Mexican brunch is not an American brunch menu with a few tacos added. It is closer to a normal Mexican breakfast served late, and most of it is savory, substantial and built around eggs, slow-cooked meat or chile broth.
If you have only ever eaten Mexican food at dinner, the weekend menu will look unfamiliar. Here is what is on it.
The short answer
A Mexican brunch menu is mostly egg dishes, slow-cooked meats and one or two restorative soups. Expect chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, barbacoa, breakfast tacos and menudo. Almost everything arrives with refried beans and potatoes rather than toast, and it is served alongside the regular menu rather than replacing it.
Chilaquiles
The dish most people meet first, and the one worth understanding.
Chilaquiles are fried tortilla pieces simmered briefly in salsa until they soften but keep some bite, then finished with crema, crumbled queso fresco, raw onion and avocado. You choose red or green salsa, and often a protein on top.
The texture is the point. Left too long they go to mush; served properly, some pieces stay crisp at the edges. It is a dish invented to use yesterday’s tortillas, which is exactly why it is good.
The egg dishes
Eggs carry most of a Mexican brunch menu, prepared three or four distinct ways.
Huevos rancheros
Fried eggs served on tortillas and covered in a cooked tomato-chile ranchera sauce. Straightforward, mildly spiced, and the most recognisable dish on the menu for most first-timers.
Huevos a la mexicana
Eggs scrambled with tomato, white onion and green chile — the three colors of the Mexican flag, which is where the name comes from. Simple, and a good gauge of a kitchen, because there is nowhere to hide.
Steak and eggs
The heaviest option, usually grilled skirt steak with fried or scrambled eggs. Familiar enough that it needs no explanation, and reliably the largest plate on the table.
Menudo, and why it exists
Menudo is a red chile broth simmered for hours with tripe and hominy, finished at the table with onion, oregano and lime, and eaten with corn tortillas.
Two things put people off: the tripe, and the reputation. On the tripe, it is worth knowing that long simmering turns it soft and mild rather than chewy, and the broth carries most of the flavor. On the reputation — menudo is traditionally a weekend dish, and it has a long-standing association with recovering from the night before.
The hominy is maize that has been treated with an alkaline solution, a process called nixtamalization. UNESCO, which lists traditional Mexican cuisine as intangible cultural heritage, describes the technique as lime-hulling maize, which increases its nutritional value. It is the same process behind masa and corn tortillas.
Slow-cooked meat
Barbacoa is the other pillar of a weekend menu: meat roasted slowly until it shreds, served plainly with charro beans, raw onion and cilantro so nothing competes with it.
It is deliberately simple. There is no sauce to hide behind, which is why it tends to be a good indicator of how a kitchen handles time-intensive cooking.
Breakfast tacos
The most portable thing on the menu, and the most Texan. Soft flour tortillas filled with eggs and one other thing: chorizo, potato, ham or bacon.
They are usually sold as a plate of several, which makes them the easiest way to try more than one combination. If you want brunch without committing to a large plate, this is the order.
What to order, by appetite
| If you want… | Order | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something familiar | Huevos rancheros | Fried eggs and a mild tomato sauce — no surprises |
| The classic brunch dish | Chilaquiles | The dish the menu is built around |
| Something light | Breakfast tacos | Portioned individually, easy to stop at two |
| Something restorative | Menudo | Hot chile broth; traditionally a weekend cure |
| A large plate | Steak and eggs | The heaviest item on most brunch menus |
| To taste the kitchen | Barbacoa | Slow-roasted, unsauced, nowhere to hide |
How brunch works at Julia’s
Julia’s serves brunch on Saturday and Sunday, 10am to 2pm, alongside the regular menu rather than instead of it.
The brunch dishes come with refritos and papas a la mexicana as standard, so you are unlikely to need sides. The menu covers chilaquiles in red or green salsa — plain, or with fried eggs, chicken or steak — along with huevos rancheros, huevos a la mexicana, barbacoa, steak and eggs, menudo in two sizes, and a breakfast taco plate with chorizo, potato, ham or bacon.
There is also aporreadillo, which is worth a section of its own — see below.
Aporreadillo, the one worth asking about
Aporreadillo rarely appears on English-language brunch menus, which is a shame, because it is one of the better things on a Mexican one.
Dried or shredded beef is pan-seared, then stirred through beaten egg so the two cook together rather than sitting side by side, and the whole thing is braised in a serrano-tomato salsa. The result sits somewhere between scrambled eggs and a stew.
If you like huevos a la mexicana, this is the same instinct executed with more time and more depth. It is a regional dish from the tierra caliente of Michoacán and Guerrero, and it is a reasonable test of whether a kitchen is cooking from tradition or from a standard Tex-Mex template.
What to drink with it
Coffee works, but it is not the default here.
Aguas frescas are the traditional choice — horchata, a sweet rice drink with cinnamon, or a fresh lemonade. Horchata in particular is worth ordering with anything spicy, because dairy and sugar do more to settle chile heat than water does.
Mexican Coke and Topo Chico, a sparkling mineral water, are the other two staples. Topo Chico is heavily carbonated and unsweetened, which makes it a good foil for a heavy plate.
Frequently asked questions
What time is Mexican brunch usually served?
Most Mexican restaurants run brunch on Saturday and Sunday mornings into the early afternoon. Julia’s serves it from 10am to 2pm at weekends. Unlike a buffet brunch, it is normally ordered from the menu.
Is chilaquiles the same as nachos?
No, though they look related. Nachos are crisp chips with toppings added on top. Chilaquiles are tortilla pieces simmered in salsa so they soften, which changes the texture completely. Nachos stay crunchy by design; chilaquiles are not supposed to.
What does menudo taste like?
The broth is the dominant flavor: deep, mildly spiced and slightly earthy from the dried chiles. The tripe itself is soft and mild after long cooking rather than strongly flavored. Lime and raw onion at the table lift the whole bowl.
Can you get regular menu items at brunch?
At most restaurants, yes. Brunch usually runs alongside the standard lunch menu at weekends rather than replacing it, so a table can order in both directions.
Is Mexican brunch spicy?
Less than people expect. Huevos rancheros, breakfast tacos and barbacoa are mild. Chilaquiles depend on which salsa you choose. Menudo is warm rather than hot. If heat is a concern, ask which salsa is milder before ordering.
The short version
Mexican brunch is savory, egg-led and heavier than a pastry-and-coffee morning. Chilaquiles are the dish to start with, breakfast tacos the lightest way in, and menudo the one that rewards you for being brave.
Julia’s serves it Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 2pm — the brunch section of the menu lists everything, and you can call ahead if you are bringing a group. If salsa choices are what is holding you up, our guide to red, green and mole sauces explains the difference.