The Best Mexican Food in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti
Beyond the taco rankings: burritos, enchiladas, mole, tortas, and the full picture.
If you read The Fold, our taco series, you already know the names: Dos Hermanos Express, MAIZ Mexican Cantina, Chela's, Tmaz Taqueria. Those entries ranked individual tacos. This guide does something different. A taco is one item on a long menu. The best Mexican restaurants in this area are doing burritos, enchiladas, tortas, tamales, mole, aguas frescas, and full combination plates that no taco ranking can capture. This is the broader picture.
Seven restaurants. Two cities. One clear conclusion: the Mexican food in Washtenaw County is better and more varied than its reputation suggests.
Dos Hermanos Express (25 Jackson Industrial Dr, Ann Arbor)
The taco series started here, and for good reason. But the Dos Hermanos profile I published last spring focused on the Arreola brothers and their family history. The Fold entries focused on the al pastor, the carnitas, the carne asada. What neither piece captured is the burrito.
The Dos Hermanos burrito is the single best value in Mexican food in Washtenaw County. It costs $8, it weighs roughly what a small child weighs, and it is wrapped tight enough that nothing falls out on the third bite. The structural engineering alone deserves respect. Inside: rice, beans, your choice of meat, lettuce, sour cream, and cheese. The al pastor burrito is the one I order. The pork has the same caramelized edges as the taco version, but there is more of it, and the rice absorbs the marinade as you eat, so the last few bites taste different from the first few. That is a well-built burrito.
The torta is the sleeper. Pressed bread, meat, avocado, jalapenos, onion, and enough mayo to hold everything together. At $8.50, it is a full meal. Two people eating burritos and splitting a side of chips and salsa will spend under $25.
Order at the counter. Eat in your car if the small dining room is full. Nobody is here for the ambiance. They are here because the food is made from scratch every day and the prices have not caught up to the quality.1Dos Hermanos Express opened March 2024. Pricing and menu details from repeated visits, 2025-2026. Alex and Hiram Arreola's family background per our profile.
MAIZ Mexican Cantina (36 E Cross St, Ypsilanti)
MAIZ earned its Fold entry on the strength of the baked avocado taco. But the taco is one page of a longer story. This Depot Town cantina makes everything from scratch daily, and the full menu runs deeper than most taco tourists realize.
The enchiladas suizas are the order I wish more people made. Three corn tortillas rolled around chicken, covered in a creamy tomatillo salsa with melted cheese on top. The tomatillo salsa is tangy and rich without being heavy, and the chicken is shredded fine enough that every bite has even distribution. A plate of three enchiladas with rice and beans runs about $13. For Depot Town, that is a fair price.
The street corn (elote) is the best side item at any restaurant in this guide. Charred, coated in mayo and cotija and chili powder, served on a stick. I order it every time. I have written about it before. I will keep writing about it.
Hand-shaken margaritas with fresh-squeezed juice are $9 during happy hour. They are better than what most Ann Arbor bars charge $14 for. If you are eating in Depot Town and want a margarita that tastes like someone actually made it, MAIZ is the answer.2MAIZ Mexican Cantina details from repeated visits and our Fold entry. Happy hour pricing observed in-restaurant.
Chela's (7065 Dexter-Ann Arbor Rd, Dexter)
Adrian Iraola and his wife Lori run Chela's out of a strip mall on Dexter-Ann Arbor Road. As the restaurant tells it, Adrian's great-grandmother catered weddings in Mexico City, his grandparents met working for her, and his father sold tacos and tortas from stands. The family connection to food runs deep, and the menu reflects that depth.
The Fold covered the birria tacos (Friday and Saturday only, still worth planning around). This guide is about everything else.
The enchiladas come in red, green, or mole. The mole is the one to get. It is dark, thick, and has that layered bitterness that comes from chocolate and dried chiles cooked down together. Good mole is time-intensive. It is not something you find at every Mexican restaurant in the suburbs. Chela's has it, and a plate of mole enchiladas with rice and beans costs $12.
The tamales ($3 each) are available when they are available. Corn masa, steamed in husks, with pork or chicken filling. They sell out. If you see them on the board, order them before you order anything else.
The menu also covers burritos, quesadillas, tortas, and a full taco lineup beyond the birria. This is one of the broadest Mexican menus in the area, and the pricing stays in the $3-$14 range for nearly everything. The drive from downtown Ann Arbor takes about 15 minutes. It is the same drive you make for Meijer or Busch's, except the destination is better.3Chela's family background per our Fold entry, which drew on the restaurant's own telling of the Iraola family history.
Tmaz Taqueria (3182 Packard St, Ann Arbor)
Tmaz appeared in The Fold for the best al pastor in the series, and I stand by that call. But focusing on the tacos misses the rest of the menu, which goes wider than most people expect from a place open until 4 a.m.
The pupusas ($3.50 each) are the item that surprised me most. Thick corn masa stuffed with cheese, beans, or pork, griddled until the exterior develops a crust. Pupusas are Salvadoran, not Mexican, and their presence on the menu reflects the Central American range of the kitchen. They come with curtido (a vinegary cabbage slaw) that cuts the richness of the masa and cheese. Three pupusas make a meal for under $12.
