Mi Tradición — Restaurant in Austin

Fresh, flavorful, & fast (except during common brunch/lunch hours) ... I've never lived in Mexico but we've visited different regions enough and have been outside the touristy areas to recognize fantastic street/regional foods. I would say this place specializes in Huaraches, Tortas, and has a fantastic in-house bakery, on the other side of the restaurant. They have an open, windowed kitchen where you can watch the staff busting it to keep up with demand. The chefs and crew there are amazing to watch.

For the Huaraches, you can literally watch them start with the blue corn tortilla dough ... they press that out and toss it on the flat top to cook. While the tortilla is cooking they work on preparring the toppings. We normally enjoy the mushrooms, nopales (cactus), or the squash as we don't eat meat. Everything comes out fresh and matches well with the various aqua frescas that they offer. As with any fresh fruit ... you can taste the different ripeness, sugar, and pulp levels of most of the fruits throughout the year which is fun. If you are new to aqua fresca, try the sandía (watermelon) or the piña-naranja (pineapple-orange) mix. Those two mixed together are great as well.

For the Tortas, you watch the chef at the center grill first toast both sides of the bread tops and bottoms. They are critical about quality as we've seen them dispose of various pieces that don't meet their standards. While the bread pieces are toasting they start on the various sandwhich ingredients, cooking them in individual layers then ultimately stacking them up and moving them to the cold prep station behind the grill where they are placed on top of the fresh, cold toppings and wrapped for you. Watching the cheese ooze onto the other ingredients is especially satisfying to our kiddos.

You will want to come before or after common rush hours as this place can get packed with patrons. Don't forget to check out the bakery area that is on the other side of the restaurant seating area. They also have a center display of delicious looking desserts to choose from as well. Nothing is too sweet and pretty much everything looks tasty. This has turned into a new favorite place for us when we are desiring some fresh, great tasting...

I came here for their pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread). I tried a concha and a yoyo. Conchas are probably the most popular and recognizable traditional Mexican pan dulce, but for the uninitiated, I would describe them as soft and sweet bread with a white streusel topping that resembles the surface of a seashell. Growing up these were my favorite pan dulce, and the ones at Mi Tradición taste just like the ones you can find in Mexican panaderías. Much less famous, yoyos are made from two pieces of bread held together by a thin layer of buttercream and coated with butter and powdered sugar. They look like yo-yo’s, hence the name, and they’re also known as besos (which means kisses, because the two pieces of bread are kissing each other). This was my first time trying yoyos, so I don’t have a point of comparison. I thought they were tasty, but my all-time favorite pan dulce remains the concha. I bought these at the end of the day, so both were a little hard, but I heated them up in the oven and that softened them up to perfection. Warming up pan dulce is a game changer.

I’ve also tried a slice of their tres leches cake. They have three options: strawberry, mocha, or durazno (peach). I tried the tres leches that comes with strawberries. I thought it was good, but not mind-blowing.

Mi Tradición has a wide selection of pan dulce and you can’t beat their prices (I paid $2.50 for two pieces of pan dulce). The only downside is that none of the pan dulce is labeled, and the staff speaks mostly Spanish. Overall, it’s a great panadería. I can’t wait to try their...

I spent several years of my childhood in Laredo, TX where just around the corner from my grandmother's house on San Dario Ave was a family owned panaderia. Walking into Mi Tradicion at the recommendation of my brother a few years ago brought back all sorts of great memories as the smell of freshly baked pan dulce greeted me right at the door. If you are new to Mexican bakeries, this place will overwhelm you with brighly colored pan dulces, cookies and cakes. Don't be afraid. Go grab one of the stacked metal trays and a pair of tongs. Begin by walking around the bakery and observing all of the sweets inside the bakery cases along the perimeter of the room. You'll see various conchas, polvorones, empanadas, orejas, churros and marranitos. They even have Kolaches and donuts. The Marranitos are molasses or gingerbread based sweet bread baked in the form of a little pig. The empanadas de camote or de calabaza are excellent. It's not important to know the names of these items, but I always ask the friendly staff there for correct pronounciations as I attempt to reclaim the Spanish that I've forgotten over the years. The other side of the business is a restaurant which I've yet to try that sells tortas, tacos and more. I've always wanted to grab lunch there, but the lure of the panaderia is...