Lower East Side Tacqueria

Authentic Mexican street tacos are antithetical to Singaporean economics. Everything here has to be bigger and better if only to justify the necessary expense. That being said, the food here is quite delicious. Start with their corn chips and 3 dips. The tortilla chips are pleasantly crispy and light with a respectable saltiness. Delicious enough to eat on their own. But you get three dips. I asked for the spiciest options, and was convinced to substitute one of them for guacamole - a decision I don't regret. The waitress recommended the salsa verde and something else, which turned out to be a Velveeta-esque cheese dip that was oddly sweet, but which did end with a little bit of heat. The salsa verde also had a bit of heat but it was quite mild. Perhaps feeling bad for me, she brought me a ghost pepper bottled hot sauce which had more than enough heat. Way more. But I appreciated the effort! The guacamole was very respectable, with a pleasant layer of cilantro leaves over the top. I opted for their barramundi tacos, which are served in pairs, and had mine with soft tortillas instead of hard shells. The fish was grilled or broiled and seasoned perfectly. This was atop a massive bed of pickled cabbage. As someone who prefers a simpler, drier taco this was overkill. But it was really good. Pair this with a cocktail. Their selection of tequilas was much more limited than I had hoped, but they had Don Julio as well as Patron. I opted for the Don Julio upgrade for my tequila sunrise and I was not disappointed. Good proportion of OJ and tequila to grenadine resulting in a refreshing experience. They also have beer and wine and other spirits, plus sodas and non-alcoholic options. Other menu options ran the gamut of fusion experiments to more traditional Mexican-y fare. I'd definitely be willing to go back and check out other options on future visits. Sit outside if you like to people watch. Or face the big-screen TV if you want to keep track of the game.

Lower East Side Taqueria in Singapore stands out as one of the top destinations for Mexican cuisine. Their food is an absolute delight, featuring authentic flavors and fresh ingredients that transport you straight to Mexico. Each dish, from their savory tacos to their hearty burritos, is crafted with care and precision, making every bite a memorable experience. The service at Lower East Side Taqueria is exceptional. The staff are friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable, always ready to recommend the perfect dish or drink to complement your meal. Their dedication to providing a great dining experience ensures that every visit is enjoyable and hassle-free. The atmosphere at Lower East Side Taqueria is vibrant and inviting. The colorful decor, lively music, and cozy seating create a warm and welcoming environment that’s perfect for both casual dining and special occasions. Whether you're dining with friends, family, or colleagues, the ambiance adds an extra layer of enjoyment to your meal.

Absolutely love the food here! Service staff are very helpful in recommending what I want to try but not sure the name of the item on the menu. Thank you for customising the mocktail for me tonight too! Thank you for playing the happy birthday song for our dear friend too

This is only a review of the drinks. We went for a quick drink this afternoon. They had Happy hour for sangria....we were expecting that they would pour from an overnight pitcher but seemed that the bar tender mixed some ginger ale & fruits and made some concoction that was truly abysmal. I didn't even take a pic of the damn drink!! Hopefully the food is better...till the next visit or maybe not!

A very welcoming restaurant serving flavorful Mexican delicacies. The staff there were extremely approachable and helpful in recommending dishes and constantly checking in on us. A must visit if you are craving Mexican cuisine and I recommend the Pork Carnitas. Worth the travel to go back again 😊

Food is alright for mexican food, would recommend trying the pork instead of the beef, the beef can be a little too salty at times. We ordered the tater tots as well, it is a little pricy but it is very very filling and the portion is very large for this dish. Overall, okay if you are in the mood for Mexican food, but its just alright

The food is awesome honestly but we were egged on to buy a bottle of cava after taking a glass and we said if the glass is waived we would get, and we were told by server he would ask his boss and never informed it was not possible. Eventually we drank the bottle and yet charged for everything. Honestly we should have been told because we didn’t really want the bottle (also it didn’t taste very good). Disappointed because we live so nearby and would have gone frequently. Thus would only recommend for food.

Tasty mexican food at decent prices. Very good service and staff are nice and friendly. Love the ambience here too. They have alfresco style dining and often screen sports matches etc.

