Skip to main content
Back to blog
Restaurants 26 Oct 2026 8 min read

Mexican Chains in the UK: Tortilla, Wahaca, Barburrito and the Rest

Which Mexican restaurant chains trade in the UK, what each one actually serves, where our directory lists them, and the independents to try instead.

Edmond BojalilEB

Edmond Bojalil

Recetas Mexas

Mexican Chains in the UK: Tortilla, Wahaca, Barburrito and the Rest

For most people in Britain, the first Mexican meal they ate out was in a chain: a burrito in a shopping centre, a plate of tacos in a high-street dining room, a sizzling skillet of fajitas on a birthday night out. The chains are not the whole story of Mexican food in the UK, but they are where a lot of people start, and they are not all the same. Some are British, some American, one Irish and one Australian; some sell Californian burritos, some Mexican street food, one a Latin American mix, and one Tex-Mex.

This guide explains what each chain is, according to published sources, and where our directory lists its branches. One caveat matters more than any other: our directory does not hold every branch of every chain. It holds the branches we have mapped, as of October 2026. Use it to see where a chain trades, and check the chain's own website for its full and current list.

The burrito chains

Most of the big names sell the same core product, the Mission burrito: a large flour tortilla, steamed until soft, filled with rice, beans, meat and salsa, and wrapped in foil. It became popular in San Francisco's Mission District in the 1960s, and American chains spread it far beyond California.

Tortilla

A British chain, founded in 2007, selling California-style burritos, tacos and bowls. It is the chain our directory lists most often: 33 branches, from Belfast and Edinburgh to Bournemouth, Brighton and a long list of London neighbourhoods, many in shopping centres and near stations. Several of its branches have strong Google records: the Camden branch is in our national burrito ranking, the Belfast branch tops our Belfast ranking, and the Windsor branch is near the top of our Thames Valley ranking.

Barburrito

A British burrito chain based in Manchester. Our directory lists 9 branches:

Boojum

Founded in Belfast in 2007, Boojum grew across the island of Ireland and opened its first branch in Great Britain, in Leeds, in 2024. Our directory lists 5 branches in the UK:

Chipotle

The American chain whose founder has acknowledged the influence of the Mission District taquerías. Burritos, bowls and tacos made to order in front of you. Our directory lists 7 branches, all in London, Oxford and Cambridge:

Zambrero

An Australian franchise serving burritos, bowls and tacos, which also trades in New Zealand, Ireland, the United States and the UK. Our directory lists 5 branches:

The smaller groups

Below the national names are regional burrito groups that our directory lists in a handful of towns: Plan Burrito in Canterbury, Norwich, Loughborough and Leamington Spa; FreshMex in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Nottingham; and, in London, Benito's Hat and Chilango. Plan Burrito is notable for how well its branches score: all of them with Google figures in our directory rate highly, and the Canterbury branch is near the top of our national burrito table.

The Mexican street-food chains

Wahaca

A London-based restaurant group selling Mexican-style street food, co-founded by Thomasina Miers. The name is a phonetic spelling of Oaxaca, the southern Mexican state. Tacos, quesadillas, tostadas and sharing plates rather than burritos are the focus. Our directory lists 12 branches, most of them in London, plus Brighton, Cardiff and Edinburgh:

El Pastor and Santo Remedio

Two smaller London groups worth knowing. El Pastor is a taquería and mezcal bar named after tacos al pastor, with 4 branches in our directory; its London Bridge branch has one of the largest review counts of any Mexican venue in the country. Santo Remedio, with 3 branches in our directory, describes itself as cooking regional specialities from across Mexico. Both are covered in our London area guides, for example our guide to Mexican restaurants in South London.

Latin American and Tex-Mex chains

Las Iguanas

A British casual-dining chain founded in 1991 with a Latin American theme, drawing on Brazilian and Mexican food and more. It is not a Mexican restaurant, though its menu includes Mexican dishes. Our directory lists 13 branches, mostly in big city centres.

Chiquito

A British chain specialising in Tex-Mex: fajitas, nachos and combination plates. Tex-Mex is the cooking of Texans of Mexican descent, a cuisine of its own rather than a copy of Mexican food. Our directory lists one branch, Chiquito, which has 4.5 on Google from 2,491 reviews.

Taco Bell

The American fast-food chain, founded in California in 1962, which serves Mexican-inspired tacos, burritos, quesadillas and nachos. Our directory lists only Taco Bell Glasgow Argyle Street in Glasgow, with 3.5 on Google from 1,553 reviews; the chain has more UK branches than that, which we have not mapped.

Chains or independents?

Chains do some things very well: they are consistent, quick, open long hours and easy to find. Crowd ratings reward that, which is why chain branches often have both high averages and very large review counts. What they rarely offer is regional depth: the corn-based cooking of central and southern Mexico, slow braises, moles and salsas made that morning.

A useful rule of thumb when you are deciding where to eat: if a chain branch and an independent in the same town have similar Google averages, the independent is usually the one with something you cannot get elsewhere, whether that is a regional dish, a salsa made in-house or a tortilla pressed that day. If the independent's average is much lower, read its recent reviews before ruling it out, because small venues are more exposed to a few bad nights.

In most UK cities there is an independent within reach that does those things. Our rankings and guides make that easy to find:

Making the chain classics at home

The burrito bowl is the chain format that is easiest to copy at home, because everything can be made ahead and assembled to order. Our burrito bowl recipe does exactly that, and our carne asada burrito recipe covers the wrapped version.

Frequently asked questions

Which Mexican chain has the most UK branches in your directory?

Tortilla, with 33 branches in our directory. Check the chain's own website for its complete list.

Is Wahaca Mexican?

Wahaca sells Mexican-style street food and takes its name from a phonetic spelling of Oaxaca. It is a British restaurant group, co-founded by Thomasina Miers.

Is Las Iguanas a Mexican restaurant?

No. It is a Latin American-themed chain whose menu includes Mexican dishes alongside Brazilian and other food.

Where can I find every branch you list?

In our restaurant directory, searchable by city.

Sources

Edmond Bojalil
Edmond Bojalil

Founder, Recetas Mexas

Mexican from Puebla, IT professional and foodie. Author of 1000+ authentic Mexican recipes adapted for home kitchens worldwide. Based in Madrid since 2018.

Read more