Just 1 Michigan Mexican eatery makes list of 'greatest'

A little over two years old, darling Vecino restaurant in Detroit's Midtown is being hailed as one of the "greatest" Mexican restaurants. On Thursday, Aug. 13, in a two-part piece, the New York Times listed “41 of the Greatest Mexican Restaurants Across the United States,” and Vecino is the only Michigan restaurant to make the list. Over the course of a year, the Times' food writers visited dozens of Mexican restaurants across the country, sampling and listing favorites for a variety of dishes, from carnitas to chalupas.

“There has never been a better time for Mexican food in the United States,” the authors wrote. “A culinary renaissance over the last 15 years has expanded the American palate well beyond Tex-Mex, tacos and game-night nachos.”

In its two-part piece, the Times' food writers detailed the impact and growth of Mexican food across the region, plus a snapshot of the 41 restaurants in the U.S.The Times’ food writer Brett Anderson wrote of Vecino’s co-owner spending much of her time working at restaurants in Detroit’s Mexicantown and the restaurant’s spotlight on Mexico City cuisine.

“Its roots run to the city’s working-class southwest, also known as Mexicantown,” Brett Anderson wrote. “That’s where Adriana Jiménez, a co-owner, spent much of her childhood, in a family of restaurateurs who fled violence in Mexico City in the 1990s. Ms.

Jiménez didn’t return to the city of her birth until adulthood, after the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program made her a permanent legal resident of the United States. Edgar Torres, a former chef de cuisine at Alinea in Chicago, was recruited to bring Vecino into conversation with the modern cuisine that has bloomed in Mexico City since Ms. Jiménez’s family left.

The results — butterflied whole snapper painted with verde and roja salsas, airy tetelas stuffed with carrot tinga, luscious sikil pak pumpkin seed salsa — carry the thrill of what Ms. Jiménez discovered when she finally returned: a valuable inheritance she didn’t know she had.”Vecino's menu centers on foods cooked in an open kitchen with a wood-fired hearth, including whole snapper, chicken and fire-roasted cabbage.

The restaurant is also known for its nixtamalization technique, a kernel-to-masa process that makes its way into Vecino's tortillas, totospos and tostadas.

Before and after Vecino made its 2024 debut, it was one of the most buzzed-about restaurants.This is one of several accolades for Vecino and its spotlight on Mexico City cuisine since its debut.

In 2025, the modern Mexican restaurant was named the Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Restaurant of the Year by Lyndsay C. Green, the Free Press’ dining critic.

“Its mom-and-pop approach to upscale dining has quickly become a refreshing addition to Detroit’s restaurant scene, where the latest openings are at the ground level of hotels and backed by large-scale hospitality groups. ... Vecino exists to defy the expectation that Mexican food is a cheap eat,” Green wrote.

In 2025, Vecino was a 2025 James Beard Award semifinalist in the Best New Restaurant category. Vecino also made Esquire's "Best New Restaurants in America, 2024, list.

Contact Detroit Free Press food and restaurant writer Susan Selasky and send food and restaurant news and tips to: sselasky@freepress.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SusanMariecooks. Subscribe to the Eat Drink Freep newsletter for insider scoops on food and dining in metro Detroit.