ELEMI Restaurant

Best Restaurants to Road Trip to From Dallas | Eater Dallas

"This El Paso taqueria was a semi-finalist on the 2025 James Beard Awards’ long list of Outstanding Restaurants, its third time earning a nod from the prestigious food foundation. Run by husband and wife team Kristal and Emiliano Marentes, it focuses on freshly made tortillas, which are the star of its tacos. From there, the chef explores traditional Mexican recipes and flavors with various techniques, like using a Japanese grill rather than trompo to cook meat. Using high-quality meats, finding the right amount of time for them to marinate, and making every bite special is the goal here. Diners can also enjoy plates of agua chile with the catch of the day, desserts like pineapple sponge cake with tres leches, and limited special dishes like gorditas covered with colorful produce with fatty beef belly inside." - Courtney E. Smith

Here Are Austin’s 2025 James Beard Award Semifinalists - Eater Austin

"An El Paso restaurant nominated for Outstanding Restaurant." - Courtney E. Smith

Padma Lakshmi on the Immigrant Cuisines That Make America

"Elemi in El Paso serves a taco campesino made with dark corn. Chef Emiliano Marentes flips the taco over and singes all the cheese, not just the edges, making it exceptionally delicious."

A downtown standard-bearer for heirloom-corn tacos, ELEMI nixtamalizes and mills its masa in-house, turning out tortillas that anchor refined, tradition-forward fillings. Featured by Food & Wine and Texas Highways, and recognized on Texas Monthly’s statewide tacos list, it’s a modern expression of El Paso’s border cuisine that stays rooted in community.

A standard-bearer for nixtamal and heirloom corn, ELEMI channels ancestral techniques into modern tacos and small plates. Recognized by Texas Monthly’s Top 50 Tacos and with James Beard–recognized leadership, it’s a destination for serious masa lovers.