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Maciel’s on the Highland Strip features a festive mural inside and a large patio outdoors, where chef Manuel Martinez, pictured with some of the restaurant’s staff, oversees the grill for Taco Tuesdays. The new restaurant also offers food like spicy shrimp tacos and sopa de pollo authentic to Michoácan, known as the “soul of Mexico” and chef Manny’s home state.
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Maciel’s on the Highland Strip features a festive mural inside and a large patio outdoors, where chef Manuel Martinez, pictured with some of the restaurant’s staff, oversees the grill for Taco Tuesdays. The new restaurant also offers food like spicy shrimp tacos and sopa de pollo authentic to Michoácan, known as the “soul of Mexico” and chef Manny’s home state.
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Maciel’s on the Highland Strip features a festive mural inside and a large patio outdoors, where chef Manuel Martinez, pictured with some of the restaurant’s staff, oversees the grill for Taco Tuesdays. The new restaurant also offers food like spicy shrimp tacos and sopa de pollo authentic to Michoácan, known as the “soul of Mexico” and chef Manny’s home state.
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Brimming with carrots, cilantro, avocado, and chunks of tender chicken breast, the sopa de pollo at Maciel’s is curative and comforting. “Give it a stir,” our server suggests, and when we do, rice and crispy tortillas strips float to the top of the bowl like a colorful holiday snow globe.
Order a large serving of soup, and you may ask yourself, Do I need a taco, too? Yes, you do. Made fresh to order, Maciel’s tacos in corn tortillas are addictively good. Try Baja tacos, beer-battered fried fish with a bright mango salsa, or carnitas, a specialty of Michoácan, the state in Mexico where chef Manuel Martinez learned to cook, guided by his mother.
Most of the recipes Martinez uses at Maciel’s come from his mother’s kitchen, including the chicken soup. “I talk on the phone with her all the time,” Martinez says, laughing. “I say, Mom, I’m cooking, and it doesn’t look right. What should I do? And she says, try again, try again.”
Authenticity in both food and service mean a lot to Martinez. He opened the first Maciel’s downtown in 2015, focusing on tacos and tortas, the foundations of Mexican street food. Friend José Martinez bakes the restaurant’s bolillos, the tortas’ soft oval buns, every day. “We put the pureed beans on the bun, and we use the best meats and cheese,” Martinez says. “To me, the tortas taste like home.” (Pro tip: Remember to grab a slice of José’s excellent tres leches cake to go.)
For the second Maciel’s on the Highland Strip, Martinez partnered with Taylor Berger, but kept the heart of the restaurants the same. The Highland location, however, is larger, with a bar for cantina cocktails like Vampiro, a Mexican-style bloody Mary made with sangrita, tequila, and lime. There’s also a patio for Taco Tuesdays with Martinez at the outdoor grill and a bigger kitchen for weekend brunch, tamales on Saturdays, and an expanded menu. Look for ceviche, tuna tacos, and shrimp cocktail this summer and posole and mole by fall.
Maciel’s Highland, 525 S. Highland(901-504-4584) $-$$.