One Yelper put it best, "About as Mexican as me." This is not an authentic Mexican restaurant, but this is not to say you should avoid this place entirely. The food for me is three-stars (good enough for late night hangovers and to satisfy my once-in-a-while Mexican food cravings). My go to dishes are the following: (i) Chipotle Beef Burrito - sweet corn & pineapple salsa, cilantro rice, homemade guacamole, jalapenos (ii) Cumin and Grilled Chicken Burrito - Bacon & Pinto beans, cilantro & lime rice, sour cream. Although the food can be much more authentic, the atmosphere and dining experience of Lower East Side is five stars. Foreigners living in the area absolutely love this place! For one, they play top 40 hits (no local coverbands, thank goodness), which makes the dining experience fun and, in some sense, clubby. Second, its just a really relaxed atmosphere with solid service. Best of all, this place is open til midnight on the weekends and 11pm Monday - Friday. In short, this probably the only game in town, if you are looking for late night food on East Coast Road. Let's face it, Mexican food in Singapore is ridiculously bad, or ridiculously expensive (Lucha Loco and Super Loco exemplify both). If I were to rank this restaurant in the US, this would be two stars, but among Singapore's limited Mexican options, this is four stars.

Believe it or not, I'm a fan of this place. Call me a fake Texan if you want! It seems a lot of Yelpers take issue that this place isn't truly Mexican. True, maybe the flavours aren't traditional, but I happen to like them. I've tried the beef burrito and the chicken burrito, and my stomach forever loves the chicken. The aioli sauce on the side makes it even better! However, I'm not too much a fan of their elotes. For me, Super Loco in Robertson Quay actually wins that battle. The decor is really neat here. It exudes Mexican realness and the various chairs hanging from the ceiling makes it a great conversation starter. The vibe is very chill and there's always a good playlist on. Alcohol can be expensive; it might be best to come before 8 PM to take advantage of their 1-for-1 deal. Best part about this place? The kitchen is open 'til 2 AM. There's not a lot of places on this part of East Coast Road that are open that late, so it definitely helps if you need late night nosh!

I like the concept but the food is a disappointment. I really like Mexican food and was excited to get a quesadilla but found it very average even for Singaporean Mexican standards (which says a lot since good Mexican is rare here). My friend convinced me to share the churros and those were just plain bad: they tasted like stale oil and the consistency was wrong. I do understand the appeal and why other people like this place: it has a nice atmosphere, the staff is friendly and it offers Mexican food. If i would live nearby I might come again and try their burritos to see if they are any better but since there are much better Mexican options nearer to my house, so I am going to give this a pass next time I am in Katong.

This place is among the best Mexican place in Singapore. There drink menu is amazing even tho I am 13. The have a wide range of food and there prices are great. All in all I give this place a 5.

Second attempt at this place, will not be back. They seem to have supply chain issues, as many of the items we wanted to order, chicken, pork or guacamole were "not ready". We both ordered beef burritos. They were $13 and one of the halves only had 1 piece of beef and a whole lot of rice. We felt robbed. It's really a shame. The decor was great and the concept is cool, but the food was so underwhelming. I would much rather go to señor taco or Lucha loco!

Nice decor, ok food, crap service. This is one of the newest Mexican places in town, and being in the 'hood warranted a visit. We got the elotes, hake taco trio, les mix and a bucket of corona. Now my gold standard of elotes is the one dished up at Mamasita in Melbourne. It's not even that difficult to recreate it, which I've done. The corn here is char grilled, which is good, but waaaaay drier than the mayo slathered monstrosities I love. I loved the guac, and the other items were ok, if a bit complicated, with nice plating and all. It's alright I suppose, but Mexican nosh to me is fun and street-foody so I'm not a fan of the frills and pretty layering. Service though, is terrible. There were two waitresses to a half empty restaurant, and one of which had no idea there was a happy hour promo as indicated on the menu. The other, who knew about it, explained that buying 5 beers would get you 1 free. And since majority of the beers were $15 a pop, I asked if I could mix 5 $15 bottles then. Alas no, and no justification given. Quite silly, really. Our appetisers came in with no cutlery. And after being tired of waiting for service, I went to pick up the serviettes and forks and knives myself- only to have the waitress tell me I have those items on my table. I must have looked rather dumbfounded at that, because it embarrassed her enough to carry the stuff off my hands to my table where my first batch of invisible cutlery was. And when I asked for the bill, I was dismissed with 'wait, wait' as the waitress sailed on by. She later asked me how the food was, to which I replied the corn was a little dry. 'Oh'. That's it. Brings to mind the comic of a shredder located underneath a suggestion box. The place is new, I geddit. And all places have their teething pains, I geddit too. But still, the F&B industry here is cutthroat and I'm going to take my business to somewhere less stuffy and with better staff instead.

