Where to try Mexican and Peruvian food
There has been much debate among the residents of Luxembourg about where to try good Mexican and Peruvian food. Most are divided between the more authentic experience and the Tex-Mex hybrid variety.
Whether you prefer tamales, ceviche, or Tex-Mex-style tacos, here are a few spots to sample Mexican and Peruvian cuisine.
For authentic Mexican
Food trucks
You can sample some good Mexican home-cooking at Las Maracas food truck. Its menu has traditional quesadillas or tacos with a choice of meat and vegetarian fillings and red, green, chipotle and habanero sauces, in addition to home-made guacamole. You can check out where the food truck will be here.
Taco Shop in Sandweiler gets the green light for its soft corn tortillas which come with chicken, steak and veggie fillings, its vampiros (a sort of Mexican pizza with cheese-covered toppings on a hard flat tortilla). You can also pick up quesadillas, burritos, patata asada (barbequed potato), and nachos plus a great selection of sauces including salsa chipotle and the very hot salsa fuego. The food truck has its home in Sandweiler.
If you're in Hamm head to WTF Pepito stationed on rue de Bitbourg, Monday to Friday lunchtimes, and offering hot beef sandwiches in original, loco and diabolo (think spicy) versions.
Restaurants
Head to Agave (restaurant and tequila bar) which gets a thumbs up for having authentic tacos and enchiladas but also offers chilaquiles, devilled prawns, and some luscious-looking cocktails. Starters include melted cheese (queso fundido) with chorizo.
Pablito serves up home-made corn tortillas with its tacos and fresh ceviche. The menu is limited and the portions small (yet surprisingly filling), but the brightly coloured simple wood setting and the cocktails create a nice atmosphere. This place has two-hour sitting on busy nights.
Located on rue de Strasbourg, Madame Jeanette bills itself as a cocktail bar serving tapas, but essentially many of the dishes are Latin in flavour. In warm terracotta colours with grey sofas and wooden tables, tuck into tacos (with veggie and vegan options), tostadas, enchiladas and ceviche (dorade or tuna), plus Chimichanga.
The brunch menu includes chilaquiles, and whilst the cocktails are mostly Mezcal and tequilla based, and they do a mean Pisco Sour too. It's open Tuesday to Saturday 12.00 until 01.00 (dining 12.00 to 14.00 and 19.00 to 10.00).
Tex-Mex
The following restaurants don't always get the thumbs up from resident Mexicans, but plenty of people living in Luxembourg give them good reviews. You might find the spices toned down, but the food is enjoyable all the same.
At Mamacita you can drink tequila with your quesadilla or taco, and try out a Mexican ceviche. At sports bar Gringo's you can pair a margarita with Tex-Mex inspired dishes including tacos, fajitas, burritos and quesadillas.
El Barrio in Kirchberg has a varied menu that includes tacos in addition to Spanish tapas. Out of town, the Coyote Café in Belval has chicken with mole sauce and fajitas, plus some hefty Argentinian steaks.
Pretty much everyone agrees that O'Tacos at Gare and Kirchberg is not remotely authentic or even Tex-Mex. A French-chain, the tacos are heavy on the cheese, but you can get them filled with merguez, goat's cheese or falafel . There's not much salad in their versions, but plenty of meat, perfect if you need to line your stomach before or after a night out.
Peruvian restaurants
If you're Mad about Peru then head to the restaurants of the same name in Dudelange and Luxembourg city for a truly authentic experience and an eye-watering list of ceviche, from the classic recipe featuring seabass, red onions, choclo and sweet potatoes, to a hot version with prawns and scallops.
If marinaded raw fish is not your cup of tea, there is plenty on the menu from Peruvian-style rice with chicken or vegetables, Tacu Tacu (tortilla with rice and beans) with beef or octopus, anticucho or lomo saltado. The restaurants also do a mean line in cocktails with Pisco, gin Amazonas and Ginko.
You'll get classic Almuerzo at the newly renovated La Cusquenita with dishes served with rice or chips, and tasty beef stews, lomo saltado and other specialities from the Andean city of Cusco from which the restaurant takes its name.
For a compromise on Latin American food, you can try out Qosqo, which has burritos, quesadillas, cuenca (rice with toppings), ceviche and chilli. No one will go hungry that is for sure. It may not be that authentic, but the Kirchberg location has a large terrace, whilst the one in the old town has funky day of the dead-style decor.
Head to Belval and NYX for a spot of swordfish or sea bass ceviche. The rest of the menu is not particularly latin but has a good variety of dishes. In Diekirch, La Wislla has classic ceviche and a number of rice and seafood or meat dishes Peruvian-style.
Home-cooking
If you prefer to make your own Mexican-style food, you can buy supplies from Chilli Gourmet and Mex-Al will also deliver.
You can get Latin American baking supplies from Mi Tierra Luxembourgo at Gallerie Beaumont in the City, which stocks refried beans, tamales, chimichuri and Inca Kola. Sabor do Brasil at 41 avenue de la Gare also stocks latin delicacies.
Some supermarkets like Auchun in Kirchberg/ Cloche d'Or and Delhaize stock the El Paso brand.
Mexican-born Yisela has opened the first Mexican Tortilleria in Luxembourg called Secretos del Maiz, using machines imported from her home country and 100% corn flour made from white, blue and red corn (so gluten and preservative free, with no GMO) to make different sized tortillas and tortilla chips/nachos. at Easter she delivered lovely tortilla baskets filled with guacamole and little tortilla bunnies for dipping.
