The best tacos in London?

Words: Santiago Guerra Arrangoiz

Images: Salima Prince

A Mexican family left everything behind to find safety and persevered through hardship to create Guacamoles. Now his taqueria is being hailed as the capital’s best

Tacos are tortillas made with corn flour. They can be a main source of protein and are usually paired with fresh vegetables like cilantro and onion, as well as cream, cheese, lemon, and, of course, salsas. The sauces in question can vary in terms of spiciness, sweetness, etc.  

In Mexico, they can cost between 15 and 30 pesos per piece (approximately 60 to 80p). Whilst in London, street tacos are practically non-existent. They are usually served in restaurants, their cost varying from £1.35 up to £8 per taco.  

And when it comes to flavour, instead of having something fresh, smooth and juicy, you’d get something processed and disappointing.  So, as a Mexican, I’m always sceptical about new cantinas opening up in London. Usually, I’m disappointed either by their inaccurate taste or their price.  

However, hearing the buzz around Manny and Guacamoles on Peckham’s Rye Lane Market, I had to try it myself. 

First, I searched for the green flags. It’s owned by a Mexican chef, check. It’s a taquería with fresh corn tortillas, check. Place to eat by the bar? Yes. Big tables to savour them among big groups of friends and family? Of course. Personalised, chirpy service? Absolutely.  

I decided to try Guacamoles on a crowded Sunday afternoon. The venue felt like a traditional taco place from back home: with an open kitchen, long tables and a bar if you were alone or in a rush.

I came with two friends. We had a quick look at the menu. It consisted of different types of tacos, such as prawn, fish, chicken, and some classics from Mexico: birria (juicy, shredded meat), pastor (a red-tanned kind of pork that’s usually cooked and chopped on a spit) and tongue. Additionally, you can enjoy fresh waters of different flavours, like hibiscus and tamarind, along with a creamy, moist tres leches cake for dessert.

I had to order a favourite of mine: carnitas tacos with pork. We waited for a while because of the packed crowd, all eager to eat. Manny, the manager, kept apologising to customers about the wait. However, it was all worth it: three tacos with handmade corn tortillas, sliced onion, cilantro and smooth, chewy, juicy meat. I got mine with a classic drink from back home: agua de horchata (rice and cinnamon water), which was the cherry on top of the experience.  

Salsas are key to a Mexican culinary culture, and Manny offered us three: one with tamarind, another with chilli peppers, and one for those with a higher tolerance to spices. Somehow, during that moment, I believed Manny’s slogan to be true: his food took me to Mexico for less than £10. Intrigued, I was eager to get to know the chirpy, smiley Manny and the history of how he brought Guacamoles to London. 

To protect his family from death threats from the drug cartel in Veracruz, I can’t disclose his name. He’s known to Londoners as ‘Taco Manny,’ perhaps because of the reputation he has earned as a Mexican chef in London. Renowned by publications such as the Financial Times, Manny has grown his business in London by selling “the best tacos in town.”

He started making them because he couldn’t find any good ones in London. “A lot of people think it’s easy, but it’s una chinga (Mexican for ‘really hard’) to make tacos.”

For him, there’s a  difference between making a good taco and a bad one. You need to adapt the recipes to the local market and have Mexican staff working in your kitchen. He believes that native food should come from native people. The masterminds behind this whole operation are he and his wife, Gaby. They also have 2 Latin political asylum seekers working with them.

Everything’s handcrafted: they make the tortillas, pork, spices and everything by hand. “My wife and I imagined this as you were eating at our house.” So, their menu, consisting of tongue, pork and short-rib tacos, is all made with the same ingredients they use in Mexico, prepared in pots.

“We use the ‘low and slow’ technique. We cook at a lower temperature for a longer time to get a smooth and flavourful meat.” This process, combined with the fresh tortillas, vegetables, and salsas, alongside the atmosphere that the Rye Lane Market itself provides, took me back to a classic taquería in Mexico City.

While Manny and the staff at Guacamole handle their kitchen with love, the project was also born out of necessity. “I didn’t know I would have a taco restaurant in London.”

Given the immediate danger he was in while living in Veracruz, Manny, Gaby and their daughter had to leave everything behind and seek asylum away from friends and family.  

Finding a new home 

In 2022, Manny felt trapped. He sought the police for help, yet they did nothing to help him. “I told them that my life was in danger, and they told me to go, otherwise I’d get killed too.” Therefore, he had no choice but to leave his home country.  

Oddly enough, he chose the British capital as his country of asylum because of an ad he saw on YouTube. In that commercial, the UK advertised that only special police forces use firearms for defence. Since he was running away from gun violence, he thought that it was a good omen.

Manny is a devoted Catholic, which explains his optimism towards life, even when things got hazardous between 2022 and 2024, when it was uncertain what would happen to him, his wife, and child.  

In August of 2022, while hiding from the pursuit of drug lords in Cuernavaca, he bought a flight between Istanbul and London. However, those got cancelled, and he had to buy a direct flight to the British capital. Manny describes this event as a sign from God, because if he were to arrive from Turkey, the UK would’ve denied him asylum immediately.   

Yet, arriving in the city that year would bring a problematic set of challenges to the family, as they would have to stay in two hotels while the British government decided whether or not to grant them asylum. 