The enchiladas and the tamales ($4 each) fill out the non-taco side of the menu. The tres leches cake shows up on about half the tables I have walked past. I have not tried it. I keep ordering the al pastor instead, which is either discipline or a failure of imagination.
Two locations: the Packard Street original and a second spot at 2529 Dexter Ave. Both keep the same menu and the same prices. Tacos are $3 single, $2.50 each when you buy two or more. The 4 a.m. closing time (Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday) makes Tmaz the only serious Mexican option after midnight in Ann Arbor.4Tmaz Taqueria has two locations: 3182 Packard St and 2529 Dexter Ave, Ann Arbor. Hours, pricing, and menu details from repeated visits and our Fold entry.
BTB Burrito (1140 S University Ave, Ann Arbor)
BTB Burrito has no Fold entry. No profile. No series appearance. It sits on South University in the student corridor, and it does one thing: build-your-own burritos, bowls, and tacos at counter speed.
The model is familiar. You pick your protein, your rice, your beans, your toppings. The line moves fast. A burrito with carnitas, rice, black beans, pico, cheese, and sour cream runs about $10. The portions are generous enough that most people leave with half a burrito in a to-go box.
What separates BTB from the build-your-own chains is the salsas. The habanero salsa has real heat, not the watered-down version you get at places that are afraid of sending back a burrito. The verde is tangy and bright. Both are made in-house and both improve whatever you put them on.
This is student-corridor food priced for students. It is not trying to be anything more than that. But the execution is clean, the ingredients taste fresh, and the late-night hours make it one of the few places near campus where you can eat a real meal after 10 p.m. If you live or work near South U, BTB is the Mexican option you probably already know about.5BTB Burrito at 1140 S University Ave, Ann Arbor. Pricing from in-restaurant observation, 2025-2026.
Encuentro Latino (228 W Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti)
Encuentro Latino is on West Michigan Avenue in downtown Ypsilanti, about a ten-minute walk from Depot Town. The menu covers Mexican and broader Latin American food: pupusas, tamales, tacos, burritos, combination plates, and weekend specials that rotate.
The combination plates are the draw. A plate with two enchiladas, rice, beans, and a side salad runs about $11. The portions are large enough that takeout is common. The tamales, when available, are traditional: corn masa, pork or chicken, wrapped in corn husks and steamed.
Encuentro occupies a stretch of Michigan Avenue that does not get the same foot traffic as Depot Town or the EMU campus corridor. It is a neighborhood restaurant that feeds its block, and the prices reflect that mission. Most items come in under $12. If you eat in Ypsilanti regularly and have not been here, it belongs on your list.
The Overlap: Frita Batidos and Hola Seoul
Two Ann Arbor restaurants deserve mention even though neither is strictly a Mexican restaurant.
Frita Batidos at 117 W Washington St is Cuban-inspired, but the flavors run close enough to the conversation that skipping it feels dishonest. The frita (a chorizo-and-beef patty with shoestring fries piled on top, about $10) shares DNA with Mexican street food: the spice, the handheld format, the tropical batido shakes on the side. It is its own category, but if you are building a map of Latin food in Ann Arbor, Frita Batidos is on it.
Hola Seoul at 715 N University Ave is Korean-Mexican fusion. The bulgogi tacos and the kimchi fries ($10) land squarely at the intersection of both cuisines. The kimchi fries are the best $10 I have spent in Ann Arbor. Hola Seoul does not fit neatly into a Mexican food guide, but it proves that the flavors of Mexican cooking pair naturally with other bold traditions.
The Drive to Detroit
If you are willing to drive 45 minutes, Taqueria El Rey on Vernor Highway in Southwest Detroit operates in a different league. Tacos run $2-$3, a whole grilled chicken dinner is $11.50, and the al pastor has real grill char. Our Fold entry covers the details and the Southwest Detroit guide covers the full corridor. The food on Vernor Highway is the standard against which everything in Washtenaw County is measured.
What the Map Tells You
The Mexican food in this area clusters in three zones. The west side of Ann Arbor (Dos Hermanos on Jackson Industrial, Chela's out toward Dexter) is where the strip mall taquerias do their best work. The Packard Street corridor (Tmaz) and the student district (BTB, Hola Seoul) serve a younger, later-night crowd. And Ypsilanti (MAIZ in Depot Town, Encuentro on Michigan Avenue) offers the best combination of quality and value.
There is no single best Mexican restaurant in the area. Dos Hermanos has the best burrito. MAIZ has the most creative menu. Chela's has the deepest family roots and the best mole. Tmaz has the best al pastor and the latest hours. BTB feeds the most people for the least money.
What the map tells you is that the Mexican food here is real. Not trendy, not conceptual, not styled for Instagram. Families making food from recipes that predate the restaurants themselves, priced so that eating out three times a week does not require a second income. That is the full picture.