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Food

Shocker, But Confirmed: LA County Has The Most Mexican Restaurants In The Country

A rectangular plate of chilaquiles, featuring eggs, potatoes, black beans, cheese, tortillas and salsa.
Chilaquiles with eggs, black beans and potatoes at Tirsa's Mexican Kitchen in Chinatown.
(
Elina Shatkin/LAist
)

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We won't get into where you can find the best Mexican food for journalistic reasons. But Los Angeles County can certainly claim to have the most Mexican restaurants in the country with nearly 5,500 eateries, according to the Pew Research Center.

A neon sign for a Mexican restaurant
The sign for Casa Vega, a Mexican restaurant in Sherman Oaks.
(
Chava Sanchez
/
LAist
)

Not that anyone in L.A. needed this confirmed, but you can always get your fix of sopes, flautas, pozole, gringas, tlayudas, or whatever else you're craving. The researchers found that 17% of all restaurants in California serve Mexican food — and close to a third of those are in L.A. County.

Texas's Harris County, which includes Houston, has the second-most Mexican restaurants in the country. San Diego County came in third place nationally, followed by Maricopa County in Arizona and Cook County in Illinois.

Nationally, approximately 10% of eateries in the United States are Mexican restaurants. The study found that only 4 million people, just 1 percent of the U.S. population, live in a county that does not have a Mexican restaurant.

Read the full report here.

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