Sonora Taquería

Michelle Salazar de la Rocha grew up in Sonora, where the tortilla is wheat rather than corn, so the tacos coming off this counter in Stoke Newington are paper thin and flaky in a way the rest of the city's taco places are not built to make.

Why go

The regional argument is the point. Northern Mexico is flour-tortilla country and London's Mexican cooking mostly is not, so this counter is doing something specific rather than doing tacos generally. Salazar de la Rocha runs it with Sam Napier, and they got here the hard way: three years selling out of Netil House in London Fields, a crowdfunder, and a legal threat from another London restaurant that claimed to have trademarked the word taqueria in 2005 and told them to drop it from their name. They kept the name. The bricks-and-mortar room opened on 22 June 2023 (Time Out). Three menus hang over the counter, one for breakfast burritos and one each for grill and guisado, which is the braised side, and items get struck through as they sell out.

Order this / avoid

• Order: barbacoa, adobada and cabeza, in that order if you are only having three. The bean and cheese quesadilla is worth the extra fifty pence for the cheese crust. Drink whatever agua fresca is on; Time Out found a fermented pineapple tepache.
• Avoid: the middle of lunch, when the line reaches the alley. The windowless basement in hot weather, since Abney Park is up the road. Arriving late, when the board is half struck through.

What locals & experts say

• Sinéad Cranna, The Infatuation, 9.2 out of 10: "There aren't many places where we'd happily test our quad strength by squatting in an alley to eat a taco, but Sonora Taquería in Stoke Newington is one of them." On the food itself she is precise: "Fillings are consistently juicy and well-seasoned, and the flour tortillas are soft and chewy." ref
• Leonie Cooper, food and drink editor at Time Out London, four stars out of five, signing off: "My hands might be a mess, but my heart is full. Viva the little guy." She describes the barbacoa as slow cooked beef that "fell apart in a deeply satisfying fashion, topped with a sauce that's fiery without maliciously blowing your head off." ref
• The trademark case, as Time Out told it: another London restaurant "rather boldly claimed to have trademarked the word 'taqueria' and demanded Sonora Taqueria drop it from their name... and of course Sonora Taqueria prevailed." ref
• No chef vote yet. Nothing in places-db/london/data/chef-votes.jsonl names Sonora, which is a gap rather than a verdict.

Good to know

• Where: 208 Stoke Newington High Street, N16 7HU, on the main drag with an alley alongside that the queue uses.
• Sites: one. The Netil House stall in London Fields closed in 2022 and there is no second premises on the food-hygiene register.
• Hours: it opened Thursday to Sunday, 10am to 4pm with breakfast until noon, and a month later Time Out described it as noon to 4pm. Both figures are from 2023 and the venue's own site could not be read on 1 August 2026, so check before you travel. The daytime close is the fact to plan around.
• Booking: none taken. Ticket numbers get called, tables get shared.
• Diet: Time Out's 2023 review records nopales for vegetarians and faux chorizo for vegans. That is a third-party account of a menu that changes, so treat it as a starting point rather than a guarantee.
• Hygiene: rating 5, inspected 4 June 2026, Hackney ref.

Jeff's take (his words)

Nothing from Jeff. The saved-places export carries this row with an empty Note column, so jeff_note stays empty.

Verdict (Chef Jeff ladder)

must-visit — Plan the day around it, and go early. London's taco default is corn, and Michelle Salazar de la Rocha was raised in Sonora, where the tortilla is wheat, so what comes out of this counter is a different object: paper thin, soft and chewy, flour and salt and fat and water. That regional specificity is the whole proposition and nobody else in the city is making the argument at this level. The Infatuation scored it 9.2, which is near the top of what they give London, and Sinéad Cranna wrote that the tacos are worth planning your entire day around. Time Out's food editor gave four stars and finished on the barbacoa falling apart under a sauce that runs hot without hurting. Tacos in the three-fifty to five range put the value beyond argument. The couple also fought off another London restaurant's claim to have trademarked the word taqueria and won, which tells you what kind of operation this is. Weigh the room honestly: it is small, chaotic, tables get shared, the basement has no windows and the menu is struck through as things run out. None of that touches the plate, which is what carries the most weight.