The first shop was in Monterrey, in northern Mexico, in 2011. Same name — Los Tacos Azules. Tortillas pressed from native blue corn, and not much else. It closed after two years.
Almost nobody in Monterrey knew native blue corn then. Northern Mexico ran on cheap mass-produced tortillas, and in restaurants and at street stalls alike the tortilla itself was not something anyone thought about. Rice is everywhere in Japan too — but there is a difference between rice being available and someone deciding to cook it carefully in a donabe.
The idea came from Japan. Marco first arrived as a university exchange student and was startled by how Japanese cooking treats its ingredients: the attention to season, the respect for the material itself. And by how well other countries' food was cooked here, sometimes better than at home. Why couldn't Mexican food be approached the same way?
Back in Mexico, travelling to learn regional cooking, he met a woman named Diana Kennedy. British by birth, she had spent fifty years visiting villages and home kitchens across Mexico, recording what each region cooked. The Mexican government has given her its highest honour for a foreigner.
At her house he was served a tortilla — native corn, nixtamalized and ground there, pressed and cooked in front of him. The aroma, the sweetness, the texture. A Mexican, tasting it for the first time.
The Monterrey shop was where he tested what that meant. He closed it in 2013 and moved to Japan.
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September 2018, Sangenjaya, Tokyo. Build it properly, in the place where the idea started. Los Tacos Azules runs from here.
Since then we've built relationships with farmers, fishermen and producers across Japan — seasonal deliveries, vegetables and corn grown for us. The shop has put down roots in Sangenjaya and become part of the neighbourhood.
In November 2022 we opened TACOS BAR, our night service in Ebisu: a counter serving an omakase built on masa and seasonal seafood. From 2023 the same room began opening in the daytime with the Morning Tacos menu from Sangenjaya.
More recently we've been doing pop-ups and collaborations abroad — taking what we've learned here, bringing back techniques from wherever we go.
We'll keep working on what Mexican food can be, with the tortilla at the centre, in this place and this culture.
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Marco Garcia
From Monterrey, northern Mexico. A university exchange in Japan drew him into food: a culture where cuisines from everywhere are cooked to a high standard, and where season and ingredient are treated with real respect. He came away thinking Mexican food could be approached the same way.
Back home, he travelled Mexico studying regional cooking and ingredients. Meeting Diana Kennedy led him to the tortilla — native corn, nixtamalized and ground fresh. In 2011 he opened the first Los Tacos Azules in Monterrey. It closed in 2013.
In September 2018 he opened Los Tacos Azules in Sangenjaya, Tokyo, and has worked since with farmers and producers across Japan on a menu that changes with the season. In 2022 he began the night service, TACOS BAR, in Ebisu — a counter serving omakase built on masa and seasonal seafood.
His attention extends past the food to the room, the tableware, the whole of the experience. Collaborations and pop-ups at home and abroad continue to widen the work.