Looking for an authentic Mexican taqueria in the heart of Singapore? Papi’s Tacos is here to serve you with mouth-watering Mexican cuisine. With its vibrant facade teeming with life, you’ll never guess that behind this booming business is a story of dedication, danger, and hard work.
From Ragged Beginnings to Booming Endeavors
Jose Mauricio Espinoza Lara Papi himself, the Head Chef of Papi’s Taco | Photo from Papi’s Tacos
The Lion City’s most famous Mexican taqueria has its humble beginnings in Mexico. At the young age of 14, Jose Mauricio Espinoza Lara—Papi himself, the Head Chef of the restaurant—sought to deviate from his family’s strictly laid out plans for his future.
With one goal in mind and almost no money to his name, Lara left Mexico with a friend and never looked back. “That morning, I saw my mom, told her I was going to school, and I never came back. We took a plane from Mexico City to Tijuana, and from there, the coyote picked us up,” he said in an interview with CNA Lifestyle. “Coyote” is slang for a person who smuggles immigrants across borders—except the person who picked them up wasn’t actually a coyote. Lara and his friend were kidnapped and beaten black and blue for all the cash they had, which wasn’t a lot.
Both Lara and his friend were released soon after, and the pair finally got in contact with a real coyote. Upon arriving in the US, he bounced from one job to another, laying low and working mostly in kitchen restaurants. Somehow this led to him working in the kitchens of renowned chefs like Mario Batali, Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto and Masayoshi Takayama.
Despite this enviable experience, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, as Lara explained that language soon became a barrier between him and his job. Chefs became frustrated with him, telling him to either quit cooking or to learn to speak English. This led to him taking English lessons, taking General Educational Development (GED) tests, and eventually pursuing a degree in business.
After 15 years spent learning what he could about the food industry, Lara decided to return to Mexico, but the system didn’t work with him. He didn’t have friends in the country and had to travel 15 kilometers from his hometown to peddle tacos on the street once a week. Even if he wanted to own a stall or restaurant of his own, the cartel-enforced fees would not allow him to break even. Despite his hard work and dedication, it seemed like all odds were against him.
A Taste Test Birthed Singapore’s Only Authentic Taqueria
Thankfully, the tides turned for Lara when he received a call from Employees Only—a New York-based bar he previously worked for. They invited him to be part of their opening team at their first international spot in Singapore. Lara was working in manual labor at the time, and he dropped everything after the call to travel to Singapore.
Lara shared that the idea of Papi’s Taco came to life after trying a beef taco during a night out in Singapore. “It was those tacos in the hard shell and the beef was sweet and sour…and this is in a Mexican restaurant! The sauces were like bottled sauces from the supermarket. And one of them was sriracha,” he said in the same CNA Lifestyle interview.
Lara joked about opening his own Mexican restaurant in Singapore, and it became a reality because his former bosses at Employees Only invested in his idea, helping him open a pop-up food truck at the now-out-of-commission Park Bench Deli. Since then, Papi’s Taco has been serving authentic Mexican food amidst all the paperwork and taxes needed to keep the business afloat.
All in all, Lara persevered and worked diligently to be able to get to where he is today. “At the end of the day, once you stay true to who you are and what you do, there’s always a way,” he shared in the interview.
Papi’s Taco is open daily from 12 noon to 7 pm in all four of their Singapore locations: Seah Street, Tanjong Pagar, Katong, and Jalan Besar.