Aqui Es Texcoco
Mexican restaurant · Chula Vista
520 Broadway 5 & 6, Chula Vista, CA 91910
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Highlights
Traditional lamb barbacoa, consommé, quesadillas, quail, and flautas.
Traditional lamb barbacoa, consommé, quesadillas, quail, and flautas.
"Aqui es Texcoco is an East LA institution serving lamb barbacoa you need immediately in your life. Located in Commerce, Texcoco is a full-scale restaurant with great beer, a festive atmosphere, and karaoke on Thursdays and Fridays." - Brant Cox
"This homey, spacious restaurant specializes in lamb barbacoa, a regional style of slow-cooked meat, that finds its way onto platters with rich lamb broth or tucked into tacos. Requiring a lengthy cooking process, the barbacoa is roasted for more than seven hours in an underground fire pit sheltered by leaves of the maguey plant. Fans of this regional dish rely on Aqui es Texcoco to deliver tender, juicy lamb delivered in tin foil with a side of soft corn tortillas. Diners can dress their tacos with toppings of their choice, including cilantro, onions, pickled onions, green or red salsa, and lime juice. Families and visitors from all over town take the trip down south for this delicacy and make themselves comfortable at one of the tables in the spacious dining room. The only San Diego location resides in Chula Vista while the remaining two are in Tijuana and Los Angeles." - Roxana Becerril
"This homey, spacious restaurant specializes in lamb barbacoa, a regional style of slow-cooked lamb or goat, that finds its way onto platters with rich consomé or tucked into tacos. Requiring a lengthy cooking process, the barbacoa is roasted for more than seven hours in an underground fire pit sheltered by leaves of the maguey plant. Fans of this regional dish rely on Aqui es Texcoco to deliver tender, juicy lamb delivered in tin foil with a side of soft corn tortillas. Diners can dress their tacos to taste with cilantro, onions, pickled onions, green or red salsa, and lime juice. Families and visitors from all over town take the trip down south for this delicacy and make themselves comfortable at one of the tables inside the roomy establishment. The only San Diego location resides in Chula Vista while the remaining two are in Tijuana and Los Angeles." - Roxana Becerril
"Birria might be the Mexican slow-cooked meat dish of the moment, but barbacoa — particularly barbacoa de borrego (lamb) — might reign supreme. Traditionally roasted for over seven hours in an underground fire pit and covered with maguey plant leaves, the kitchen uses a specialized oven to replicate the flavors. This roomy Chula Vista restaurant has been focused on lamb barbacoa for nearly 35 years, turning out tender, succulent barbecue that’s best had as a build-your-own taco experience, served with fresh tortillas, salsa, garnishes, and a side of rich lamb consomme, but it’s also excellent as a filling for crunchy flautas or cheesy quesatacos. Although lamb is king here, don’t miss the zucchini flower or huitlacoche quesadillas. Must-try dish: Start with the lamb barbecue plate to establish a baseline if you’ve never tried barbacoa before." - Candice Woo
"Lamb is king at Aqui Es Texcoco, and if you leave without the meat sweats, you didn’t do it right. The cafeteria-like Chula Vista restaurant does brisk business in barbacoa, served with mugs of piping hot lamb broth and chickpea soup that make great hangover helpers, especially at breakfast time. Cuts of slow-roasted lamb, both fatty and lean, come with fresh corn tortillas and all the fixings to fashion your own tacos. But if you’re with the right company, you should get feral with a whole roasted lamb head, excavating morsels of fall-apart meat off the skull while navigating through the occasional tooth or eyeball." - Candice Woo
