Review: Cafe Azteca, Lord Edward St, Dublin

Azteca's Tacos Al Pastor
Azteca's Tacos Al Pastor (from the Azteca Facebook page)

We’ve been on a minor Mexican buzz here on CheapEats recently, with Peter’s rave review of 777 and my Mexican scrambled eggs.  All this chilli and coriander and whatnot reminded me of Cafe Azteca, a lovely little place I’ve been meaning to tell you all about for ages.

Burrito places are becoming very popular in Dublin now, but Cafe Azteca is one of the few Mexican joints in town that is run by a genuine Mexican, the very friendly and welcoming Hugo.  It’s a small cafe that serves a comprehensive menu of burritos (from around €7), sandwiches (from €5) and Mexican favourites such as sopes, enfrijoladas, taquitos and many more (from €9); as well as my beloved Mexican breakfasts.

The food is really good, with combinations that are tricky to find in the more bog-standard burrito places – such as the Tacos al Pastor, which contain marinated roast pork, lime and pineapple.  I’ve been by a number of times and have tried a couple of the burritos and their very good huevos rancheros.  There are only two things I’d change with this place: speed up the lunch service a bit (it can be quite slow) and maybe put on a few main course plus coffee for a tenner deals – both changes would make it a great destination for an everyday lunch.  And if you don’t mind lingering a bit over your lunch, I recommend it.  It’s also open for dinner, and they serve beer and wine in the evenings.

Two other nifty things about Cafe Azteca – owner Hugo (the aforementioned real Mexican) holds regular cookery classes there, where you can learn to make Mexican dishes in the cafe kitchen, with dinner included. The last time I was in, he told me they were doing a special deal on the classes at €26 per head, which if you’ve ever priced cookery classes in Dublin you’ll know is insanely cheap.  Classes can be booked through the Cafe Azteca website.  The second bit of niftiness is that you can buy Mexican food products there, such as chipotle chillies, tomatillos and salsa verde. I picked up a giant bottle of salsa verde there for only €5.50 and am currently putting it on just about everything, it’s so good.

Cafe Azteca is on Lord Edward St, on the hill leading up to Christchurch from Dublin Castle. Have you tried it?  What do you think is Dublin’s best Mexican cheap eat?