He describes those two-and-a-half years, staying first at the Heston Hyde Hotel in Hounslow from August 2022 to January 2023, and then at the Best Western Peckham from January 2023 until May 2024, as a horror story.  He had to constantly send letters to the government to obtain permission for his stay in the UK. 

Manny had a hard time living at the hotels and sustaining himself financially. He considers living there and that state of doubt one of the darkest periods of his life. “While we were at the hotel, [my daughter] was turning from a girl into a teenager. So it was difficult for me to see how her trousers wouldn’t fit anymore, that her socks were breaking apart.” 

Gaby had a miscarriage during their stay. “We didn’t know the gender because we lost the baby before the third month of pregnancy. The stress and pressure of living in a hotel put her in a lot of pain,” Manny says.  

He couldn’t contain his emotions. “I was very depressed, and I tried to hide it from my family. Yet there was a day when I couldn’t hide it anymore. And I stayed in bed crying all day. I told God, “You know what? If this is how life will be, I don’t want to be here any longer. Please, come and take me away.”

But he then understood what his life’s purpose was: to get enough cash flow to build churches in Mexico. Manny wanted to start a foundation helping people to find faith and get them out of the drug business.  

He finds divine intervention in these matters urgent because he doesn’t trust the Mexican government to do the right thing.  

Manny’s devotion to both the project and God would pave the way for the opening of Guacamoles, often with the help of the church. 

Finding a restaurant 

Once in London, while searching for political asylum in August 2022, Manny heard about a programme at the Hounslow Arts Centre. The volunteers helped him find the staff, suppliers and ingredients to run his taquería. “God was guiding us all along, and when we were ready, we started the brand.”

Manny obtained a space through his connection with the pastor, who held his Sunday meetings at the Hounslow Arts Centre. The priest then heard of the centre’s interest in new cooks and passed the offer on to Manny. By then, he had more than 20 years of experience in the restaurant market, since he ran his family’s chain of sandwiches and shakes and his bakery, both back in Veracruz.  So he was more than up for the task. 

According to Manny, the voluntary experience he had that year was a blessing that would not only help him set up his business but also provide him with proper legal advice to obtain asylum in London. In exchange for serving tacos, the centre paid for an immigration lawyer to help Manny stay in this country.  

Despite this victory, Manny had to find a new spot to sell his tacos because the volunteering experience at Hounslow Arts Centre was meant to last only six months. 

In October 2023, when Manny had to change hotels while waiting for his permit to live in London as a refugee, this time staying at the Best Western hotel in Peckham, he met a Colombian, Jonathan Giraldo, who shared similar ambitions as a restaurateur. While Jonathan was on holiday, he borrowed his pub in Rye Lane Market for two weeks. Manny had to pay for the business expenses, but the profits were entirely his.  

To help the church and showcase his taco-making abilities, Manny organised a pop-up at the market with the assistance of Pastor Phil, the leader of Rye Lane Chapel and one of his closest friends in London. All the proceedings would go to the remodelling of the chapel and Manny got £400 to buy everything.  

They made £3,000, and Manny describes this triumph as coming with “two miracles.” Again, he gets emotional when telling me this, getting goosebumps from such triumphs.

The first one was receiving his work permit, which arrived the day he started the pop-up. “God was taking care of me because if I’d had some kind of migration raid, I could prove that I had the right to work there and that the church supported me.” At the same time, another miracle occurred after he provided the income information from the pop-up to Rye Lane Chapel. He received an email stating that he had been “waiting for a year and seven months,” prompting his second interview with the Home Office to explain why he couldn’t return to Mexico and seek asylum.

“I went to the interview and, thank God, we got a positive answer and we became residents.” Manny rushed to ask Jonathan to open the taquería together and have him as a business partner. Guacamoles then opened at Rye Lane Market in June 2024.  

Finding success 

Ever since it opened that month, Manny’s Guacamole has been receiving decent earnings, and it’s the first business where he has generated income from the very first day. Manny said that God had everything planned for him. “God put us out of the storm and liberated us with the residency, so when we opened, I promised that my early earnings would be for his church.” Being true to his word, Manny gave that to the Rye Lane Chapel.  

Everything changed once Jonathan Nunn, the acclaimed food critic of food publication Vittles, named Manny’s restaurant “the best tacos in London,” praising their tacos and quesadillas. “He came as a customer and asked a couple of questions, but I didn’t know he was a critic.”

However, Manny found out about the publication much later, when a client from Tijuana, who was a fan of the Vittles newsletter, reached out to him and said, “Jonathan’s right, these are the best tacos in London.”

Manny told me that thanks to him, other media outlets have come along to praise the restaurant too.

In terms of how he wants to expand his business, Manny plans to create a halal-friendly version of his tacos, as well as sell barbacoa tacos Hidalgo-style (slow-cooked lamb in a maguey leaf, leaving it smoky and flavorful). He also aims to collaborate with pubs and host pop-ups, among other initiatives.  

On a personal note, Manny wants to save his parents and his brother, the most important people in his life. He’s aiming to get them to London and move them away from danger.  

In all he does, he puts God first. He prays every day, pleading to God to bring clients that will make his business grow. “I have ambitions because I’m human, and my family raised me to be quite ambitious. But my main mission is spiritual.”  

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Featured image by Salima Prince