Mexican Restaurants in Cardiff and Wales: An Area Guide

Wales is not a big market for Mexican food, but the venues that are here cover a wide spread of formats: a shopping-centre burrito counter, two indoor-market stalls, a back street cantina built around agave spirits, a trailer with a permanent pitch at a street food market, and a suburban kitchen crossing Mexican classics with Indian spicing. This article walks through the Mexican and Mexican-influenced venues currently mapped in our UK directory across Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, grouped by where they sit.

A word on what this is. RecetasMexas is a directory: we record where a venue is, what format it operates in, which price band it falls into and how it describes its own menu. We have not eaten at any of these places, and nothing below is a ranking, a score or a review. Every entry comes from that venue's listing in our database, so read it as a map rather than a verdict.

Market stalls, trailers and independents change their addresses and opening patterns more often than chains do, so check the venue's own website or phone number before you travel. Where our records hold opening times we have said so; where they do not, we have left it out rather than guessed.

Cardiff city centre

Most of the Welsh listings cluster in the CF10 postcodes, within a few minutes' walk of one another between The Hayes, Caroline Street and Quay Street.

La Pantera

La Pantera sits at 5 Quay Street, Cardiff CF10 1DZ, tucked off the main shopping routes on the western edge of the centre. It is listed in our directory as a cantina in the mid-range band, and the venue describes itself as Cardiff's first independent back street cantina dedicated to mezcal, tequila and Mexican street food.

Its own tagline sets expectations plainly: it is known, according to the venue, as the home of the unauthentic taco.

Wahaca Cardiff

Wahaca Cardiff is at 51-53 The Hayes, Cardiff CF10 1GA, on the pedestrianised stretch beside the St David's Centre. Our listing records it as a Mexican street food chain in The Hayes, St David's Centre, serving sharing plates, tacos and margaritas from MasterChef winner Thomasina Miers. It falls in the mid-range band, and of the city-centre entries it is the one set up for a table-service meal with a group rather than a counter order.

Barburrito Cardiff

Barburrito Cardiff is at St David's Centre, Cardiff CF10 2EF, inside the shopping centre of the same name. It is mapped as a taqueria in the budget band, described in our records as a Mexican street food chain serving burritos, tacos and nachos made to order in the heart of the city.

Our opening records show an 11:00 to 21:00 pattern on the weekdays we hold, with a later midday start of 12:00 on Sundays. Being inside a shopping centre, it is worth allowing for the centre's own hours as well.

Tortilla Cardiff

Tortilla Cardiff is at 30-32 Caroline Street, Cardiff CF10 1FF, the short run of takeaways locally known as Chippy Alley. Our entry lists it as a budget taqueria doing California-style burritos and tacos, fast-casual in format.

The hours we hold run to 21:00 on the weekdays recorded and to 22:00 on Friday, from an 11:00 opening, which fits the street it is on. If the California-style burrito is the thing you are after, our California burrito recipe shows what goes into the original version.

Cardiff Bay and Mermaid Quay

Las Iguanas Cardiff Bay

Las Iguanas Cardiff Bay occupies Unit 27, Mermaid Quay, Cardiff CF10 5BZ, down on the waterfront rather than in the centre. Our directory classes it as Tex-Mex in the mid-range band and records it as a Latin American chain serving flame-grilled dishes, sharing plates and bottomless brunch with waterfront views.

The listing describes a Latin American menu rather than a strictly Mexican one. It is the only Cardiff Bay entry we currently hold.

Roath and the City Road corridor

Cwtchitas

Cwtchitas trades from Sticky Fingers Food Market, City Road, Cardiff CF24 3DL, east of the centre in Roath. Our entry describes it as a Mexican street food vendor with permanent residency at the Sticky Fingers food market, working out of a bright yellow trailer called Frida. The name is a Hispanic play on the Welsh word for hugs, which is about as Cardiff as a Mexican listing gets.

It sits in the budget band, and the opening records we hold show a 12:00 to 21:00 pattern across the days listed. As with any market pitch, the market's own trading days govern access.

North Cardiff: Whitchurch Road

Vivo Amigo Indi-Mex

Vivo Amigo Indi-Mex is at 138 Whitchurch Road, Cardiff CF14 3LZ, a suburban high street north of the city centre. Our listing calls it a quirky Mexican-Indian fusion restaurant whose signature Indi-Mex menu pairs Mexican classics with Indian spice profiles, alongside a cocktail list. It is in the mid-range band and can be reached on +44 29 2061 1115.

Our opening records show it closed on Mondays, with a 12:00 start on the other days we hold and closing times running to 22:00 midweek and 23:00 on Friday. It is the only fusion listing in the Welsh set, so go in expecting a crossover menu rather than a conventional one.

Swansea

El Mercado

El Mercado is at Unit 42a, Swansea Market, Oxford Street, Swansea SA1 3PQ, inside the indoor market. Our records list it as a budget taqueria, a Mexican street food stall serving burritos, tacos, quesadillas and salad boxes, with vegan and vegetarian options noted on the entry.

This is a daytime operation on the hours we hold: openings from 11:00 or 11:30 and closing at 16:00, with Monday and Sunday recorded as closed. Plan it as a lunch stop rather than an evening one.

Piñatas Burrito Bar

Piñatas Burrito Bar is at 43 Wind Street, Swansea SA1 1EF, and our entry places it inside the Socialdice board game cafe on Wind Street, opened in 2020. It is listed as a cantina in the budget band, serving burritos, tacos and signature margaritas in a games-and-drinks setting. The number on file is +44 1792 463 462.

The board game setting is the distinguishing detail here. If you want to mix your own margarita at home, our margarita recipe covers the classic build.

Newport

Bab Haus Mex Newport

Bab Haus Mex Newport trades from Newport Market, High Street, Newport NP20 1FX. Our directory describes it as a Welsh-Mexican fusion vendor inside the revamped Newport Market, with a sister site at Ffos Caerphilly, and lists loaded tacos, birria and homemade salsas on the menu. It sits in the budget band.

The opening pattern we hold has it closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, running 12:00 to 20:30 on Friday and a shorter 12:00 to 15:30 on Sunday, so weekend timing matters more here than at most of the other entries. Birria is the dish that most often pulls people to a stall like this; our birria tacos recipe sets out the long-braise method behind it.

How to use this list, and how to fix it

These are the venues we currently hold entries for across Wales. Several sit inside markets or a shopping centre and one is a trailer, so the host site's trading hours often matter as much as the venue's own.

Everything above is drawn from our database, not from visits. If a venue has moved, closed, changed its opening pattern or changed its menu, the listing page for that venue has a route to report it, and corrections feed straight back into the directory. That is the only way a map like this stays accurate between updates.

If none of these is near you, the other route is your own kitchen. The agave-forward end of what La Pantera describes makes more sense once you have read our British drinker’s guide to mezcal and tequila, and almost everything on these menus improves with a decent salsa: our pico de gallo takes minutes and needs no cooking at all.