Rosa Mezcal

Definitely the best Mexican/​texmex in the city. The rice and beans aren’t just your run of the mill side, they’re a part of the meal. Everything I’ve had here is amazing and can’t wait for them to become a staple of New Orleans. They deserve it.

These are some solid tacos, and the queso is legit to boot. Once they get their liquor license in the middle of June, it’s on like Donkey Kong. For the next couple of weeks, it’s still BYOB. Come on, Orleans Parish. Get your life together.

This new Mexican spot on the hip side of Magazine Street is cheery and colorful as you walk in but the cheer dims as soon as you ask for your Margarita. The absence of a liquor license can certainly be forgiven for the 60 day young restaurant.
The sampler platter was average at best. The tacos were unimpressive. Try the chips and quesos. They were yummy. Then bring lots of BYOB tequila to wash the rest down.

Still in search of good Mexican food in New Orleans, but Rosa’s is close.
Let’s start with first impressions.
Saturday, 3pm. no one in the place. As soon as I break the plane, the server comes up and says «can I help you?» I say, «yes, tacos»? He then says «I have to tell you we don’t serve alcohol». I say, ok. He leads me to a tiny table in front of the window. Ok, it’s just me, so I take the seat looking out Magazine St. Asks if I want water or tea. I get the menu and chips and salsa. The prices seem kind of high, so I decided to stick to basic tacos just to try the place out.
THE FOOD:
The chips and salsa were good. At least they make their own chips here. Salsa had some heat, some flavor, but it’s pureed to death.
I got a lengua (tongue) and a pastor taco. Rice and beans sides.
The plate comes and geezz, could it be more 80’s plating??? A gold colored tin plate with this taco holder (to hold them upright), rice and beans come in these individual little bowls. Not a fan.
The pastor taco is tasty, and has little chunks of pineapple. I like it. There is a little cup of another hot sauce and I ask for jalapeño (they have them. yay!!). With the semi-​smoky hot sauce, this is a good taco.
The lengua taco… the meat was kind of dark and didn’t have a lot of flavor. Might have been baked, or reheated tongue meat, can’t tell. Cilantro and onion.traditional. Although the cilantro didn’t have a lot of taste to it.
The food was 3.5 stars, but I’m rounding down. Being the only one in there, I would expect someone to come around at least once to see if I needed anything. At some point, the server comes up with the bill in this little cup and says he’ll take it when I’m ready.
I was mid-​bite.
Anyway, might be a take out place for me, because it’s close by.

The food is amazing! The blue corn soft tacos are all amazing. It is BYOB at the moment and we brought tequila and the margaritas are amazing! The queso and salsa are also amazing!
Service is awesome too! Can’t wait to go back! We went twice this week!

We live right around the corner from Rosa Mezcal and had dinner there for the first time tonight. It was a delightful experience that I highly recommend.
1. The food was significantly better than Juans or other Mexican places in New Orleans. I ordered the special (enchiladas verdes in a tomatillo sauce) and my wife got some of their basic tacos (al pastor and fish). For good measure we also got some guacamole with our chips. Uniformly, all of these items were tastier and had better flavors than anything we normally get at Juan’s, which is also just down the street. Each of the items a distinct taste that didn’t feel like you were just eating the same combination of ingredients in a different form.
2. The service and ambience are great. From the quirky artwork on the walls to the bus parked in the middle of the restaurant as the bar, it just had a great vibe. It’s also in a part of the neighborhood that doesn’t tend to get quite as much foot traffic, which means that there isn’t a wait to get in.
3. The prices were reasonable and they have an awesome happy hour. Some of the entrees on the menu are more in the $ 12-​$ 15 range, but those are pretty hearty meals with two sides included. The happy hour is $ 2 tacos, which you cannot beat for this kind of quality.
They are still working on getting their liquor license, but that’s great for us since it’s significantly cheaper to just bring your own alcohol and we live right around the corner.
We immediately decided to make this our new go-​to Mexican spot in the neighborhood, which is a pretty big deal given how many nights I’ve walked over to get takeout from Juan’s. If you’re looking for good food in the neighborhood, we highly recommend this place.

Best tacos in New Orleans!!! Cool vibe and a wonderful staff! Great addition to the neighborhood!!!

