Tacos Mariana’s — an international romance

7/1/2026

Thirty years old this year, Tacos Mariana’s has no peer in Des Moines. Not as a taqueria. Not as what some call “a hidden gem” and others label a “hole in the wall.” Certainly not as a vehicle for the transportation of expectations.

Mariana Gomez’ taqueria occupies a little more than 2,000 square feet of real estate that few notice driving by on busy University Avenue. Its building also includes a convenience store in what was deemed a food dessert before Simon and Don Cotran took over a defunct city-subsidized supermarket five blocks to the east and turned it into the booming C Fresh Market. 

There is nothing to notice from the outside that would hint about what lies inside. Mariana’s is an oasis of food “romance,” in the James Joyce sense of that word — that which transports one to another time or place. That other place is the Siera Madre mountain town San Sebastian del Oeste. 

That town itself has become a “hidden gem” since its glory days as a gold, silver and lead mining jackpot in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, it’s little known beyond Puerto Vallarta, the coastal boom town about two hours west and a mile downhill, even though the Mexican government has proclaimed it a “Pueblo Magico.” 

Gomez loves her birthplace and is its unofficial cultural attaché to Iowa. She will tout its charms to anyone who will listen and even recommends two hotels there. Her sister owns one, and her brother owns the other. Mariana has hospitality in her bloodline. She designed her restaurant’s furniture after photos of the “magic town” in high Jalisco. Then she commissioned a wood artisan in Guadalajara to build booths, tables, benches, chairs and wall hangings in colors as bright and glorious as her memories.   

The menu offerings are as carefully crafted as the décor. Tacos are the namesake stars. Gomez insists on La Michoacana tortillas. Her birria is made with beef, and she says it’s her most popular order with Mexican customers along with steak, lomo (tenderloin) and weekend pozole. 

Guacamole is non-Latinos’ favorite order, and she makes hers with cucumbers, in addition to usual ingredients. Her beans are not like those at other local Mexican restaurants. She only uses yellow beans (Mayocoba or Canary) and does not refry them. 

“They cost a lot more, but they are the best.” They just simmer in “chicken juice” into a delicious stew of beans and bean paste. Her homemade salsas are also as good as any. 

Mariana makes tacos and other corn masa treats with stomach and intestines but says she will never understand gringo customers’ love of tongue. She uses rib meat and leg meat for pork dishes like carnitas and pastor.  

Mariana’s customers are as multi-dimensional as her recipes. Neighborhood characters mix with a devoted band of professionals including restaurateurs, doctors, nurses and executives. Customers loaned her the money needed to buy her property because “no bank would even talk to a single Mexican mom.” 

Retired advertising guru Abe Goldstein dines here with his wife every Sunday. He says Mariana offers great vegetarian options and the “best guacamole ever.” 

“When I was representing the Iowa State Fair, I would take all the interns, college kids, to Mariana’s. None had ever been there before, even the ones who grew up in Des Moines. They all loved it. I also used to order the exact same dishes at a Mexican place on Court Avenue, and they always cost about triple the same order here.” 

Gomez recently added daily specials that take her bargains to a new level. Fabulous tacos cost just $2 some days, even less on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays during World Cup. She also initiated a second kind of gorditas, from the fryer instead of the grill. The restaurant sells beer, including Micheladas — “beer Bloody Marys” in shrimp lined mugs. A once daunting parking lot is now paved. n

Jim Duncan is a food and art writer who has been covering the central Iowa scene for more than five decades.