Mexican Restaurants in St. George, Utah

Mexican restaurants in St. George and Washington County — from long-established family kitchens to regional cooking, and how to find what you want.

The deepest independent category here

Mexican restaurants are the largest and most varied independent restaurant category in this region, and they span a genuine range: long-standing family kitchens, newer regional restaurants, and the taquerias and taco shops that operate as a category of their own.

Regional cooking is not one thing

"Mexican food" covers cooking traditions as different from one another as those of any large country. Sonoran cooking, from the northern desert states, leans on flour tortillas, beef and wheat — and it is the tradition most familiar to diners across the American Southwest. Coastal cooking centers on seafood. Central and southern traditions bring moles, masa preparations and entirely different chilli profiles.

Most restaurants reflect a particular tradition and a particular family's cooking. Asking where the kitchen's food comes from, and what they would recommend that is not on the main menu, is by far the most productive question available.

Signals worth reading

Tortillas made on site are the clearest one, and it is a fair thing to ask. A salsa that varies in character rather than arriving identical everywhere suggests a kitchen making its own. A menu that includes dishes you do not recognize is generally a good sign rather than a barrier — those are usually what the kitchen cooks best.

Practical points

Ask about the salsa heat rather than assuming from color.
Lunch specials are common and generally good value.
Many of the best options are small — a modest storefront is not a signal of anything.
Check Sunday hours, which vary across this region.

Mexican Restaurants in St. George

Angelica's Mexican Grill

Family-owned Mexican grill at the top of St. George Boulevard, working Mexico City-style street tacos and elote — grilled corn dressed with crema, cheese and chilli, eaten off the cob. Street-style tacos are built small and doubled up on corn tortillas rather than served as a plated dinner, which is a different tradition from the Tex-Mex most Utah menus carry.

101 E St. George Blvd, St. George, UT

435-628-4399
Don Pedro's Family Mexican Restaurant

Family-owned Mexican restaurant on Valley View Drive in the Green Valley area, serving made-to-order dishes in St. George for more than twenty years. Green Valley sits west of the city center below the black lava ridge — one of St. George's older established neighborhoods and the site of its first resort development — and the restaurant has long been a fixture of that side of town.

567 S Valley View Dr, St. George, UT

(435) 673-0131
Durango's Mexican Grill

Fast-casual Mexican grill that opened in 2003 and has traded from the same building on Red Cliffs Drive ever since, making it one of the longest-standing restaurants on that corridor. Tacos, quesadillas, salads and burritos are built to order at the counter, and the kitchen also handles catering. Red Cliffs Drive is the retail spine of the city's north-east side, and most of what surrounds the restaurant arrived after it did.

245 N Red Cliffs Dr, St. George, UT

(435) 688-2200
El Patron Mexican Food

Quick-serve taqueria on St. George Boulevard turning out street tacos, carnitas and carne asada burritos made fresh daily, with churros and horchata alongside. Horchata in the Mexican tradition is a rice drink rather than the almond version drunk in Spain, and it is the standard accompaniment to this kind of counter menu.

835 E St George Blvd, St. George, UT

435-922-0617
Green Iguana Mexican Restaurant

Family-owned Mexican restaurant opened in September 2016 by father and son Gama and Ricardo Arreola, in the Red Cliffs retail corridor on the north-east side of St. George. The kitchen works the traditional plates — carne asada, carnitas, chile verde, enchiladas, chimichangas — as a full-service dining room rather than a counter operation, and draws both local trade and travelers coming off the interstate.

250 Red Cliffs Drive #14A, St. George, UT

435-628-4863
Irmita's Casita Mexican Restaurant

Family-owned Mexican restaurant that began in 1993 in a modest room at 500 South and Bluff Street and has moved several times within St. George since, now trading from 700 South. Traditional and Tex-Mex plates make up the menu — quesadillas, sizzling fajitas, smothered burritos, mole — and much of its custom has followed the family from address to address across three decades.

95 W 700 S, St. George, UT

435-703-9162
Las Palmas Authentic Mexican Food

Casual Mexican kitchen on Convention Center Drive serving street food — tacos, burritos and traditional plates — near the convention center and the hotel strip south of the Black Ridge. It is one of the few genuinely local options on a stretch otherwise given over to national brands.

1572 S Convention Center Dr, St. George, UT

435-922-0753
Los Tapatios Mexican Restaurant

Locally owned restaurant on Bluff Street serving Jalisco-style Mexican cooking — the regional tradition of Guadalajara and the state around it, which is where the word tapatío comes from. It is a sit-down dining room working the classic plates rather than a counter operation or a fusion menu, on the busy stretch of Bluff south of the downtown grid.

987 S Bluff St, St. George, UT

435-652-1693
Sanchez Mexican Food

Long-running counter-serve Mexican kitchen just off Sunset Boulevard, best known for rolled shredded-beef tacos — the deep-fried style, closer to a flauta than to a soft street taco, and a format that has largely disappeared from newer menus in favor of the Mexico City style.

1418 W Sunset Blvd, St. George, UT

435-628-9087

Frequently asked questions

How do I find more regional Mexican cooking here?

Ask at the restaurant. The single most productive question is what part of Mexico the kitchen's food comes from and what they would recommend beyond the standard menu — most family kitchens are pleased to be asked and will steer you to what they actually cook best. Dishes on a menu that you do not immediately recognize are usually a good sign rather than a reason for caution, since those are frequently the ones the kitchen is proudest of.

What is the difference between Sonoran and other Mexican cooking?

Sonoran cooking comes from Mexico's northern desert states and leans toward flour tortillas, beef and wheat-based preparations — it is the tradition that has most shaped what Americans across the Southwest recognize as Mexican food. Coastal cooking is built around seafood, and central and southern traditions bring moles, masa-based dishes and quite different chilli profiles. They are genuinely distinct cuisines rather than variations on one menu.

What should I look for in a Mexican restaurant?

Tortillas made on the premises are the clearest single indicator, and it is a reasonable question to ask. Salsa that tastes specific to the restaurant, rather than interchangeable with everywhere else, points the same way. Beyond that, do not read much into the size or appearance of the premises — some of the best kitchens in this category operate from very modest storefronts, and that is true here as much as anywhere.

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