Where to Eat… Tacos in Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Every time I travel to the US (which, admittedly, has not been much lately) I find myself gorging on Mexican food. And that’s probably because, in the 15 years that I’ve lived in Amsterdam, Mexico has been sorely underrepresented in the city’s food scene. Long-term readers of this blog will know that I first started my search for tacos in Amsterdam back in 2013. My quest led me to plenty of disappointments as well as a few gems. But many of the best taquerias were either pop-ups to begin with or have since closed down. It’s taken me eight years just to come up with a list of half a dozen decent places to eat Mexican food (and one of those technically doesn’t even serve tacos). In fact, I was almost ready to publish this in summer 2020, but then the second wave of the pandemic hit and restaurants closed down again. And we all know that takeaway tacos just turn into a soggy mess.

Hipster, industrial Amsterdam Noord has become the unofficial capital of Mexican food in the city, housing not one but two great taquerias. At Coba, you’ll find a fiercely strong margarita as well as a range of off-the-beaten-path tacos, tostadas and more. The veal tongue tacos were my favourite, while Mr Foodie’s favourites were the black pudding on blue corn tortillas. But the carnitas tacos were fantastic too, with melt-in-the-mouth tender pork belly. While all the dishes were perfectly seasoned and sauced, we also received three salsas in little jars on the table, all of which were also excellent and deliciously different – plus, Coba’s chefs were blissfully unafraid of chilli heat! For some reason, no one would bring us any cutlery, which made it rather difficult to eat the tostadas and tetelas (corn masa stuffed pockets), both of which fell apart almost as soon as I touched them. But messy hands were a small price to pay for what was undoubtedly some of the city’s best Mexican food. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).