How To Tell If A Mexican Restaurant Is Making Its Own Tortillas

When you walk into a Mexican restaurant, the overwhelming aroma of indigenous cooking can make you think you just took a step south of the border. However, not all eateries make everything from scratch. Whether it's Mexican food from Colorado, California, Texas, or anywhere else, all businesses have their own way of operating, and if you're not going to dedicate a role to the demanding task of making tortillas fresh, sourcing them premade is the only alternative. Still, one element that can elevate the whole experience is being served a warm, freshly made tortilla made the way an abuela would make them at home. The question is, how can you tell when they are made on-site versus being delivered from a warehouse?

To find out, we asked Miguel Gomez, the Executive Chef at Andaz Mayakoba located on the Mexican Caribbean Coast. Andaz Mayakoba continually ranks among the top 10 resorts in the land of the Aztecs in Conde Nast Traveler's Readers' Choice Awards, and one of the reasons stems from Chef Gomez's expertise in creating authentic Mexican cuisine. According to him, determining whether a business makes its tortillas in-house is simple. He said, "Knowing a restaurant makes their own tortillas is quite easy to determine, as there is a very big difference in texture, size, flavor, even smell."

While your ears won't help clue you into how a restaurant gets its tortillas, all your other senses will. The smell of corn and flour will welcome you when you walk in the door, and their soft bite is packed with more flavor than you are used to if you've never had one. If you have a weaker palate or have trouble sniffing out the difference, the visual appeal of authentic tortillas will be your dead giveaway.

When you grab a pack of store-bought tortillas from the supermarket, there is typically no discernible difference from one flour disc to the next. A freshly made tortilla, on the other hand, will never look the same as the one that came before it. Although the difference may not be stark, it is noticeable, even to an amateur. Chef Gomez says, "Restaurants that make their own tortillas typically have slight variations in the size and shape, are soft and pliable with a noticeable chewiness, and have a fresh corn/wheat flavor and smell."

If the size doesn't tell you it's handmade, the texture will. Tortillas from the grocery store can be dry and fairly bland, but the consistency of one made in-house is unmistakable — in part due to using the right type of flour when making them. Tasting a freshly made version will compel your eyes to widen, and you'll realize you've been missing out on something extraordinary for far too long.

There is nothing wrong with a store-bought product — that is, until you've had the real thing. The next time you visit a Mexican restaurant, take a moment as you walk through the entrance to focus on your senses. Ignore the restaurant's lighting and let the sights and smells of the food marinate in your brain. By paying close attention, you should be able to determine if what is coming from the kitchen is authentic. Once you recognize the difference, there is no going back to the humdrum experience of an outsourced tortilla.