Machete Azteca Estilo DF is a small very casual restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona.  It’s the kind of restaurant you might pass by unless you know about it and it’s on your radar.

This isn’t your typical Mexican Restaurant filled with Burritos, Fajitas and Chimichangas. This hole in the wall kind of restaurant offers Authentic Style Mexico City Food. That means Machetes, D.F.Style Antojitos, Caldos and Barbaloa and Mexican Beverages.

You won’t find fancy dining here by any means and the noise level was forking loud when we were there. Mexican Music is just blaring outside the building. Inside is Mexican Television blaring and you hear the music and television at the same time and this might make your head a little wonky. This place was also very busy and completely filled up when I was there and also had non-stop take out calls being placed.

I warn you that the menu is written in Spanish.

If you don’t know your Huaraches from your Caldos ordering can be a little tricky unless you look at the pictures.

Don’t worry you can sort of figure most of it out without the use of your cell phone.

The Specialty of the house might the Machete…the name sake. The Machete is a sort of Quesadilla that is a extremely large house made corn tortilla that comes in sixteen varieties. Some of the varieties are seldom found in any Mexican Restaurant that you try in Phoenix such as the Huitlacoche.  Also called Mexican Truffle or Corn Smut. Huitlacoche is diseased or infected corn but it’s prized for it’s woodsy, sweet, mushroomy flavor.

Below is the actual photo of a Huitlacoche Taco I had in Mexico.

Since I usually only eat Huitacoche in Mexico I decided I had to order it here.

This thing was so forking big that it can’t fit on a forking plate and comes out on a forking platter. It only cost (at the time of this review) $7.99 so I wasn’t expecting anything so large. I have to say this Machete was very tasty. It might look strange to you but the Huitlacoche was more interesting than some of the other huitacoche that I had before. This one had added sweet corn in it with various sizes of the kennels in the process of turning into huitacoche. I got more texture and more sweetness than I usually get from the huitacoche. They also filled the tortilla with a generous amount of melty mild white cheese. I whacked off a piece for my husband to try and took half home. I also had a chicken taco.

This is a very small street sized taco on double house made tortillas. I like that this taco seemed authentic style meaning without cheese. In the Jalisco area of Mexico that we visit every now and then cheese is not served on tacos. I was told in Mexico that cheese never goes on the tacos there and only Americans put cheese on tacos. This taco was very mild with flavor unlike a Jalisco Style Taco. The tortillas were very fresh and hot and tasted just like the fresh made white corn tortillas I tasted from a tortilla factory in Mexico.

My husband had the Huarache with Chorizo.

It’s like the Machete but open faced with different topping. My husband was delighted with this dish and really enjoyed the chorizo they used. He also had a Barbacoa Taco.

It’s a fresh tasting taco that’s simple with fresh lime to enhance. Both the Mexico City Style tacos (chicken and barbacoa) are more mildly seasoned than the Jalisco Style tacos that we enjoy in Mexico.

All the tortillas and sauces are all house made. This restaurant is NOT BIG on atmosphere but this isn’t  your average Mexican restaurant and offer authentic style food you can’t get at most places.

I’s ALMOST like taking a Trip to Mexican City Mexico!

For more information on Machete Azteca Estilo DF in Phoenix AZ you can visit them on FaceBook.

You might might be interest to read about my last trip to Mexico just type in “The Jalisco Taco” in the search box