this is a good place to come to, with the bright colors, a well-stocked bar, chirpy service (if you get the nice caucasian lady), and flavors that are fresh and crisp. it was pure happenstance that we came to this place: it looked cool, sounded new-yorkish cool, and that beautiful interior sure is welcoming. mexican food seems to the new in thing in singapore, with south american places popping up everywhere. it's a cuisine that feels familiar, what with an emphasis on grains and beans (very much used in asian cuisine as well) and braised meats, but differentiated with extended use of spices, cheese, and quite a bit of crisp uncooked veg. I'm not really one for the typical burrito or taco, which fills feels like carb wrapped with carb stuffed with carb and topped with carb (slight exaggeration, possibly) - but their meat dishes, salads, salsas and beans (especially beans) do fantastically well for me (almost akin to a mexican on the atkins). chilli con carne of minced beef in a tomato sauce, baked under a deliciously layer of cheese (I like how it forms a slightly firm single layer of topping) and sided with fried tortilla triangles. rich with the beef and cheese but cut through with the tomatoes, this was pretty tasty (the tortillas were really kind of oily, but I've never seen a piece of fried dough/ bread that isn't). I forget the second dish, but it's easier to say mexican lasagne. it was pasta/ tortilla layered with more meaty sauce and cheese, baked with even more cheese to a brown top and steaming middle. tasty, but really filling with all that fat and carb. the freshest tasting dish was composed of tender, pink beef sliced atop a fresh tossed salad. the beef was well-seasoned and had a good beefy flavour, the grain of the meat gave it a satisfying chew, and well-executed pink beef is always a sight to behold. not too sinewy or fatty too, it was complemented by the fresh, crunchy salad and the sweet-sour dressing. mexican food is always hearty, what with its copious use of fat and meat and grains, and we were pretty darn full here with three dishes between two. the dishes are well-priced, food comes in crazy-hand-burning casserole dishes that are almost definitely larger than recommended serving size, service is mostly friendly (except for a dude behind the bar who took over when our lovely waitress was busy), and the place is beautifully done out. relaxing and cooling even on a hot afternoon, this place makes a respectable play for business in the already food-saturated enclave that is katong.

It's not a traditional taqueria, but the food is still decent. I'm loving the ambience of this place though! They really put time in the interior decoration of the restaurant. I had the chicken burrito with cumin and lime rice - this was really good. Portion might be a bit too small for $13 compared to other mexican eateries that are popping up in singapore recently. Also had the steak burrito with corn salsa. The corn salsa was tasty but there was something off about the steak. Shared a basket of guac and chips - it's alright. The guacamole is more the creamy kind than the gritty textured kind that i love. I would still come back here for the tilapia tacos though! They looked amazing.

I spent four years in San Diego right along the border with Mexico, so I'm no noob to the Mexican food scene. I also know that Singapore is an ocean (and more) away from Mexico, so I've taken that into account for my review. The food is mediocre, there are better Mexican places in Singapore. What this place has going for it is its outdoor seating and its proximity to other food outlets. I'll try some neighboring restaurants before I return to this place.

Went there for lunch on New Year's Day. Service was very good, courteous and prompt - good staff! We had the Les Mix (photo posted), love the various dips & condiments - worth a try. Had the Trio Taco Pork - that was good, had the Trio Taco Hake (fish) - that was a little too salty for our taste.

Horrible food, no other way to put it. We tried it twice, to give them the benefit of the doubt. It's a shame, as the location is great and it's a nice place for a drink. The chef and creator of the cuisine is asleep at the wheel. Pork taco was horrible, very small and very overpriced. You literally could not pay me to eat at this restaurant.

One of the best value for money lunch specials in Singapore! The special changes often (maybe daily). I had chicken chilaquillas (nachos), their specialty ribs, a side of cilantro rice and sour cream, and a chocolate tart for dessert. The chilaquillas were excellent. Smothered with cheese and sauce unlike most other restaurants around here. The ribs were good. The blend of spices in the sauce was unique, but pleasant. I was expecting the dessert of the day to be something tiny given that the full set including free flow ice tea only costs $12++, but I was surprised by both the size and quality of the tart. I've paid $12 (maybe more) for similar desserts at other restaurants. I must say, this was $12 extremely well spent :-)

The prices are very reasonable considering it's a Mexican restaurant, and the food was tasty although quite simply prepared.

Good beer, pleasant service, but the food is a joke. Tiny servings with lashings of pretension... seriously, this stretch of East Coast has great food everywhere, this place is so bad it's dragging the whole street down.