This audio is generated by AI, so pronunciation and expressions may not be fully accurate. The narration is only in English.
At Garcia's Ebisu location, the restaurant signals its shift between daytime and nighttime operations through a small sign placed just outside the entrance. During breakfast hours, which begin at 9:00 a.m., a blue sphere bearing the name Los Tacos Azules is displayed—a fitting choice, as the name translates to "blue tacos." At present, the nighttime taco bar operates on an irregular basis, ahead of its full launch scheduled for March 2026. When open, the blue sphere is removed to reveal the sign for the evening concept, officially known as Tacos Bar: a wordless design featuring an artistic illustration of a fish perched atop a taco.
This minimalist vibe is matched inside, since opening the door reveals a world of sleek blonde wood, stylish curved-handle chairs, and an aizome (indigo dye) noren cloth hanging at the kitchen's entrance whose design evokes kernels of blue corn. The latter is an aesthetic touch that symbolizes Los Tacos Azules' very ethos, wherein Garcia aims to take his home country's iconic taco—a dish featuring various ingredients placed atop tortillas handcrafted from freshly-ground corn—and blend this together with the culinary sensibilities of Japan, the country he now calls home.
"My restaurant is actually quite controversial," Garcia says, smiling. "We don't have any of the typical attributes that people tend to associate with the image of Mexican restaurants: We do not serve Corona beer, and we have no mariachi (traditional musical ensemble)-style musicians or sombreros (wide-brimmed hats). So there are two types of reactions to our style, particularly among guests from Mexico—those who love it, and those who feel it is not authentic enough."
Such an approach toward introducing tacos to Tokyo clients was very much a deliberate move on Garcia's part, however.
"My goal was to adapt Mexican cuisine within the context of Japan. I feel it is necessary to orient things toward the country you're in, so that it makes sense," he observes. "If I were to try to recreate Mexican cuisine exactly as is, I would have to either import everything; or use greenhouses for ingredients like tomatillos (a green fruit encased in a husk-like sheath); which would make it impossible to deliver quality. It would also take too long or be too expensive, as well as environmentally unsustainable."
Instead, Garcia decided to turn toward the deep food culture already prevalent in Japan by sourcing ingredients found right here.
"Japan is a country with explicitly demarcated seasons, where we can easily find fish and other ingredients that other people would dream of having access to," he notes. "This makes it possible to create infinite variations of the taco."
Originally from Monterrey in northeastern Mexico, Garcia's Japan connection began while studying the Japanese language at his home university. He then participated in a summer program to Nagoya—subsequently returning for a year-long exchange program at Sophia University in Tokyo—and finding himself enamored with the local cuisine.
"The food in Japan just blew my mind," he recalls. "Even just looking around at random supermarkets, it felt like the shrimp were alive. I was totally amazed by the quality of the ingredients here."
Garcia's affinity for Japanese cuisine was also shaped by his Tokyo host family. "They were amazing cooks, and they never ate out in restaurants," he recalls. "The grandmother was in her eighties, and would make everything from eel to karinto (a deep-fried sugary snack). There was just always great food around."
Although he returned to Mexico to finish his degree, Garcia recalls that he could not stop longing for the country he had come to love. "I became more and more obsessed with Japan, and with food—but I could not find the same level of high-quality ingredients in Mexico."
Having been drawn toward cooking since childhood, Garcia decided to dedicate himself toward his deepening interest by continuing to hone his culinary skills and techniques.
Garcia found himself turning toward the world of cookbooks in order to master the basics of various global cuisines. "They were huge, thick texts, and I spent all of my spare time cooking," Garcia recalls. "But this was 20 years ago, and a chef culture did not exist in Mexico at that time like it does today. You could not find any good cookbooks about Mexican cuisine then, even in Spanish."
It was around this time that Garcia became acquainted with Diana Kennedy, a British food writer who was lauded as an authority of cooking in Mexico, where she lived for decades. "She is the one who taught me about indigenous cooking in Mexico," he recalls. "She was adamant that you should never alter recipes."
Meeting at an event and continuing to correspond together, Garcia recounts that Kennedy invited him to visit her home in Michoacán, a region in Mexico famous for monarch butterflies. "The taco she served me that day, with blue mushrooms and wild orchids that she had foraged herself, was the most delicious I'd ever had in my life," he recalls. "I learned from her that there are 80 different types of heirloom corn in Mexico, including red and blue varieties. Nobody else was talking about this."
Inspired by Kennedy's worldview—and applying his love and appreciation for Japanese cuisine toward the food culture in his own country—Garcia began learning to create his corn tortillas from scratch, and taking a deeper dive into the quality and seasonality of Mexico's diverse cuisine.
Combining all of his interests together, Garcia first opened a taco restaurant in Mexico, which he ran for two years before deciding to bring the operation back to Japan. Opening Los Tacos Azules in Sangenjaya in 2018, he began importing his corn directly from small-scale farmers in Mexico, and launching all techniques in-house that are essential to creating fresh, high-quality masa (dough) to prepare his tacos. These processes—which also take place at the Ebisu location, which opened in late 2022—include nixtamalization (soaking the corn kernels in an alkaline solution to bring them to an optimal texture), and then grinding the nixtamalized corn. "We had the first such grinder in Tokyo," Garcia recalls, "and I think we also inspired other restaurants to follow suit."
Unique tacos served at his evening taco bar's reservation-only, fish-exclusive omakase course include those with tiny translucent shrimp known as sakura-ebi, and others featuring baby squid. "Some of the fishermen I work with in Shizuoka (a prefecture in central Japan) only want to focus on lesser-caught types of fish, so we end up with some pretty crazy stuff," Garcia recounts.
Another taco features pico de gallo—a sauce featuring tomato, onion, cilantro, jalapeño and lime—and a salsa verde (green sauce) of fresh chilis and tomatillos, paired with shirasu, or whitebait.
"My goal is to use Japanese ingredients and manipulate them in order to attain the authenticity of Mexican food, while also manifesting Japan's terroir," Garcia explains.
Iidako (seasoned baby octopus) also feature among the dishes served at Garcia's evening taco bar in Ebisu. Photo: courtesy of Los Tacos Azules
Donko (freshwater dark sleeper) is among the fish used in the creative tacos at the taco bar. Photo: courtesy of Los Tacos Azules
At this restaurant, the interior features sleek blonde wood accentuated with foliage and other stylish accents.
Garcia explains his journey from Monterrey, Mexico to Tokyo, where he runs the two successful restaurants.
He sources ingredients from farmers throughout the archipelago, such as cilantro from Ome Farm in western Tokyo; free-range beef from Iwate in northern Japan; and aguas frescas (sweetened beverages) using seasonal citrus such as Okinawan shikuwasa and Yakushima guava. Additional creative touches include a fragrantly refreshing corn tea, which is accented with roasted kernels floating right in the glass.
Such is the type of artistic detail that Tokyo restaurant-goers would appreciate, as is the stylish ikebana space fronting the Ebisu restaurant (just in front of the twin signs) curated by his wife, Abe Rika, who also helps run the restaurant.
"The clientele in Tokyo is special, which is one of the main reasons why I wanted to bring my restaurants to this city," Garcia muses. "Even if guests here may not understand everything behind my concept, they are respectful and still have the literacy to appreciate it."
He also notes that Tokyo is an extremely diverse and cosmopolitan city, where one can find food ingredients here from all over Japan—as well as people from all around the world—along with plenty of inspiration.
"Everyone wants to come to Tokyo, and people look toward this city to see what is happening," he adds. "It truly is a trendsetting destination."