I’m updating my review to 5 stars. I went last night for Cinco de Mayo thinking that due to the lack of a liquor license no one would want to go! I was wrong! The place was packed. It is BYO, and that really changed the game for me. There really aren’t many (if any) BYO spots in the area. We brought margaritas from another bar in. We did help ourselves to a table because the servers looked frazzled, and no one was up front to seat people. There was a group of about 30 underage college kids waiting for a table, which they would still be waiting for even after we left. You can’t just show up 30 deep kids. Anyway, the BYO is actually so great that I hope they don’t get a liquor license (so selfish of me). Our neighboring diners brought a bottle of Mezcal and shared it with us in the joyous spirit of Cinco de Mayo. The manager enjoyed the fun our group and our new Mezcal friends brought to the place. He honked the horn on the truck that is the bar get the rest of the bar excited but we were the only ones cheering… Everyone else looked confused and underage… The food was just as delicious as the first time! The sides are phenomenal. Again, I went with tortilla soup, and I got bacon wrapped shrimp tacos, and a side of the onions. The onions are amazing but don’t order them if you don’t like onions. I think this place will become a once a week stop on our dining escapades! I had a great time and the food is killer! Love it!

Rosa Mezcal is a new-​ish taco place on my street, and I’ve been talking about trying it since they opened. Last night, we finally made it on a late-​night date night.
–The restaurant is still waiting for its liquor license, so as of this writing they are still BYOB. There is a convenience store a few doors down where you can buy Tecate and Modelo, which go great with tacos.
–The items on the menu are a bit pricey ($ 10-​$ 20/​entrée), especially for Mexican food. I ordered the Mezcaleros tacos trio (red snapper, avocado, red cabbage, and lettuce in blue corn tortillas, $ 16.95) with sides of refried beans and guacamole salad; my boyfriend got the Apache tacos (Carne asada with roasted jalapeños, $ 15.95) with a side of Charro beans. Our meals came quickly, were incredibly filling and delicious, and the first basket of chips and deliciously spicy fire-​roasted homemade salsa were on the house!
— The ambiance is casual but both date-​friendly and kid-​friendly; the décor is pretty awesome, including an old VW van that’s been repurposed as a bar and a Dia de Los Muertos skeleton riding a bicycle hanging from the ceiling. The walls are brightly colored, the lights are dim and warm, and the tables are decoupaged with old luchador trading cards. The whole place is warm, colorful, inviting, casual, and feels like you could come in and stay a while.
–Overall, I was very impressed. I only deducted one star because of the pricing; I grew up in an area with a large Latino population and always had cheap, delicious Mexican food as a result. Still, I hear Rosa Mezcal has a great happy hour ($ 2 tacos), so I may just have to rewrite this review once I’ve tried it!

Wow. tasty!!! They know how to make a burrito!!! Not dry over cooked like some places. The tortilla soup was smashing! Nothing boring here! Great interior. Well done. Bring me the Mezcal

Yet another mediocre Mexican place on Magazine where there are already too many Mexican places adding to the already overly crowded number of mediocre Mexican restaurants in the area. The interior is interesting and they have done a unique theme inside while their tables are more form than function being a bit slippery on top but highly decorated. The menu continued the theme of form over function as the print the menu was written in literally stabbed my eyes and was painful to read so it was hard to decipher what the offerings were. Their enchilada was not at all what you usually expect from an enchilada while their tacos were nice with generous slices of avocado. The salsa that comes with the chips is very thin and watery along with the fact it could definitely use some spice kick. For the prices there are just many better places to go. I’d stick with the taco happy hour and before or after that still just stick with the tacos.

Since this is a newcomer I wish it would have been better. Unfortunately it was lousy food.
The chips were fried with an oil that made me sick to my stomach. The enchiladas should have been called enchilada since there was only one of them. Tacos were ³⁄₅ quality.

My friend and I stumbled upon this place walking down Magazine, and I am so happy that we did! I had no idea this little tacqueria existed in New Orleans, but coming from Houston I am always on the lookout for good Mexican food and Rosa Mezcal puts itself up there as some of the best in New Orleans.
Both of us were extremely hungry (and had already had a couple of drinks), so we ended up getting 10 tacos each — during Happy Hour the tacos are only $ 2 each so this gigantic feast of food only set us back $ 20 each! Great bargain and value right off the bat.
The tacos themselves were excellent — corn tortillas, quality fillings, and excellent salsas on the side. My personal favorite tacos were the Grilled Chicken (extremely juicy), the Pibil (the pickled onions gave it a nice zing), and the Al Pastor (well seasoned pork and pineapples) but honestly I enjoyed every taco I tried (and I’m pretty sure I sampled the entire menu!). The only one that I felt was a bit of a miss was the «Lengua» taco (I believe beef tongue). The meat itself was a bit on the rubbery side and didn’t have much flavor.
Our server was extremely nice and did a great job with the recommendations. She even spotted us two tacos for free when the kitchen made some extra on accident.
OVERALL: ⁴⁄₅. Delicious, authentic Mexican tacos that are a steal at $ 2 each during Happy Hour. Can’t wait for my next visit!

