Tex-Mex and Fusion in the UK: the 45 Venues That Are Not Trying to Be Mexican

Tex-Mex is a real cuisine with a real history. It was invented by Tejanos — Mexican-Texan families on the northern side of a border that moved across them in 1848 — and it has its own canon: fajitas, chilli con carne, yellow cheese, flour tortillas, nachos, the combination plate. It is not bad Mexican food. It is a different food, and the useful thing a directory can do is say which is which.

Our UK data classifies 39 venues as Tex-Mex and 6 as fusion — 45 in all. Here they are. As with every type-classified venue in our British directory, none of the 45 carries a Google rating, so this page describes and does not rank.

Where they are

London has 18 of the 45. Manchester and Bristol have three each; Oxford, Birmingham, Sheffield and Cambridge two each; and one each in Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, Edinburgh, Brighton, Liverpool, York, Bath, Dundee, Southampton, Tonbridge and Cardiff. That is a far more even national spread than the taquería map, which is concentrated in London — and the reason is that Tex-Mex arrived in Britain as chain casual dining and chains distribute by population, not by community.

Las Iguanas: the biggest presence, and an honest label

Nine of the 45 are Las Iguanas branches — Manchester's Deansgate, Glasgow's West Nile Street, Leeds' Cloth Hall Street, Bristol's harbourside, Newcastle's Grey Street, Nottingham's Chapel Quarter, Edinburgh's George Street, Liverpool ONE, Sheffield's Meadowhall, York's Back Swinegate and Bath's Seven Dials.

The group's own listings describe Latin American food rather than Mexican: "flame-grilled dishes, sharing plates and bottomless brunch", with decor inspired by the southern hemisphere. That is accurate and we would rather quote it than argue with it. The Bristol harbourside site is noted in its listing as the original, established in 1991, which makes Las Iguanas one of the oldest continuously trading Latin American restaurant groups in Britain — older than most of the Mexican independents in our entire directory.

Several of these rooms are also beautiful buildings: Grey Street in Newcastle is described as "a grand Victorian setting", and Cloth Hall Street and George Street are not small spaces. If you are feeding a mixed group of twelve on a Saturday, this is the part of the market built for it.

Tortilla and Chipotle: Californian, not Texan

A second cluster inside the Tex-Mex classification is the Mission-burrito chains. Tortilla appears at Islington's Upper Street, Putney High Street, Hammersmith's King Street, London Wall, Oxford's Cornmarket Street and Brighton's North Street, among others; Chipotle at Canary Wharf, Battersea's Northcote Road and Oxford's Cornmarket Street.

Both describe themselves as California-style, which is the honest term. A Mission burrito — rice, beans, meat, salsa and cheese in a flour tortilla the size of a forearm — was invented in San Francisco in the 1960s and is no more Texan than it is Mexican. Our directory classifies some Tortilla sites as taquerías and some as Tex-Mex, which is an inconsistency on our side rather than a distinction in the restaurants, and we would rather flag it than hide it.

The independent Tex-Mex rooms, which are the interesting ones

• Luck, Lust, Liquor & Burn, 100-102 High St, Manchester — described on its listing as a Cal-Mex room in the Northern Quarter "combining the best of Mexican dishes with generous American portions", known for loaded nachos. Cal-Mex is a third category again, and naming it rather than hiding behind "Mexican" is to its credit.
• El Paso, 10 Cumberland St, Sheffield — a Tex-Mex room open to midnight on Fridays.
• Mexican Grill, 24 Castle St, Dundee — "fajitas, burritos, tacos and a lively bar atmosphere", which is the Tex-Mex canon stated plainly.
• Perios Brindleyplace, 14T Brindley Pl, Birmingham — a Tex-Mex grill, part of a Birmingham-based group with several city sites.
• Chiquito, Metrocentre, Gateshead — Tex-Mex favourites, beer and cocktails, and 4.5 from 2,491 Google reviews, which makes it one of the few venues in this category for which we hold any rating at all.

The six fusion venues, and why two of them matter

Fusion is our directory's smallest UK category and it holds the two most decorated kitchens in the whole British Mexican landscape.

Peter Street Kitchen, in the Free Trade Hall on Peter Street, Manchester, is classified as fusion and sits at Google's ££££ tier — one of only two Mexican-adjacent venues in the UK at the top band. Its listing describes Japanese-Mexican cooking and records multiple British Restaurant Awards wins. It is closed on Sunday.

Los Mochis has two sites, Notting Hill (2-4 Farmer St) at £££ and London City (100 Liverpool St), and works the same Japanese-Mexican seam; the City site holds 4.5 from 3,587 Google reviews. Notting Hill opens at 09:30 on Sundays and runs to midnight on Fridays.

Batida, 85 Whiteladies Rd, Bristol, is described as Latin American, "inspired by Argentinian churrascarias and Mexican cantinas", with charcoal-grilled meats. It is closed Sundays. The remaining fusion entries are Los Gordos' Covent Garden operation, Mexican-Colombian and birria-led.

Japanese-Mexican is not a gimmick, incidentally: both cuisines build around citrus, chilli and raw fish, and aguachile and ceviche are already closer to sashimi than to anything European. If the idea appeals, green aguachile and fish ceviche are the Mexican end of that conversation.

How to tell which room you are in before you sit down

Four menu tells, in order of reliability:

• Yellow cheese. Cheddar or a melted cheese sauce over anything is Tex-Mex. Mexican cooking uses fresh and crumbling cheeses — queso fresco, cotija, Oaxaca — which do not go orange.
• Flour tortillas by default. Flour is northern Mexican and Texan; corn is the rest of Mexico. A menu with no corn tortilla option has made a decision.
• Chilli con carne and fajitas. Both are Texan inventions. Neither is served in Mexico except to tourists.
• Cumin. Heavy cumin in everything is a Tex-Mex seasoning signature; Mexican cooking uses it sparingly and leans on dried chillies, Mexican oregano and achiote instead. The distinction is covered in our ingredient swaps guide.

None of that is a criticism. A plate of fajitas is a good dinner and a chimichanga is a legitimate thing to want. The problem is only ever the label, and the reason to get the label right is so that the 71 venues calling themselves taquerías and the 15 calling themselves cantinas are judged against what they are attempting instead.

If you want the long version of the distinction, taco against burrito against fajita against quesadilla and the myths British diners believe about Mexican food both cover it.

Frequently asked questions

How many Tex-Mex restaurants are there in the UK?

Thirty-nine are classified as Tex-Mex in our directory, plus six as fusion. London holds 18 of the 45.

Is Tex-Mex worse than Mexican food?

No, it is different food with its own history in Texas and the Mexican-American southwest. The only thing worth correcting is a restaurant that sells one as the other.

Which is the most expensive?

Peter Street Kitchen in Manchester, at Google's ££££ tier — one of only two Mexican-adjacent UK venues in that band.

Are these your ratings?

We hold almost no ratings for this category: none of the 39 Tex-Mex or 6 fusion listings carries one, bar two exceptions noted above whose figures come from Google. We map; we do not review.