We can celebrate Taco Tuesday every day and discover no-rules Mexican food at Patrick Curitana’s (finally) permanent Los Tacos MNL in BGC

Patrick Curitana has come a long way. From his early days of admittedly not knowing much about tacos to holding a year-long residency and consistent city-wide pop-ups, the tall taquero is taking the bull by its horns with a new and finally permanent space in BGC.

While the location may not have been what Curitana had initially wanted, he is happy with where his curiosity for tacos and Mexican cuisine has led him.

“It started during the pandemic in June 2020. It was out of necessity to pay the bills,” Curitana says about how he got interested in tacos. On a random day and on a random moment where he came across a Teddy’s Red Tacos birria video, the then-clueless Curitana had a ticking time bomb—well, birria—in his hands.

“I gave up on quesabirria na kasi with the new space, it’s time for the brand to move on to something new and to challenge ourselves,” says Patrick Curitana

“Initially [the brand was] called Los Tacos Birria Manila, and then around September, October biglang nag-boom ’yung birria,” he says. But wary of becoming just a fleeting trend, Curitana dropped “birria” from his brand and switched it to simply Los Tacos MNL where he can “create something more sustainable” and “play around.”

And thank goodness he did.

While birria is remarkably delicious, the flexibility afforded by Curitana’s adopted new mindset has only benefited him greatly. “I gave up on quesabirria na kasi with the new space, it’s time for the brand to move on to something new and to challenge ourselves.”

I remember tasting his charred cabbage taco dolloped with a charged spicy peanut butter and Parmesan at the Bibio and Los Tacos MNL collaboration last year. Just that recipe alone told me that he certainly plumbed the depths of modern Mexican fare. 

“When I started making tortillas, I also started researching about the salsas, the moles, and then next thing I know, ang lawak pala ng Mexican cuisine,” he says. “I enjoyed it… and the style of cooking the sauces and salsas and their grilling methods, it’s more of my personality.”

During this period of pop-ups, Curitana was already laying down the foundation of where Los Tacos MNL now stands. Together with Butz Tenchavez of Toka Wines and Gran Hacienda Wines, Curitana has willfully created a vehicle for experiential extravagance. 

The minimalist chic space—designed by Brian Ver and adorned with terracotta walls, palm plants, and bespoke Lamana furniture—works as a scene-setting backdrop for Curitana, Tenchavez, and the rest of the Los Tacos MNL crew to incorporate creative Mexican food into the dining habits of the neighborhood.

A tutorial on elevated tacos and no-rules Mexican cuisine

“The recipes we executed here are recipes I’ve used from the residency and our pop-ups—and then revised,” says Curitana. Old favorites such as the shrimp and tuna tostadas remain as both the foundation of the menu and the basis of Curitana’s domain expansion. “But tweaked to improve,” he says.

The whole range of the menu taps into a kind of Mexican maelstrom  with a cornucopia of international flavors. To my delight, the aforementioned charred cabbage taco made the cut but this time enhanced by an earthy and nutty salsa macha and Manchego cheese.

The whole range of the menu taps into a kind of Mexican maelstrom  with a cornucopia of international flavors

From the lunch menu, a standout is the three-piece serving of flautas, which are supple and crispy flurries of chorizo, smoked potato, and salsa verde. There’s also a campechano taco—practically a taco filled with a variety of meats—where Curitana scoops together some wagyu beef cheeks and Mexican chorizo then fires it up with a spicy salsa tatemada.

Another noteworthy quality of Curitana’s three- to five-ingredient dishes is the quantity of portions. Even the most discerning of palates would be drawn in to savor more items on the menu.

In between sips of their bright skin-contact orange Austrian wine made with the Grüner Veltliner grapes, slip into bites of the delicate slipper lobster (known locally as pitik) served atop a rich caldo de camarón (shrimp sauce) or a requisite fish taco made more excellent by the chipotle crema and pickled red cabbage. Elsewhere, go for the solid grilled Ibérico collar with clam and bean sauce, which is a pretty great combination.

Butz Tenchavez’s beverage program meanwhile follows the same thought and philosophy of Patrick Curitana’s food

Tenchavez’s beverage program meanwhile follows the same thought and philosophy of Curitana’s food. “We wanted the classic Mexican drinks,” Tenchavez says. “Non-alcoholic drinks like the agua fresca, soft drinks… They love their Mexican Coke. So we’re launching homemade sodas soon.” But obviously, you can still enjoy a margarita, paloma, and “mezcals that you drink like sake.”

Other gratifying things on the drink list are slow coffees (like a cup of hand-pulled espresso) and a daytime-only horchata made with toasted rice, cinnamon, and milk.

Bordering on the sublime

But this anticipation to a climactic crescendo from the entrance to your table—whether during lunch or dinner—boils down to the main characters at Los Tacos MNL. Not counting Curitana, of course.

“The corn that we [have here are] from different regions in Mexico,” shares Curitana. “What we do every end of the day is we cook the corn kernels with Cal (calcium hydroxide) tapos we cook it for an hour and let it steep overnight or at least 12 hours.”

“The corn that we [have here are] from different regions in Mexico. What we do every end of the day is we cook the corn kernels with Cal (calcium hydroxide) tapos we cook it for an hour and let it steep overnight or at least 12 hours”

This religious procedure kickstarts the nixtamalization process to transform the kernels’ structure, composition, and nutritional value. According to the international nonprofit International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), this centuries-old process doesn’t just produce better masa, it also offers several nutritional benefits, including increased bioavailability of vitamin B3 and iron as well as significant reduction of mycotoxins.

“Then we shoot the product into the Molinito (corn mill) and then meron siyang dalawang volcanic rock that grinds the nixtamal where we end up with the masa we use for different stuff like the tortillas or tostadas,” explains Curitana.

“The idea of making nixtamal out here in the open is to share it with everyone. This is the process. This is how we do it, so that everyone can discover it.”

The Los Tacos MNL group dynamics

But beyond this effective display of traditional expertise, Curitana’s team also takes up as much of the credit for the casual confidence filling the air inside the restaurant. Riffing off each other, which is explicitly seen in the incredibly open kitchen, Los Tacos MNL’s luscious menu is a result of bouncing off ideas—a creative exercise that is considered a successful strategy in any field.

“Of course, we considered [responding to customer demand when developing the menu] but maraming factors like the new space, trying to utilize what’s in the kitchen, the kind of talent we have in the restaurant, and then that’s how we create food and conceptualize dishes,” says Curitana. “We start with something we like or from a memory or has good texture… and then we just wait for the idea to bloom until we finalize it.”

“Of course, we considered [responding to customer demand when developing the menu] but maraming factors like the new space, trying to utilize what’s in the kitchen, the kind of talent we have in the restaurant, and then that’s how we create food and conceptualize dishes”

Earlier in our conversation, I reminded Curitana that I was surprised he ended up in BGC, a location that was not where he initially wanted to be because “it’s chef-driven and the brands are bigger, and different from what Los Tacos MNL is.” 

So much so that prior to opening in December 2024 at the slightly concealed spot of a residential building’s ground floor in Uptown, he admitted feeling fear.

“Do you still feel that fear?” I ask.

“Wala na. Masaya na ko kasi ang lakas ng foot traffic.” 

And deservedly so, I must say.