorite dishes, chilaquiles, or fried tortillas simmered in salsa with a side of runny eggs. When paired with carne asada, the dish manages to be an affordable breakfast that makes sense any time of day. Other standouts include the pambazos — tortas filled with mashed potatoes and chorizo and dripping with red guajillo chile sauce — and molletes — toast covered in black beans, cheese, chorizo and pico de gallo. El Sol has a Vienna, Virginia location, and sibling Mezcalero in D.C. offers a similar menu. A second Mezcalero now sits at La Cosecha with more of a seafood-centric menu.

José Andrés’s airy Mexican restaurant, located in Penn Quarter since 2007, is a high-end option downtown for made-to-order guacamole, antojitos (small plates) with a solid range of vegetables, and tacos like a Yucatán-style cochinita pibil (pit-cooked pig). Head chef Omar Rodriguez’s menu name-drops purveyors like Rancho Gordo beans and Anson Mills rice. Oyamel led the way for D.C. restaurants to grind their own Mexican heirloom corn.

Ambitious, D.C.-based Knead Hospitality + Design brought New York chef Roberto Santibañez to town to serve as culinary director for this huge, artfully appointed waterfront restaurant with a prime position in the buzzy (and consistently pricey) Wharf development. By adding blue cheese, grapes, and smoked almonds to a guacamole perked up with pasilla chiles, customers can try one of the more interesting variations of the avocado dish for $17. Creamy, cheesy enchiladas Suizas are a hearty option, and are there are plenty of ways to enjoy seafood by the Potomac, notably an entree of butterflied, roasted branzino painted in red and green adobo. A newer location sits on 14th Street NW, and a third opened in Chinatown around Cinco de Mayo.

The homemade corn tortillas make all the difference at Taco City D.C., where the chilorio de res tacos (braised beef, avocado sauce, pickled habanero and cilantro) and the al pastor tacos (spit-grilled pork, pineapple, onion, cilantro and salsa roja) really shine. Pozole rojo — a rich Mexican pork and hominy stew topped with accompaniments including radish, lime and tortilla chips — is both comforting and restorative.