Best Mexican Restaurants in Leeds, Ranked by Google Rating

Here is our answer to the search for the best Mexican restaurants in Leeds, built on a rule rather than a hunch. We ranked the Mexican venues in our Leeds listings by their average Google rating, broke ties on the number of Google reviews, and included only venues with at least fifty reviews. The figures are those our directory held in October 2026. 5 venues meet that standard out of 10 in our Leeds listings once duplicates are removed.

We have not scored these restaurants ourselves, and nothing here is a tasting verdict. A Google average is a crowd measure, and like any crowd measure it rewards some kinds of venue more than others; we explain the main distortions further down. The point of a published rule is that you can disagree with the result and still see exactly how it was reached.

The ranking

Names link to each venue's page in our directory, with address, hours and website.

#	Venue	Address	Google rating	Reviews
1	Birria Birria Leeds	74 Victoria Rd, Headingley, Leeds LS6 1DL	4.8	262
2	Hooleos	20 Town St, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RJ	4.8	201
3	Lupe's Cantina	204 Cardigan Rd, Burley, Leeds LS6 1LF	4.7	1,339
4	Salon Madre Leeds	114 Wellington St, Leeds LS1 4LT	4.6	124
5	Boojum Merrion Street	92 Merrion St, Leeds LS2 8NG	4.5	380

The table is short but unusually tight: the whole ranking sits within a few tenths of a star. What separates the venues more clearly is the review column. One of them has been reviewed well over a thousand times, and an average built on that many reviews is far steadier than the ones above it built on a couple of hundred. If you value predictability, weigh that column as heavily as the rating.

Two duplicate listings

Our directory holds two entries each for two venues: Lupe's Cantina also appears as Lupe's Cantina Mexicana, and Boojum Merrion Street also appears as Boojum Leeds, both pairs at the same addresses. We have counted each venue once, under the entry with Google figures.

The venues at the top

Hours are taken from each venue's listing. Headingley's venues are busy on match days at the cricket and rugby ground, and the city centre on weekend nights, so check before you go.

Birria Birria Leeds

Address: 74 Victoria Rd, Headingley, Leeds LS6 1DL
Google rating: 4.8 from 262 reviews (as held in our directory, October 2026)
Opening hours (directory listing): daily 15:00–21:00

On Victoria Road in Headingley, the student and residential district north-west of the centre. Its name says what it specialises in. Birria is slow-cooked meat in a chilli adobo from Jalisco, traditionally goat; the beef version served as tacos with consommé for dipping grew up in Tijuana, and the cheese-filled quesabirria spread from there during the 2010s. Our guide to birria in London covers the dish in more depth.

Hooleos

Address: 20 Town St, Horsforth, Leeds LS18 4RJ
Google rating: 4.8 from 201 reviews (as held in our directory, October 2026)
Opening hours (directory listing): Mon 12:00–15:00 · Tue–Thu 12:00–15:00, 18:00–22:30 · Fri 12:00–15:00, 18:00–23:00 · Sat 12:00–16:00, 17:00–23:00 · Sun 12:00–17:00

On Town Street in Horsforth, the town on the north-western edge of Leeds. It shares the top rating in the table with the venue above and sits second only because it has fewer reviews, which is how ties are broken here. It is also the kind of venue that city-centre guides miss and that a rule-based ranking picks up.

Lupe's Cantina

Address: 204 Cardigan Rd, Burley, Leeds LS6 1LF
Google rating: 4.7 from 1,339 reviews (as held in our directory, October 2026)
Opening hours (directory listing): Mon closed · Tue–Thu 12:00–21:00 · Fri–Sat 12:00–21:30 · Sun closed
Website: lupescantinamexicana.co.uk

On Cardigan Road in Burley, at the edge of Headingley. It has the largest review count in the table by some distance, which makes its rating the steadiest figure in this guide.

Below the threshold

These Leeds venues are in our directory but not in the ranking, because our directory does not yet hold a Google rating for them. Several are in the city centre's evening districts around Call Lane, Boar Lane and Cloth Hall Street, so this is a gap in our data and not a judgement on the food.

• Barburrito Leeds, 61 Boar Lane, Leeds LS1 6HW (no Google rating in our directory)
• Este Cuate, Number 8 Cocktail Bar, Stainbeck Lane, Meanwood, Leeds LS7 2PU (no Google rating in our directory)
• Las Iguanas Leeds, Unit 3, Cloth Hall Street, Leeds LS1 2HD (no Google rating in our directory)
• Neon Cactus, 35 Call Lane, Leeds LS1 7BT (no Google rating in our directory)
• Sabroso Street, 10 Town Street, Farsley, Leeds LS28 5LD (no Google rating in our directory)

Leeds by area

• Headingley and Burley. Two of the venues at the top of the ranking are here, on the roads between the university and the cricket ground. It is the strongest area in the table.
• The city centre. Merrion Street, Wellington Street, Call Lane and Boar Lane hold the chains, the cocktail bars and the late venues, all walkable from the station.
• The outer suburbs. Horsforth, Farsley and Meanwood each appear in our listings with a single venue serving its own neighbourhood.

For a street-by-street guide with more venues and the city's shops, see our neighbourhood guide to Mexican restaurants in Leeds.

Reading a Google rating

An average tells you how satisfied reviewers were. It does not measure how closely a kitchen follows any regional tradition, and in Leeds a few patterns are worth keeping in mind:

• Student footfall. Venues near the universities are reviewed by a large, young, price-conscious crowd, which shapes both the volume and the tone of reviews.
• Small pools move. A venue with a couple of hundred reviews can gain or lose a tenth of a star quickly. Read recent reviews too.
• Chains are rated on consistency. A burrito counter that does the same thing well every day tends to collect steady scores.
• Delivery distorts. Tacos and birria suffer in a delivery box; ratings from delivery customers can undersell a kitchen.

What to order

Leeds menus run from birria and tacos to burritos and cantina sharing plates. Whatever you choose, the tortilla tells you a lot. When UNESCO inscribed traditional Mexican cuisine on its intangible heritage list in 2010, it put maize, beans and chilli at the centre and named nixtamalisation, cooking maize with lime, as a defining technique. Corn tortillas pressed from nixtamalised masa are softer, more fragrant and hold up far better when dipped in consommé.

• Birria tacos with consommé: dip each taco in the broth before you bite. If you want to cook it, our beef birria recipe walks you through the adobo.
• Al pastor: chilli-marinated pork from a vertical spit, the trompo, descended from the shawarma Lebanese immigrants brought to Mexico.
• A good salsa: most of what makes a taco is the salsa. Our six salsa mistakes explains what separates a good one.

Frequently asked questions

How was the ranking decided?

By average Google rating as held in our directory in October 2026, among venues with at least fifty reviews, with the number of reviews breaking ties. Duplicate listings were counted once.

Does the ranking include Horsforth?

Yes, where venues there are filed under Leeds in our directory. The address column shows where each venue is.

Why is a city-centre bar missing?

Our directory does not hold a Google rating for it yet. It is listed in the section below the threshold.

Where can I buy Mexican ingredients in Leeds?

Our shop directory lists the grocers we have mapped in Leeds and across Yorkshire, and every venue here is in the restaurant directory.

Sources

• Wikipedia, Birria (origin in Jalisco, Tijuana-style beef birria, quesabirria): en.wikipedia.org
• UNESCO, Traditional Mexican cuisine: ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm (inscribed 2010): ich.unesco.org
• Wikipedia, Al pastor (Lebanese shawarma, Puebla, the trompo): en.wikipedia.org