Wanna spice things up this Cinco de Mayo? Give your menu a little makeover to include these popular and authentic Mexican dishes.
Even if you’re not a Mexican food restaurant but want to draw the crowds in, have a small menu printed to feature your holiday dishes. Offering menu items that aren’t typically served at your location is a creative way to shake things up, draw in new customers, and give your chef a break from the norm.
The Menu
Do you know what I enjoy about Mexican food restaurants, besides the guacamole? The menus. They’re colorful, noticeable, and have plenty of choices. But with all of the salsa being
passed around they can get stained pretty quickly.
I recommend, if you haven’t already, to switch to synthetic menus, even if you’re just creating one for a holiday event. They’re lightweight, cleaner (you literally wipe them off), and they’re printed in bright colors to make your menu stand out. They’re resistant to tearing, heat, and water so they’ll last longer, saving you money.
And now…the food.
#1 Chilaquiles
This dish is typically served for breakfast or brunch and is made of corn tortillas cut in quarters, fried and then covered with red or green salsa. You can garnish the dish with raw onions, avocado, queso fresco and serve it over eggs.
You can let your customers get an early start with this authentic Mexican dish and let them enjoy a hot beverage such as:
-
- Cafe de olla, coffee simmered with cinnamon, sugar, and other spices
- Cafe con leche, coffee with scalded milk
- Horchata, a well blended drink of white rice, cinnamon, sugar, and milk…it’s actually more complicated than that, and well worth it.
#2 Tamales
When I think of authentic homemade Mexican food, I think about earlier days when I would run down the street to a friend’s house so I could be one of the first to get my hands on fresh
tamales.
Wrapped in a corn husk or banana leaf this corn-based dish can be filled with meats, cheeses, vegetables, chilies, and seasoned however you like. Offering different flavors of tamales will draw in the Mexican food lovers from all over.
#3 Elote
Also known as street corn, because of it’s popularity of being sold by street vendors in Mexico. This dish is one of my favorites and I will almost always order it if I see it on a menu. While grilling the corn in a husk you add a mixture of butter, mayonnaise and/or sour cream, lime juice, and cheese.
You can serve it as corn on the cob and use the husk as a handle by pulling it down but not tearing it off, or you can cut the corn from the cob and serve it in a bowl. However you decide to serve it, this is a must for your Cinco de Mayo menu!
#4 Guacamole
Guacamole has become a popular menu item along with being one of the most ordered appetizers at Mexican food restaurants. With the perfect blend of avocados, onion, tomatoes, salt, cilantro, and lime juice this dish can even be a great add on to a Cinco de Mayo Happy Hour.
A fun way that restaurants build on to the customer experience is to have the ‘guac’ made at the customer’s table. It allows that customer to choose what goes in the dish as well as giving a more personal dining experience.
#5 Pozole
This dish is traditionally served in Mexico on days of celebration and would be a great add on to your Cinco de Mayo menu. This soup is made with hominy, meat (typically pork), and garnished with garlic, cabbage, chile peppers, avocado, salsa and limes. This can be a dish you use for a brunch, light meal menu, or an appetizer. Or since it’s a celebratory dish you could even offer it complimentary to each of your diners selecting from the
Cinco de Mayo menu.
#6 Enchiladas
Enchiladas are a staple in Mexican food restaurants. They can be made with different fillings such as cheese, meat, vegetables, beans, or a combination of each. This dish is easy to make
and can work in your favor in getting dishes out quickly when you’re busy on Cinco de Mayo weekend.
Enchiladas are also a popular dish for kids menus as well as even making an enchilada buffet. For example, from 12-2pm on May 5th you can offer your customers to try different enchiladas,
and as many as they can eat for 2 hours. Buffets such as these can offer higher margins because the cost of food is lower and it takes so little time to prepare.
#7 Tacos
Tacos are another dish you see often on menus, especially kids menus in Mexican food restaurants. By being able to make anything from beef tacos to fish tacos to street tacos…yum. You can offer your customers a variety of dishes.
Taco bars are a popular option for customers because they can garnish and choose the fillings and make the tacos exactly how they like it. Instead of doing an enchilada buffet you could do a taco bar from 12-2pm.
Let’s Eat!
However you celebrate Cinco de Mayo with your customers, have fun. Being creative and taking advantage of holiday weekends such as this you can draw in a lot of extra traffic to your business.
Join the fiesta and give ID Source a call for all of your holiday menu needs.
Salud!