A Mexican menu can look like a wall of unfamiliar words, but it is not really a vocabulary problem. The same eight or nine terms repeat down the page, and most of them describe a method rather than a dish.
Learn those, and the rest of the menu decodes itself.
The short answer
Most Mexican menu words fall into three groups: the protein (pollo, res, camarón, puerco), the method (asada, guisada, frita, al carbón), and the sauce or style (suiza, ranchera, adobado, pibil, a la mexicana). Read the description, not the dish name — the name usually leaves out the part you need.
The proteins
Start here, because it narrows the page fastest.
| Word | Say it | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Pollo | POH-yo | Chicken |
| Res | race | Beef |
| Puerco / cerdo | PWAIR-ko / SAIR-do | Pork |
| Camarón | ka-ma-ROHN | Shrimp |
| Pescado | pess-KAH-do | Fish |
| Picadillo | pee-ka-DEE-yo | Seasoned ground beef |
| Barbacoa | bar-ba-KO-ah | Slow-steamed shredded meat |
| Chorizo | cho-REE-so | Spiced pork sausage |
Picadillo is the one worth memorizing. It turns up inside chiles rellenos, empanadas and sopes, and it is the reason a dish that sounds vegetarian often is not.
The methods
These tell you what the kitchen did, and therefore what the texture will be.
- Asada (ah-SAH-da) — grilled or roasted, usually over fire. Carne asada is grilled beef.
- Al carbón (al kar-BOHN) — cooked over charcoal.
- Guisada (gee-SAH-da) — stewed. Carne guisada is a slow beef stew.
- Frita (FREE-ta) — fried.
- Fundido (foon-DEE-do) — melted. Queso fundido is melted cheese served in the pan.
- Empanizado (em-pan-ee-SAH-do) — breaded.
- Adobado (ah-do-BAH-do) — marinated in a chile paste.
- Pibil (pee-BEEL) — from the Maya pib, an earth oven. Cochinita pibil is pork cooked that way.
The sauces and styles
This group decides the flavor of the plate more than the filling does.
- Suiza (SWEE-sa) — literally “Swiss”, meaning made with cream. Enchiladas suizas are under a creamy tomatillo sauce.
- Ranchera (ran-CHAIR-a) — a cooked tomato and chile sauce.
- A la mexicana — with tomato, onion and green chile, the colors of the flag.
- Rajas (RAH-hass) — strips, almost always of roasted poblano.
- Mole (MOH-lay) — a long-cooked sauce of chiles, nuts, seeds and spices.
- Verde / roja — green (tomatillo) or red (tomato or dried chile).
- Chipotle (chi-POHT-lay) — smoked, dried jalapeño.
- Tradicional — the house standard version, usually red chile sauce.
Which of those signal heat and which do not is worked through in our guide to mild dishes.
Words that came from Nahuatl
A surprising number of these are not Spanish at all. They came into Spanish from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and several then traveled into English.
Merriam-Webster’s list of words from Nahuatl includes tomato, chocolate, chile and avocado — words most English speakers would never guess were borrowed twice.
Mole comes from mōlli, meaning sauce. Guacamole is āhuacamōlli, avocado sauce, the two roots joined. Tamal comes from tamalli. Comal, the flat griddle tortillas cook on, is comalli.
This is why some menu words resist Spanish pronunciation rules: they were never Spanish. It also explains why mole is two syllables ending in a long A sound rather than rhyming with the English animal.
Five pronunciation rules
Spanish is close to phonetic, so a handful of rules covers almost everything on the page. The method words follow the same rules.
- ll sounds like y. Tortilla is tor-TEE-ya. Quesadilla is kay-sa-DEE-ya.
- j sounds like h. Jalapeño is ha-la-PEN-yo. Rajas is RAH-hass.
- ñ adds a y. Piña is PEEN-ya.
- Vowels are pure and short. A is always “ah”, e is “eh”, i is “ee”, o is “oh”, u is “oo”. They do not glide.
- Final e is pronounced. Mole is MOH-lay, not “mole”. Chipotle is chi-POHT-lay.
That fifth one causes the most trouble, and it is the easiest to fix.
Regional words
Some terms name a place rather than a technique, and they tell you where a dish is from.
Poblano means from Puebla. Tejano means Texan. Yucateco and pibil point to the Yucatán. Tierra caliente — “hot land” — refers to the low, hot country of western Mexico. Norteño means northern.
A menu that uses these is telling you something specific about a dish’s origin, and it is usually a sign the kitchen knows the difference. Our comparison of Tex-Mex and Mexican cooking covers what those regional markers mean in practice.
Reading a real description
Take one from Julia’s menu: chile relleno, described as a lightly breaded roasted poblano pepper stuffed with picadillo, Oaxaca cheese and a slice of avocado.
Four of those words are now doing work. Poblano places it in Puebla and tells you the pepper is mild. Breaded tells you the texture and that it contains wheat. Picadillo tells you there is ground beef inside. Oaxaca tells you the cheese melts, as our cheese guide explains.
That is a complete picture of the plate from a single line, and none of it is guesswork.
The same works elsewhere on the page. Tamales described as tierra caliente style name a region. The enchiladas split into suizas, tradicionales and de mole — cream, red chile and mole. The brisket is birria style, which names a method rather than the traditional meat.
Words that mean less than you think
A few terms sound specific in English and are generic in Spanish.
Salsa just means sauce. Any sauce, hot or not, including the one on your enchiladas. Chile means the pepper itself, not the Texan stew, which is chili con carne. Tortilla in Spain means an omelette, and in Mexico means the flatbread — same word, different food.
None of these will mislead you at a Mexican restaurant, but they explain why some translations read oddly.
When a word is not on this list
Ask. It is a normal question, servers answer it constantly, and the answer is almost always more interesting than the guess.
Asking also tends to get you a better recommendation than reading alone would, because the person answering knows what came out of the kitchen well tonight.
Frequently asked questions
How do you pronounce mole?
MOH-lay. The final e is pronounced in Spanish, so it is two syllables. The same rule applies to chipotle, ceviche and pozole.
What does suiza mean on a Mexican menu?
Literally “Swiss”, used to mean made with cream. Enchiladas suizas come under a creamy sauce, usually tomatillo-based.
What is picadillo?
Seasoned ground beef, often cooked with tomato, onion and sometimes potato. It fills chiles rellenos, empanadas and sopes, which is why it matters when reading descriptions.
What does asada mean?
Grilled or roasted. Carne asada is grilled beef, usually sliced. Al carbón specifically means cooked over charcoal.
Why do some Mexican food words not sound Spanish?
Because they are not. Mole, tamal, guacamole and comal all come from Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, and entered Spanish as loanwords.
The short version
Find the protein, find the method, find the sauce. Say the final e, turn ll into y and j into h. Read the description rather than the dish name.
Julia’s menu spells out the ingredients for nearly every dish, which makes it a good place to practice. If you want the structure of the menu rather than the vocabulary, start with our guide to reading a Mexican menu.