Authentic? Si.
Agua Fresca? Mucho delicioso.
Lunch specials? Perfecto!
Great lunch options, a fun tricked-​out bar, and a futbul fans’ dream. HUGE screens to watch soccer while enjoying their house-​made chips and fantastic salsa. Sad I had to go back to work, but that means I can go back for happy hour! Everything was fresh and while the menu stuck with the traditional, it tasted better than the other Latin food options on that stretch of Magazine.

I’ll re-​review this place once they get their liquor license. There’s definitely some irony in a place called Mezcal that doesn’t actually serve it, but I’m sure it’s not their fault and they’re just waiting for the city to tell them they can legally sell what people can legally drink outside on the sidewalk. I digress.
The best thing about the restaurant is the décor. I love it. It’s interesting enough to blow way past tacky and circle back around to being attractive and fun.
The second best thing is the hot sauce they have on the table, the first hot sauce I’ve had on a restaurant table in New Orleans that actually applied a higher ratio of heat than vinegar. I’m a hot sauce nut, and I’ll do some dousing in Crystal or Tabasco if it’s right for the dish. But those are not spicy hot sauces, and I don’t want them anywhere near my Mexican food.
As for the food, it was hit or miss. The tacos were good, but not outstanding. I had the pork with chicharrones, and the chicharrones actually seemed like bagged pork rinds. It was a good taco concept, and I enjoyed it, but it didn’t have the taste and texture of mama’s homemade chicharrones (translation for Louisianas — it’s the difference between grandmama’s cracklin and what you buy off a shelf at the corner store). The sides were mostly good, but one, the charred onions, were fibrous and inedible.
The worst part about the meal, though, were the taco tortillas. They were blue. And I don’t mean blue corn, blue. I mean like bright, blue-​green blue. Like Florida Marlins teal. Like, this is not the color of food in the real world blue. Like I don’t really want to eat this blue. Not that it stopped me, mind you. But I wish it was just a normal-​colored taco.

I had fish ceviche and stake and eggs. The ceviche was delicious! The stake and eggs were good as expected. The side rice reminded me of my grandmothers yellow rice — loved it. Service was good and the place had a good atmosphere. Only thing missing is the license to sell alcohol. I will return.

Oh my goodness, the food here is so good. Great chips and salsa, great rice like mama used to make tasty and fluffy delicious, un real churro beans black and wet seasoned perfectly. The tacos we had grilled pork seasoned perfectly again with bits of pineapple and cilantro. The tacos were great but the tortillas were sky blue, kind of synthetic. The attention clever, the sinks in the rest room are cooking pots. The service great.

I cannot say enough good things about this place. Clearly, I’m not bothered by dye in my tortillas. Turquoise is prettier than regular maize blue. Also, I’ll bet most of those nasty nay-​sayers ate fruit loops among many other dyed foods growing up, and they’re still here to gripe about petty things.
First, the service. I know they’re new, so they’re on top of their game. And, okay, maybe Brittany (forgive me if I’ve misspelled your name, dear) has waited on us both times. She’s a doll. And everyone else checks in periodically as they’re passing by. Friendly and attentive. And accommodating. The first time we went in I was jonesing for a taco salad. Not really on the menu. Totally made me one.
Which brings us to food. That taco salad actually really hit the spot. The shredded chicken had loads of flavor, and the salad had pretty much all the necessities. Topped of with their La Diabla sauce… Yum! (Be warned. This sauce is not for you New Orleanians who think a dash of Tabasco makes something hot. The sauce packs good heat. Not the hottest I’ve had, bc I’m a nut and like ghost chilies and Thai the way the Thai eat Thai. But good heat.) the second time I went I got some grilled chicken dish. Pollo something, obviously. Topped with chipotle bacon, spinach, and two cheeses. This dish bursts with flavor. The chicken was a tad dry, as was the meat of my friends dish the first time we went. But this is the only flaw I’ve found, and the flavor tends to hide it pretty darn well.
Maybe a little pricy. But it’s Magazine. What isn’t? This isn’t some lousy chain in Kennairie. It’s worth it.
I just can’t wait until their liquor license is acquired. I might move in then. :)

Get the fish tacos. They’re the best in town, maybe the best you’ll ever have. The shredded chicken taco was the least tasty, but my husband really liked the Al Pastor. Fun, lively atmosphere. Really great staff – friendly, attentive, efficient.
I was really looking forward to the Queso, but I was underwhelmed. Very thick variety.
But, the tacos are definitely worth returning for!

