I think in Europe we fill the same spot with kebab and döner restaurants as Americans do with Mexican restaurants.

I live in Texas and have traveled some in Europe and Mexico. Maybe the Europeans like it, but let’s generously say it’s, well, not designed for the southwestern American palate, and definitely not for the Mexican palate. Restauranteurs do what they can do, though, and the ones that survive cook what will sell, so I shouldn’t judge too harshly, especially as an American who loves Chicken Tikka Masala and Sweet & Sour Chicken. Enjoy it for what it is, but don’t assume you understand the various varieties of Mexican cuisine from either side of the border.

Now that I’ve been nice, I’ll be personal: it ranges from god awful to utterly inauthentic but edible. The worst I ever had was at the late and unlamented “Texas Embassy” in London. Apart from a passable margarita, it was utter garbage. The “cheddar” looked like a dayglo shotgun site, the salsa was ketchup with varying amounts of weak-ass vinegar-pepper sauce stirred in, the white cheese was neither queso fresco nor Jack, but possibly mozzarella. All tortillas were clearly bagged and stale. Spice profile was all over the place, but never hot. Europeans think paprika belongs in Mexican food. It does not.

Perhaps not ironically, the better tacos come from your run of the mill “every fast food” takeaway. Some places trying to get “upmarket” from greasy American fare —that they can’t do right anyway— will have fresher tortilla-like flat breads and will come up with flavor profiles that sort of evoke the nicer “authentic Mex” places I’ve been to in Texas and Mexico (including CDMX and Monterey, in addition to your standard beach resorts), but it’s still off, saved by having actually been done well, though still within the inauthentic context.

if you need an antidote to eat Mexican food, maybe you shouldn’t

Ok-ish? In the bigger cities you can find good Mexican restaurants. I know of at least one great one in Germany. But you probably won’t get anything authentic.

To survive restaurants have to adapt to the local taste. And to be fair, your typical central European thinks mayonnaise is spicy.

They are not usually very good, depending on the city, of course. In Germany, where I live, it’s a struggle to find good Mexican food. It’s never spicy enough and often kind of trashy. There are a few okay, more upscale places with 6-7 euro tacos (yikes) and 13 euro margaritas (yikes). But it’s not as good as in our visits to the US.

Weirdly, when I visit my parents in Helsinki, that city actually has a quite good Mexican restaurant scene. Damn, Helsinki of all places. It’s one of the rare EU cities with Taco Bells (yeah, not Mexican food, I know), and some of the finest Mexican restaurants I’ve visited in Europe. They are quite expensive, but the tacos I’ve had there have been surprisingly good.

In general, Mexico is far from Europe. You can easily find amazing Italian, French, or Georgian food here. In the US, I’ve mostly been disappointed with the selection of French or Italian food. I haven’t found Georgian cuisine in any US cities. So, I tend to enjoy Mexican food when I visit that side of the planet to see family, and mostly focus on European food in the EU.

But damn, I wish there was a diner serving biscuits and gravy in Berlin. Biscuits are one of the things that just don’t exist in Europe.