La Mexicana Grocery & Taqueria

In my opinion these are the best tacos in Willimantic. The meat is very flavorful no matter what you order. The menu is also extensive and gives lots of different options. Also very affordable!

I am glad we found this place but upset it has been there for 8 years and we didn’t know about it. Really good. Spicy pork quesadilla is great.

If your looking for authentic taste then this is the place to go! I have had the tacos with carne asada (steak) and of chicken … Steak is my favorite

For a town with such a large Latino community, it’s shocking that there aren’t more decent taquerias. Most of the Mexican restaurants around here seems to cater to people who really hate Mexican food: greasy, flavorless reiterations of Taco Bell. But La Mexicana is such a treasure where these other places fall flat.
First of all, the guy behind the counter is going to have a hard time telling you what kinds of meat you can chose from unless you’re equipped with something better than grade school Spanish or have a Spanish-​speaking friend with you. Some might see this as a drawback, but I take this as a sign that what you are about to devour is muy autentico (that’s the extent of my Spanish, for the record).
Growing up in Texas, we had our share of hole-​in-​the-​wall taquerias and I would put La Mexicana up against any of them. It seems that the shabbier the hole-​in-​the-​wall, the better the food. With tacos, it’s all about the tortilla and the meat. The tortillas are fresh and hot. And their menu of meats changes depending on what they decide to make that morning. You can also get different variations like burritos, but for a couple of bucks you can get a great variety of tacos.
The place is full around lunch time with locals, so you know they must be doing something right. You can also buy anything from the store-​side of the shop, which is stocked with Mexican standards, including a pretty wide variety of Mexican pastries (although those have never been my favorite: lard instead of butter leaves an icky taste in my mouth).
We tend to grab some of the Jarritos sodas or sometimes they have horchata on the menu before we order our tacos. They always come out hot and remarkably flavorful. It’s about time Willimantic lived up to its rep as a Latino bastion in Connecticut, and La Mexicana definitely makes life in New England a little spicier.

This is a small, hole-​in-​the-​wall Mexican establishment that is half a convenience store with Mexican groceries, and half a taqueria that makes really, really good authentic Mexican food. The tacos are top-​notch: double corn tortillas with a vast selection of meats as well as onion and cilantro. They also have other options such as burritos, etc.
This place is on a small road that runs parallel to Main St. It doesn’t look pretty or anything from the outside, but the food is great on the inside, and the groceries are useful as well.
I would say the food here is just one notch below that of Tacos La Rosa on Main St, which is the jewel of Willimantic, if not all of CT. It is a bit less expensive though.