What Mexican restaurants are in Monroe, Wisconsin?

Luna Maya is at 407 6th Street, Tacos Martinez at 1713 11th Street, Maria's Flavor House at 1506 31st Avenue and El Mazatlan at 1609 10th Street. Pancho and Lefty's Outlaw Grill, at 1018 17th Avenue on the Square, serves Tex-Mex and smoked meats.

Is Pancho and Lefty's Mexican or Tex-Mex?

Its own site calls the food Tex-Mex with a cross-section of American dishes, centered on smoked brisket, ribs, pulled pork, burritos and margaritas.

Which Mexican restaurant in Monroe is open on Sunday?

Luna Maya is open Sunday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. according to its site, and Maria's Flavor House shows daily hours. Tacos Martinez is closed Sundays, and Pancho and Lefty's is closed Sunday through Tuesday.

Where can you get birria in Monroe?

Tacos Martinez lists quesabirria, a birria burrito, a birria torta and a birria chimichanga on its menu page.

Do Monroe's Mexican restaurants take cards?

Luna Maya adds a 3.99 percent surcharge on card payments, per its site. Tacos Martinez shows card payment on Google. Several reviewers say Pancho and Lefty's takes cash only, so bring cash and call 608-426-6116.

Mexican Restaurants in Monroe WI from Tacos to Tex-Mex

A birria counter, a mural-lined dinner room, a Tex-Mex smokehouse on the Square and an east-side kitchen, with hours and payment quirks.

Mexican restaurants in Monroe, WI, come in two shapes: a counter on 11th Street that turns out birria and chimichangas for a short walk off the Square, and a Western-themed Tex-Mex grill on the Square itself that smokes its own brisket. The city had 10,661 residents at the 2020 census, 807 of them Hispanic or Latino, and the kitchens in this guide serve a lot more than the cheese-and-sausage crowd the town is famous for.

If tacos are one stop in a longer day, start the rest of it with these Monroe attractions. This guide stays with the salsa, in the order a hungry visitor would find it.

Diners, delis and pizza are covered by the town's wider restaurant roundup.

Tacos Martinez: birria and chimichangas off the Square

Tacos Martinez

Tacos Martinez, 1713 11th Street, is the quick-service pick, with a menu that stretches from quesabirria and birria burritos to huaraches, fajitas, tortas and chimichangas. Its own menu page also lists elotes among the sides and asks diners to call for allergy information.

The restaurant is open Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and closed Sundays. Reviewers on Google call the chimichanga combo phenomenal, the horchata solid and the walk from the Square worth it, though a couple say the room feels plain and suits takeout better than a long meal.

Tacos Martinez sits about 0.08 miles from the courthouse and about 0.04 miles from Pancho and Lefty's, which makes lunch here and dinner next door an easy plan. Google's profile for the restaurant flags a free parking lot, free street parking, a kids' menu, reservations and card payment, and one reviewer noted that cards are accepted contrary to what others had heard. Visitors are not unanimous: one family wrote about a wrong order and a hard tortilla, and another reviewer felt dismissed when they asked for an ingredient to be left off. Say clearly what you need removed, especially for allergies, and call ahead as the menu page asks.

Luna Maya: the sit-down dinner with murals and music

Luna Maya Restaurant

Luna Maya, 407 6th Street, is a sit-down Mexican dining room, a place that describes itself as fun, festive and family friendly. The kitchen prepares tacos, burritos, quesadillas and fajitas rancheros alongside rice and refried beans, with dishes such as tacos de carne asada and arroz con pollo.

Reviewers mention colorful artwork and murals, quick service, a clean dining room and lunch specials, and one said the fajitas rancheros arrived with chicken, beef and shrimp. Another advised ordering the bigger portion if you want leftovers.

Luna Maya did not always sit on 6th Street. In April 2021, eatMonroe reported that Luna Maya was leaving a shared building at 128 West 8th Street for the former Ludlow Bar, Laughing Trout and Monroe's Midwest space so it could own a stand-alone building. The same site said it would reopen on Tuesday, June 22, 2021.

Hours on its own site are Sunday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and reservations are not required. The site mentions musical performances during dinner without giving dates, and it posts everyday specials on the restaurant's Facebook page, so check there before you plan around a particular night. It also notes a 3.99 percent surcharge on card payments, which is worth knowing before the check arrives. Google's profile flags wheelchair accessible parking, entrance, seating and restroom, good for children, beer and wine, and both a free lot and free street parking. The dining room sits about 0.8 miles from the courthouse.

