Tongue Tacos and Tlayudas Are on the Menu at Center City's New Beer Garden-Taqueria

At Mission Taqueria, Oyster House's upstairs, Mexico City-inspired counterpart opening this Thursday, tortillas will be hand-pressed, in-house, from fresh ground masa — a laborious, intensive process often outsourced to reputable tortillarias (many opt for Tortillaria San Roman in the Italian Market).

But not Andrew Sabin's kitchen, his crew would rather do it themselves, which means your chips, your enchiladas, your taco shells will be made from scratch, daily. And those taco shells will come stuffed with traditional offerings, like chorizo and potato, and pork and pineapple (al pastor), but also, inventive, non-traditional items, such as deli-style tongue tacos with pickled mustard seed mayo, which, according to Essen Bakery's Tova du Plessis (who attended Mission's Friends and Family night), should not be missed:

Tova Du Plessis/Facebook

Mission Taqueria is also one of very few places in Philly serving tlayudas, "a dinner-plate sized corn tortilla baked on a comal (large, flat pan or cooking surface) and covered in lard, refried beans, queso fresco and meats like cecina, steak, or chorizo." Mission's doesn't have meat, but it does have creamy pasilla pepper and corn labneh, roasted tomatoes and watercress.

Sabin's menu (below) gets complemented by a fun-to-read drink menu (below) designed by beverage manager Christina Rando. Next to the kitchen, there's a fresh-squeezed juice bar, which you can, of course, add liquor to, plus Mexican lagers, bottled beverages, great tequila and mezcal, and more importantly, a creative margarita list: cold-pressed green juice margaritas, frozen cucumber/serrano chili margaritas, fancy "Baller" margaritas, and "spicy!?- si or no?" guava and tamarind margaritas.

Peep the menus, and get ready for pictures of the stunning new space.

Dinner Menu

Drink Menu