Taqueria el Oso
Berlin has long—and I think notoriously—suffered from a dearth of good Mexican restaurants. This one is an exception!
Just look at the restaurant Mexico in the vicinity of Wrangelkiez in Kreuzberg to look at what many (probably mostly tourists) think classifies as Mexican food. It’s a goddamned travesty. I’m not going to go into what doesn’t work, what’s inauthentic, or what’s a clonky interpretation of “Mexican” cuisine. Let’s turn, instead, to what’s been touted for several years now as one of Berlin’s only good taco restaurants. That’s Taquería el Oso, and if you, like me, have been trying to find real tacos in this city, you’ve probably already heard of this one. That’s because it’s actually pretty good. I can’t say it’s as good as the best of what you’ll find in Mexico, or in my case, Los Angeles… but they do a pretty decent rendition of a standard taco .
The tortillas are soft, warm, and made from corn. I recommended ordering a menu of 3 tacos. Try the Al Pastor or the Suadero. An Al Pastor taco contains pork marinated in ancho, pasilla, achiote, and chipotle chiles combined with various spices and served with pineapple in a corn tortilla with diced onions and cilantro.
The suadero is simpler—a cut of stewed beef—served with the same onions and cilantro. For a vegetarian option, I favor a Nopales taco—the nopales filling comes from the pad of a Nopal cactus. It tastes vaguely tangy and citrusy and is occasionally lightly pickled.
My main complaint on the tacos is that in Mexican streetfood, it would be fairly standard to give two corn tortillas layered on top of each other for a single taco. Here they only give one, which whatever their reasons — labor, cost of corn flour, is problematic because the stewed taco fillings tend to soak through the tortillas and break through on the other side. This is obviously frustrating because tacos are inherently a fingerfood.
To top your tacos, El Oso offers a variety of salsas. They’re made daily from imported fresh and dried chilis, and they have many to choose from of varying spice levels (though fewer since I returned a year after their opening). They make fresh corn chips to accompany the salsa, or you can order it with guacamole. Their usual location in Pfefferberg Markethalle is currently closed due to water damage. They’ve temporarily moved from Prenzlauer Berg to Kreuzberg until Pfefferberg is able to reopen.
Shout out to the Mexican shop in Pfefferberg where you can buy some halfway decent salsa, chilis, tortillas, and other goods.
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