A Mexican Food Walk Through Seattle, Street by Street

Seattle is the fifth-largest Mexican restaurant market in our US directory — 23 active restaurants and 13 Mexican and Latin stores, 36 businesses in total — and it is the one people are most surprised by. Washington State as a whole carries 53 restaurants and 46 stores in our data, built on decades of agricultural migration into the Yakima Valley and the Columbia Basin and a steady movement into the city.

What follows is grouped by street corridor, because that is what our data actually records. We hold an address for every business and we do not hold a neighborhood field, so the headings below are drawn from the streets themselves rather than from any claim about where a neighborhood boundary runs. Every rating is Google's, with the review count Google reports; we have not eaten at any of these places and this is not a ranking.

Ballard and Leary Way

Capitol Hill and Pine Street

Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley

Greenwood and the Aurora corridor

Fremont, Dexter and Georgetown

West Seattle and White Center

Pike Place and downtown

North Seattle and the Central District

How to actually walk it

Three of these corridors work on foot and the rest do not. Capitol Hill around Pine Street and Broadway is the densest: a taco counter, two full restaurants and a bar within about fifteen minutes of walking. Ballard Avenue is a second cluster, compact and better in the evening. Beacon Avenue and the Rainier Valley is the most interesting of the three and the most spread out — it rewards a bus ride and then a walk, and it is the stretch where the restaurants and the groceries sit side by side.

The Aurora corridor north of the ship canal is a driving route, not a walk. So is the chain of meat markets and bakeries through South Park and White Center, which is where the oldest Mexican food businesses in the metro area are and the least likely to appear in a visitor guide.

The grocery side

Seattle's store mix is unusual in our data: 9 of its 13 stores are neighborhood tiendas rather than supermarkets, which is the highest proportion of any large metro area we list. There is no Mexican supermarket chain in the city in our data — no Food City, no Cardenas, no El Super — so the groceries are independents, and several of them have a tortillería or a bakery attached.

Two worth knowing about from the names alone: Pasteleria y Panaderia La Ideal on 8909 14th Ave S and Milpa Masa Tortilla Bakery on 3416 SW Webster St. The first makes masa and tortillas; the second is a bakery and pastry shop.

What the numbers look like

Before you go

Hours in this city are tighter than in the southern metros: of the Seattle restaurants where we hold hours, 7 close at 11 p.m. or later on any night. Check before a late trip. The full Seattle list is in our US restaurant directory and store directory.

And if you want to cook what the Oaxacan kitchens in this city are known for, start with Oaxacan Black Mole and Green Chicken Tamales.