Mexican Festival Restaurant, New York

Befitting its name, Mexican Festival Restaurant strives to celebrate the flavors of traditional Latin cuisine while immersing diners in a vivacious setting that embraces a similarly vibrant spirit.

Time-Honored Cooking Techniques

Servers make every order of guacamole at guests' tables, adroitly mixing onions, tomatoes, cilantro, and jalapeños into the creamy avocado. When it comes to entrees, the chefs demonstrate a similar dedication to time-honored techniques. Beef-filled enchiladas suizas arrive topped with creamy tomatillo sauce and melted chihuahua and oaxaca cheeses, mole sauce lends a decadent richness to orders of roasted chicken, and grilled salmon fillets feature a sweet-and-spicy sauce made from mangoes and ancho chilies. Homemade flan with grilled pineapple ensures meals conclude on a refreshingly sweet note.

An Eponymous Mural

Adobe-hued and textured walls reinforce the restaurant's deep regional ties. The dining room's most prominent piece, however, is a massive mural entitled Mexican Festival, which was painted by Mexican artist, Juan Lopez. The sprawling mural features an assortment of vignettes—including images of bull riders and villagers in traditional Mexican clothing—which complement the vibrant colors of the blue-green wooden rafters and the cerulean alcoves filled with votive candles and blooming flowers.