Pancho and Lefty's: Tex-Mex with a smoker out back

Before calling Pancho and Lefty's Outlaw Grill Mexican, read how it describes itself: its own site says flavorful Tex-Mex cuisine with a cross-section of American foods, and Travel Wisconsin lists it as International and New American with a Tex-Mex influence. That distinction matters to some diners. One Google reviewer wrote that Tex-Mex was not for them because they prefer Mexican food without the Tex-Mex twist, and thought the portions small for the price.

Pancho and Lefty's Outlaw Grill

Pancho and Lefty's, 1018 17th Avenue, sits on the east side of the downtown square in a roughly 100-year-old building that was not a restaurant before owners Russ and Nadine Brown opened it in 2009. The couple lived in the upstairs apartment while they built it out.

The menu centers on smoked brisket, ribs, smoked pulled pork, steaks, braised beef, burritos and margaritas. Reviewers single out the brisket burrito, the brisket, the mac and cheese and the bread pudding.

Russ Brown is a lifelong cook and former private chef, and a 2025 Green County TV episode followed him through choosing, seasoning and smoking a brisket. A Monroe Times photo feature, undated but apparently from spring 2020, showed him smoking brisket, corned beef and ribs and said carry-out orders had grown once indoor service was stopped.

The grill opens only Wednesday to Saturday, 4 to 9 p.m., and is closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Several reviewers say it takes cash only and that an ATM is inside, while Google's profile lists card payment, so carry cash and call 608-426-6116 to confirm. The dining room is small and visitors describe tight seating and a line before opening, so arrive early. The restaurant is about 0.05 miles from the courthouse, with sidewalk tables, free street parking and a free lot flagged on Google. Travel Wisconsin adds that the kitchen uses Green County cheese, local beer and local bakery goods.

The east side: Maria's Flavor House and the Veracruz market

Maria's Flavor House, 1506 31st Avenue, describes itself as a kitchen for handcrafted tacos and other Mexican dishes, with takeout and delivery orders from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. The few reviews that mention food talk about generous portions, and Google flags a free lot, free street parking and wheelchair accessible parking. It is the farthest stop in this guide, about 0.9 miles from Tacos Martinez, so treat it as a drive.

The address is the same one eatMonroe gives for La Veracruzana, a restaurant it describes as 100 percent Mexican inside the expanded Veracruz Mexican Market, which opened on February 15, 2024. Confirm which kitchen you are walking into before you drive over, because the two businesses share a building. The market has a longer history in town: a Monroe Times report, undated, says owners Santos Tinoco and Maribel Lobato started near the Square in space shared with a restaurant they owned, then moved to 14th Avenue and later planned a move into the former Roller Den on the east side. A Monroe Times feature from about 2019 added that Lobato moved to Monroe 18 years earlier from Galena, Illinois, to be near her husband's cheese factory job.

The same report called the east side a food desert, with no grocery since Sentry closed more than two decades ago, which is why a shop with wide aisles matters there. One Tacos Martinez reviewer even remembers a Veracruz shop near the Square that made the best tacos they had ever had.

Also on the map: El Mazatlan

El Mazatlan, at 1609 10th Street, is the other Mexican dining room Travel Wisconsin names beside Luna Maya, and its own site gives a phone number of 608-557-3243 and posts hours that run later on weekends. We have not walked its menu for this guide, so check its site before you go.

Mexican food and Monroe's calendar

Mexican food has a place in the town's calendar too: the Monroe Times covered a Cinco de Mayo festival on the north side of the courthouse, run by Monroe Main Street, with a piñata, children's games and a family band from Mexico City, though the report carries no year. A feature on the local MultiCultural Outreach Program said the first Posada in Monroe drew hundreds to the Green County YMCA.

Cheese Days is the other date that fills the Square. The festival is held on the third weekend of September in even-numbered years, and its site lists the next one as September 15 to 17, 2028, so read the guide to Green County Cheese Days before you plan a trip around it. The festival keeps its office in the Historic Green County Courthouse, and Pancho and Lefty's, about 0.05 miles away, is the closest of these kitchens.

Picking one: days, payment and who it suits

Sunday is the test: Luna Maya and Maria's Flavor House are open, while Tacos Martinez is closed and Pancho and Lefty's is dark Sunday through Tuesday. For a family dinner with table service, Luna Maya is the straightforward choice. For birria, a fast lunch or a takeout bag, Tacos Martinez fits. For brisket and a margarita on a Friday evening, book your arrival early at Pancho and Lefty's and bring cash.

Between them, the birria counter on 11th Street and the brisket burritos on the Square cover what Mexican restaurants in Monroe do best.