Taco Derio, Shinjuku (御苑ぐらい)

The search for quality Mexican food in Tokyo, my friends, stops here.

But only briefly.

And then it continues on its way, sadly shaking its head from side to side.

That’s an overstatement, and the tacos here were certainly not bad. The tortillas were not at all bad, but very thin in an almost rice-paper way. I have to admit that after the first time I tasted them, my benchmark for tacos was immediately set by those made by Ned’s Nicaraguan housekeeper/cook/nannie/lovely person Faustina, RIP, and her tortillas were very thick and full of maize in an appealingly home-made way.

Generally everything comes in sets, at a healthy discount to the per-piece prices (about 10%). You can get…a taco and nachos! Two tacos! Two tacos and nachos! Three tacos! The wonderment of it all! Tacos come in several varieties, which include Meat, Chicken, Fish and Chorizo (it says ‘Mexican Chorizo’, which got me all excited, but it’s very much a Japanese-style sausage – finely-ground meat re-mixed with larger chunks of fat, with a thin-and-crunchy casing. Nothing chorizo about it, as far as I’m concerned.)

So the fish taco was OK, and the chorizo taco was OK, and the hot sauce was interesting and pretty good, and it was all fresh, and the two staff looked kinda Spanish and kinda Mexican and she was sweet and friendly and he was dark and surly and we were confused at speaking Japanese to each other and everything was kinda fun, especially when you consider that all of this transpired in 15 minutes.

Stop in if you’re walking by, or check out the Turkish place next door. This neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of appealing destinations, so you’re on your own.

The search goes on. But not in any organized way.
03-5368-2536
〒160-0022 新宿区新宿2-7-1不二川ビル1F