Rosa Mezcal was a fantastic experience. The service was excellent. Celina was very helpful and excited to teach us about the food and the cuisine. Although the chefs likely do not have the culinary pedigree of some New Orleans restaurants, the food, although not perfect, is unique and thoughtfully creative. The atmosphere is fun and has some really nice and unique design elements. Overall, it was a great experience, and you just want them to succeed and become a small business success story. Celina was absolutely incredible. Looking forward to trying the drink menu when they get their liquor license.

snooze-​fest.
GREAT décor, but I’m here for the food, which is wrong in so many ways:
tortillas are dyed flourescent turquoise blue… yuk.
The chips were fried in rancid oil… triple yuk.
The lamb dish was so DRY, nothing could save it, not even the soupy bowl of bean stuff it came with… nor the huge barely cooked giant green onion (this was NOT a lovely sweet cebollita, folks).
The blue tacos were just OK. The only decent thing on the menu was the tortilla soup-​very salty, but I like my soup that way.
I hope they get their food act together, or get their liquor license so that people get so loaded they THINK the food is good.
Oh, and there are no bargains on this menu…

Sigh. I wanted to like this place. I wanted to LOVE this place. I anxiously waited for its doors to open, and when they did and I finally went for dinner!!!
Meh.
First off, the décor is awesome. There are lots of TV’s so I can see myself coming back for some chips to watch some games or something.
Our waiter was… very excited. He really, really, really wanted to take our order. I’m blind as a bat so I could barely read the menu, and I didn’t understand what any of the words meant, so it took me a while to be ready.
The homemade chips and salsa are delicious. We ended up with two baskets. We ordered the Tinga (chicken) flautas and a Tinga quesadilla. Both were on the «specials» menu on the back. The flautas were good. Nice and crispy. My chicken quesadilla was a mound of shredded, dry chicken with a little oxaca cheese. Boring. Not yummy. Twice as much as Juan’s.
I ended up sending the dilla back and getting the Diablo Puollo at the ownder’s suggestion. It was good, sour cream and cheese over spinach and chicken. Wayyy too salty for the average bear, I assume, but it was okay by me.
The owner explained to us that the tacos are the real specialty of the house and the specials on the back are for dumb idiots who don’t know anything about good Mexican food. Okay, he didn’t say the last part, but, he did recommend that we come back and try the tacos.
They are $ 2 from 3 – 6 pm every day, so I may try that.
I really want this place to succeed, let’s hope they can get it going in there.

Yum… excellent Mexican food, great service, fun atmosphere. Only complaint is that it’s BYOB bc they don’t have their liquor license yet but there’s a market less than a block away if you really need it. Everything we ordered was delicious!

Wow, Stopped here only because I was driving down Magazine and what an awesome surprise. The waitress was the one of the best waitresses I’ve ever had. She was always polite and smiling.
The food was really good. Once they get a liquor license I will definitely drive from the Northshore to visit again.

The chips and salsa are wonderful as is the queso– very flavorful & spicy. But then we were let down by the sopa trio– excellent idea but blandly executed. We ordered the Playeros tacos which were divine– shrimp, bacon and deep fried cream cheese stuffed jalapeños. Sooooo gooooood. And they do now offers free tap water, which I saw many other reviewers complain about.
The server was enthusiastic and adorable. She wanted to tell me more than I wanted to hear about the menu but she was good. Knowledge is power, I was just too hungry to humor her.
Gripe: trying just a tad too hard to be cool. You’re not juans, folks. Why are my tacos blue? I don’t need blue dye in my tacos. And the bathroom sink made me mad– it was so committed to being industrial hip with rudimentary separate valves that I could only alternatively scald or freeze my hands. This was unpleasant.
Spouse and I are in disagreement on rating– I say 4, he says 3. I refuse to see this as a sign my marriage is in trouble. Land it at 3.5 people. We will be back.

