The Best Mexican Restaurants and Taquerias in Salt Lake City

The first real fork in the road is the two Iguanas. Red Iguana 2 is the default answer for Mexican food in Salt Lake City, and it earns that reputation almost entirely through mole — the menu carries several versions, which is unusual for any one restaurant to pull off well. But that reputation is also the catch: the dining room runs loud and packed most nights, and the draw is specifically the mole. If mole isn’t what you’re after, the crowd and wait buy you less than they would somewhere calmer. Blue Iguana, tucked into a basement setting downtown, makes its own mole plates for less money in a quieter room — the choice if you want the same idea without the scene.

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Getting into the Iguanas without the hour-long wait

The original Red Iguana is at 736 W North Temple. It’s open every day, 11 AM to 9 PM and until 10 PM on Friday and Saturday, and the wait for a table can run over an hour at peak times. You have three ways around it:

• Cross to Red Iguana 2 at 866 W South Temple. It’s the same family and the same mole, a few blocks away, and it’s the standard fallback when the original’s line is long.
• Order takeout from the original instead of waiting for a table.
• Go to Blue Iguana at 165 S West Temple, downtown. It’s open 11 AM to 9 PM Monday through Thursday, until 10 PM on Friday and Saturday, and 4 to 9 PM on Sunday, so there’s no Sunday lunch. It’s the calmer room if you’re near the convention center or a show.

At Red Iguana, order a combination plate with both the mole negro and the mole verde. Two moles side by side is the clearest case for why the place is famous.

When the setting matters as much as the food

For out-of-town guests, or any meal where atmosphere is part of the point, Rio Grande Cafe has an edge neither Iguana location can match. It spent decades inside the Rio Grande train depot downtown. After the 2020 earthquake closed that building, it moved into a historic fire station at 258 S 1300 E, near the University of Utah. It still has the jukebox, and there’s now a patio. It’s open daily, 11 AM to 10 PM Monday through Saturday and until 9 PM on Sunday.

For a smaller, lower-key meal

Near 9th and 9th, Mi Buena Vida and LOLA are the options worth knowing if you’d rather skip a crowded room altogether — good picks for a dinner that doesn’t need to be a destination.

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None of these require a reservation strategy or a special occasion to justify going. The real decision is what kind of night you want — mole and a scene, a setting worth the trip, or something smaller and closer to the neighborhood — not which one ranks highest.