Tortilleria El Progreso Mexican Restaurant — Restaurant in Winter Park

As a Mexican in Orlando, it’s very hard to find authentic Mexican food. My boyfriend brought me to this place after finding good reviews in hopes of finding me a place that is similar to what I grew up eating. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the place.

A bit of background, I am very white passing. My Spanish is okay and is very limited to restaurant Spanish. My boyfriend is very obviously Hispanic, though is Puerto Rican but his Spanish is limited too and he does not know how to order as well as I do.

When we came in, we were told to sit anywhere and we sat down. The waitress came up to us and immediately asked us for our drinks which was cool. Immediately after bringing our drinks, she began to pressure us into ordering by hovering over our table and coming up every minute despite the restaurant having a huge menu and it being our first time at the restaurant. After about the third time she came, I tried to ask a couple of questions about the food to try to narrow down what I wanted since I wanted something more authentic that I can’t get as often elsewhere. When I began to ask a couple questions, the waitress kept dismissing me and pointing to more “white”-safe options like a Taco Salad or a Quesadilla. My boyfriend ordered Quesabirria and I had asked for Nopales with Flour Tortillas and their shrimp appetizer since it seemed like it came with a spicy sauces, as I wanted something spicy because honestly it’s hard to find spicy Mexican food here. When we received the food, my boyfriend’s came out perfectly while mine came out wrong. My nopales were undercooked and came with the wrong type of tortilla, my shrimp came with some kind of Chipotle Mayo instead of salsa. When we asked about it getting the salsa they came with (according to the menu), the waitress made a face almost laughing at me like I wouldn’t be able to handle the spice and took her time getting the salsa.

Honestly, there were a lot more microaggressions to the point where I was trying so hard not to cry in the restaurant. I felt so disrespected and my boyfriend noticed how differently I was treated compared to him. Everytime I tried to ask a question, the waitress would look to my boyfriend almost as if asking if I knew what I was talking about.

I understand that there is a language barrier with the fact that both my boyfriend’s and my Spanish is limited but we’ve never had an issue where we were just written off like we...

Azalea Park, FL. If you ask my friend where she’s from she’ll say Mexico; “My family has lived in Mexico in the same place for generations—-until it became Texas.” When I asked her the best place for Mexican food she said Tortilleria El Progreso. “They have the best tortillas, my son gets them for my birthday.” We live kinda far from the restaurant but her family loves the food here and if she and her gringo husband can make the drive we figured it must be really good.

So my hubby and I finally drove up on a weekday errand and came here for lunch. One bite of his chicken flauta and his eyes opened wide. “Ohh Shirley might be right that this is the best Mexican food,” he remarked. He and his brother haven’t had much luck finding good flautas in Florida but these were delicious. Also the refried beans were some of the best we’ve ever had.

My pozole was good like as if Grandma made it, with great flavor and lots of fatty pork chunks, two potato chunks and hominy. With it came lime wedges, diced white onion, jalapeños and cilantro. They offered corn or flour tortillas on the side and they were hot and super fresh.

The chips and guacamole, red sauce and tomatillo sauce were all great. They didn’t add cumin or a lot of cilantro, just fresh tomatoes, tomatillos, and onions depending on the type of sauce it was. The green sauce packed the most heat. I found the chips slightly tough.

Nice music (accordion, soulful vocals and Mexican hits) and the back room is pretty flashy. Our booth seats were cowhide in appearance , soft but kinda smeared with salsa, so if you hate germs bring sanitizer and sit at the tables with black leather seats.

Next time I’ll try the tamales.

Update on 5/2025: Came here for a friend’s birthday. Thank you to the lovely servers who sang for her with a bubble machine and tambourine!!! My friends and I enjoyed our burritos, salads...

Tortilleria El Progreso is a really good authentic Mexican restaurant right off Colonial in Orlando! Not only is their food tasty, it is quite reasonable in price! We visited right at the end of the day 20 minutes before closing, which at many places would be the worst time to get food (as the food would be the least fresh), but here our food still tasted fresh - way more than many other Mexican restaurants I’ve been to! We got a variety of different tacos: lengua, cabeza, barbacoa, al pastor, and chorizo, as well as a horchata and a quesabirria plate with cactus and refried beans. Out of the food we ordered, I would highly recommend the al pastor and chorizo tacos as well as the horchata - all three of these were the best I’ve ever had!! I would say you can skip the lengua, cabeza and quesabirria (though the cactus and refried beans were great - be sure to try them if you order a different plate). The lengua and cabeza were not nearly as good as the al pastor and chorizo, and the quesabirria had some bones in the meat, so you might want to avoid that one. Overall, still a great place, and I would definitely try it again - especially considering the pricing is good! Check this place out if you’re craving...