BETTER THAN ARAÑA, WORSE THAN IZZO’S
As any local will tell you, Mexican food here has come a long way. Back in the 80s we compromised for mundane ingredients, over-​cooked meat, and a total lack of heat at Cuco’s on S. Carrolton. Rosa Mezcal is a Cuco’s redux.
HOW IS THIS NEWBIE EVER GOING TO COMPETE?
(Look at my pics). The sad unadorned tacos are up against Rum House, Taceaux Loceaux, Sarita’s and Felipe’s. The complicated and somewhat pricey menu has to vie with Juan’s Flying Burrito and Casa Borrega just blocks away. The $ 13 dismal substandard sampler platter is half the size of the excellent $ 17 version at Superior Grill. And none can compete with Taqueria Guerrero for authenticity at an affordable price.
BUT FOR $ 4 YOU CAN’T BEAT THEIR CHIPS & QUESO!
The fry at Rosa Mezcal is its strong suit. To me their chips and queso are among the best in the city (way better than Johnny Sanchez). I’d love it if they specialized in fried puffed tacos. That would be a unique addition to this crowded niche.

Love this place. We have eaten there twice and had great food and service both times. I can’t wait for them to get their liquor license for some tasty beverages.

This was a good experience overall. The positives were the service and tastes. We got take out of two different taco platters. Both were good with fresh shrimp. That’s a big positive. The negative is the «blue corn tortilla», which while it tastes fine as a typical factory made corn tortilla, isnt a tortilla made from blue corn. Ive never seen anything like it and I almost didn’t eat it. It’s just a regular factory made tortilla that has been dyed a neon weird tealish bright little kid food color tye dyed blue. It’s a very big negative as the color is so distracting and unappealing that i could only eat these in the dark. Ewww. Its that unpleasant. The other complaint is that its a little pricey for what you get, but that’s not a big deal. The water issue is a problem. The staff us obviously instructed to make up for a lack of a liquor licence. That was not so great.

Overall terrible experience. Forced $ 3 Dasani is a joke, as are the dyed tortillas. Service was really awkward. Pastor and Asada were both extremely dry and bland.

Eek… Having a hard time because they’re new and the guys seemed nice. Our waitress was really intense.
We asked for water. She brought out plastic dasani water bottles, which they bring to every table and charge you for without telling you.
She said she’d bring us tapwater, but her boss would be mad if he saw her.
If you wanna be fancy and only serve bottled water– then tell your customers and don’t serve crappy water. Strike.
Corn taco shells are dyed blue. This is not cool at all. I don’t want dye in my paper or my hair or my drinks let alone my taco shells. This is not blue corn. It’s bright blue dye. No bueno.
Carne asada was dry. Carnitas was dry. Beans were refried only. Rice was flavorless. Food was overpriced.
The menu was hard to understand and our waitress was totally misleading and joked about it.
When you are a new restaurant in New Orleans you gotta hit the ground running. Juan’s is right down the street and tastes more authentic than this, and that is creole mex.
I’m worried about this place. Will try one more time because they seemed so nice but it was pretty bad.

Really good and fun Mexican place. The tastes are authentico and yum! Good value and friendly people. Looking forward to coming back to sample some mezcals. It’s byob right now.

Good atmosphere, quality food and service! With so many options in the city you better bring some game to the table and that’s what we got on our visit. Solid addition to the LGD!

WOW! Brand New Mexican restaurant on Magazine Street and it is GREAT. Our first indication that it was good was the chips and salsa. You could tell the salsa was homemade and had a great flavor.
The food was the best Mexican I have had in NOLA and you could tell it was fresh. This is not you run of the mill bland Tex-​mex. This food has flavor and is not overly spicy, the flavored are balanced. The Chicken Diablo was chicken topped with spinach and 2 types of cheese and had broccoli and rice as a side. The bbq shrimp tacos had great flavor, as did the charro beans and guacamole.
We will be returning here. This is the kind of food you crave.

The food at rosa mezcal was a step above mediocre. I got the pastor tacos and chicken tortilla soup. Both were great in flavor but portion size left something to be desired.
My friend got the el macho burrito. The ground beef was something different and very tasty, but the fixings can on the side of the burrito, which was weird and messy.
The service was fine. We were two of three customers in the restaurant and they were extremely attentive/​clearly bored out of their minds.
One last thing — they don’t have their liquor license yet but they’re allowing byob. It was fine since there are plenty of places around to grab a beer or margarita and come back.
Bottom line: I think this place has work to do but definitely has potential. I would definitely give it another try in a month or so.