The Fold: MAIZ Mexican Cantina
The taco series crosses the Huron River into Ypsilanti for the first time.
The Fold has a geographic question. The series is called Best Taco in Ann Arbor, while MAIZ Mexican Cantina is in Ypsilanti's Depot Town. That nearby dining corridor is close enough to make the regional comparison worthwhile.
MAIZ sits at 36 E Cross St, a narrow storefront with a counter and a modest seating area. The menu covers enchiladas, burritos, quesadillas, and a full slate of tacos, and the restaurant builds its reputation on scratch preparation rather than a shortcut pantry.
The Baked Avocado Taco
The signature at MAIZ is the baked avocado taco, and it deserves the reputation. A half avocado, battered and baked until the outside turns golden and the inside goes creamy, sits on a corn tortilla with pico de gallo, cabbage slaw, and a crema drizzle. The avocado holds its shape. It does not collapse into mush the way fried avocado often does.
What makes this taco interesting is its texture. The battered shell has crunch. The avocado underneath is warm and soft but still firm enough to bite through cleanly. The cabbage adds snap. Three distinct textures in a single taco, and none of them fight each other.
Is it a traditional taco? No. It is closer to Baja-style street food filtered through a kitchen that is clearly thinking about each component. At $4.50, it is a dollar more than a Dos Hermanos al pastor, but it is also a fundamentally different thing. Where Dos Hermanos builds around seasoned meat and a tortilla that can stand on its own, MAIZ is building around produce and technique. Both approaches work.
The Carnitas
The carnitas taco offers a direct comparison with Dos Hermanos: tender pork on a corn tortilla with cilantro, onion, and red salsa. The contrast is useful because the two kitchens approach the same filling differently.
Where Dos Hermanos carnitas keep the fat in and reward slow eating, the MAIZ version is leaner and lets the salsa do more of the work. Neither approach is wrong. The MAIZ red salsa is doing real work here: dried chile depth, enough spice that you feel it in the back of your throat after two bites.
At $3.75, the carnitas taco is solid. In a series where Dos Hermanos has already set the carnitas bar, it holds up without quite clearing it.
The Street Corn Factor
The menu also includes elote, a street-corn preparation with mayo, cotija, and chili. It is a useful non-taco order for understanding the kitchen's balance of char, richness, salt, and heat.
Order the elote alongside your tacos. You will not regret it.
MAIZ vs. Dos Hermanos
The comparison is inevitable, so here it is. Dos Hermanos is a taqueria in the traditional sense. House-made tortillas, from-scratch salsas, meats cooked the way they have been cooked for generations. It is focused and exceptional. MAIZ is broader in ambition. The menu is longer, the flavors borrow from more places, and the signature dish is a baked avocado taco that no traditional taqueria would put on the menu.
If you want the best straightforward meat taco in the area, Dos Hermanos still holds that ground. If you want tacos that take creative swings and mostly land them, MAIZ is the play. The hand-shaken margaritas with fresh-squeezed juice do not hurt the case either.
What MAIZ proves is that The Fold needs to think beyond Ann Arbor city limits. Depot Town has a taco spot making everything from scratch daily, and ignoring it because of a city boundary line would be lazy.
The Scores So Far
Two entries in and the series already has range. A Scio Township taqueria and a Depot Town cantina, one built on tradition and one on creativity, both making food from scratch, both charging under five dollars a taco. That is a good start.
This is part of our ongoing series. Read the full tracker: The Fold: Best Taco in Ann Arbor.
MAIZ Mexican Cantina is at 36 E Cross St, Ypsilanti, MI 48198. Open daily. Taco Tuesdays for deals.