Paz Taqueria

The kitchen makes the corn tortillas in the room, and they reach the table straight off the grill.4

Why go

Stuart McCluskey co-founded the Bon Vivant Group, which holds El Cartel and The Devil's Advocate, and in December 2023 he reopened the closed Thistle Street El Cartel as this.2 The room is small, dark and repainted teal, with an open kitchen and photographs of masked luchadores on the walls.1 What separates it from the taquerias he already built is how far the kitchen goes past the filling. Chitra Ramaswamy found the tinga loaded with pulled chicken that's been roasted, not simmered in broth as is usually the case, which is a decision that costs time and buys you a browned edge.3 The garnishes are where the technique shows: powdered chicken skin over the tinga, and shredded fried leeks on the carne and on the green beans.1 The list is deliberately short, five antojitos and seven tacos, and the tacos come in pairs.3

Order this / avoid

Order: the sopes de choripapa. The List found thick chewy corn patties, topped with creamy refried beans, crispy potatoes, chorizo or cauliflower, and a generous flurry of goat's cheese, and says to take the crunchy chilli sauce that comes with them.4
Order: the pulpo taco, GBP 9 as reviewed, which is the top of the menu and worth every penny with beautifully tender confit octopus paired with pineapple.4
Order: the carne. Peter Simpson: spectacularly unctuous, thanks to the double whammy of a thin wedge of steak and a thick smear of bone marrow crema.1
Order: the lengua if you want the sleeper. It is braised ox tongue refried before it goes in, and Simpson called it very very good, and surprisingly sturdy.1
Order: the margarita with the fiery crushed-chilli rim, which The List singles out and rates as strong as it should be.4
Avoid: planning this for a table that wants mild food. Simpson writes that the taco list skews heavily towards meat-eaters and spice-lovers, and the green-bean ejotes is the vegetarian option in the singular.1

What locals & experts say

Peter Simpson, The Skinny (January 2024), on the vegetarian taco, which is the line that tells you how the kitchen thinks: Often the 'vegetarian option' feels designed to cover as many bases as possible; this one feels like a deliberate attempt to goad the meat-eaters into having a bit of fun while also getting some greens. His verdict: Intriguing and delicious dishes covered in little fancy flourishes, with great drinks and, dare I say it, a 'cool vibe' - no wonder the place is so busy.1
Chitra Ramaswamy, The Sunday Times (April 2024), on the tinga taco: It's hot, sweet, tangy, palate-punching, gone in five sloppy bites. Everything you want from a banging taco. She called the arrival more than welcome to Scotland's taco scene. Read through Harden's Review of the Reviews.3
The List ties the cooking to the operator: Stuart McCluskey did much to popularise taco culture in Edinburgh, and his confident touch is evident in every aspect of this banging wee place.5
Harden's diner survey rates the food Very Good, which is a fourth voice and a mild one. It agrees with the rest on the direction and adds no dish.3
No award has ever gone to this address, and it holds no Michelin listing. Both were checked against the guide's Edinburgh rolls and every Scottish award roster.

Good to know

Hours: noon to 10pm, seven days. Both the venue and The List's directory entry agree on that pattern.6
Booking: the venue takes bookings on its own site now. It opened walk-in only in January 2024, and The List still publishes that older policy, so book and ignore the listing. Simpson was refused a table at half six on a Thursday.1
The cheapest way in: GBP 15, Monday to Thursday, for one antojito, a pair of tacos and an agua fresca. That is the current lunch deal off the venue's own summer 2026 menu.6
Price: a pair of tacos averaged GBP 17 at review, with individual tacos GBP 7.50 to 9 and cocktails GBP 9.50. Those figures are from 2024 and the lunch deal is from 2026.1
Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 9 January 2024, which is two years and seven months ago. The hygiene register holds nothing current about these premises. Treat it as missing information.7
A tortilla will break. Simpson had one complete blow-out across a whole evening and called that a good hit rate. Order accordingly and sit near the napkins.1
Groups: it is a small room and it fills, and a critic was turned away at half six on a Thursday. Four is comfortable, six needs the booking made early, and more than that is optimistic.
Getting there: 64 Thistle Street, in the New Town, on the quiet lane a block behind George Street.
This is not El Cartel reopened. Same site, same operator, different room and a different menu. Simpson says it feels much more experimental and exciting than what stood here before.1

Jeff's take (his words)

The case for it is two bylined critics and a guide, all of whom went for the tacos and wrote about the technique underneath them.

Verdict

should-visit — The corn tortillas are made in the room and hit the table off the grill, which is the whole argument and the thing almost no taqueria this far from Mexico bothers with. Under it the kitchen keeps making the expensive choice: chicken for the tinga roasted before it is pulled where the standard method simmers it in broth, powdered chicken skin over the top for salt and crunch, a thick smear of bone-marrow crema under a thin wedge of steak, ox tongue braised then refried for crisp edges and a soft middle. Two named critics went at the technique in their own words, Peter Simpson calling the carne spectacularly unctuous and Chitra Ramaswamy calling the tinga everything you want from a banging taco, and Harden's diner survey rates the food Very Good. Stuart McCluskey did much to popularise taco culture in this city and this room stands on the site of the taqueria he built, working a shorter list of five antojitos and seven tacos. Price is the second standout: tacos GBP 7.50 to 9, GBP 17 for a pair, and GBP 15 Monday to Thursday for an antojito, two tacos and an agua fresca a few minutes off Princes Street. Craft and price together earn a walk across town. It goes no higher because no award, guide or ranking body carries this address, nobody has written about the cooking since April 2024, and the Scotsman's own review of it could not be reached from here.

Paz Taqueria.