El Maguey y la Tuna

321 E Houston St

Taqueria with inexpensive and delicious offerings.


Drag the street view to look around 360°.
Use the arrow buttons to navigate down the street and around the neighborhood!

Lower East Side Description

El Maguey y la Tuna is located in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. While this could apply to most neighborhoods in this guide, the Lower East Side might be the best example yet of an area that was once down-at-the-heels, full of recent immigrants striving towards the American dream and long-time residents just trying to make ends meet, and is now as expensive as anywhere else in Manhattan, filled to the gills on weekends with the bridge-and-tunnel crowd looking to eat fancy and party hard. The Lower East Side is boxed in between Alphabet City and Chinatown and between Little Italy, Nolita, and the East Rive, running roughing south from Delancey Street to FDR Drive and from the East River west to Allen Street. In the last 150 years, the Lower East Side has been populated by successive waves of lower-income German, Irish, and Jewish immigrants, and has seen extensive immigration of Chinese and Latin populations in recent decades. Although the well-known Tenement Museum on Orchard Street chronicles the historically difficult, even squalid, conditions in the neighborhood’s tenements, rents have risen to four, six, even eight times what they were just five years ago. Today, Ludlow and Orchard Streets reflect the newest wave of immigrants: the dot-com and downtown crowd. In fact, an unbelievable array of new boutiques, restaurants, stores, fabulous bars and music clubs compete with the area’s long-established tailors, fabric dealers, button wholesalers, religious artifact suppliers, pickle vendors, and Kosher wine distributors. The neighborhood’s crowded parks and outdoor recreation areas reflect the pastiche of New York’s ethnically diverse groups, especially in summer, and a dizzying array of music from around the world can be heard literally on every corner. Take a stroll around to see some of the city’s oldest synagogues, famous delicatessens, shopping streets, and hang out with the hippest crowds. Art enthusiasts will be interested to know that the mother lode of art galleries in New York's Chelsea neighborhood has seen tectonic shifts, albeit slowly, to the Lower East Side, with trendy smaller new galleries popping up here and there. Many attribute this gallery migration to the Lower East Side to the presence of the New Museum of Contemporary Art on the Bowery, the first art museum ever constructed from the ground up in this neighborhood. Nightlife on the Lower East Side, especially on the weekends, is always rocking, with almost as many people cruising its narrow streets as there are inside its numerous bars, restaurants and live music venues. Up and coming alternative rock bands play at Bowery Ballroom on Delancey Street and Mercury Lounge on East Houston Street, while lesser known acts perform at smaller venues, such as the performance space in Pianos and the Living Room on Ludlow Street, or by booking Arlene's Grocery on Stanton Street. If you're looking to grab a bite to eat before concert-hoping from venue to venue, try Apizz, which features great Southern Italian cuisine and Prune, which is renowned for its fine American dining. The Lower East Side is definitely moving upwardly in its hotel and real estate offerings. The growth of this neighborhood has brought several new luxury boutique hotels, including Hotel On Rivington and the deluxe boutique Blue Moon Hotel on Orchard Street.

There are no events taking place on this date.

Info

321 E Houston St
New York, NY 10002
(212) 473-3744
Website

Editorial Rating

Category

Mexican

Price

$$$$$

Ambience

Casual

Payment

All Major

This Week's Hours

LUNCH
Tue-Sun: 11:00am-5:00pm

DINNER
Tue-Sun: 5:00pm-11:00pm

Nearby Subway

  • to Delancey St
  • to Essex St -- 0.4

Other Mexican Restaurants

Lobo - Cobble Hill

Rustic, heavily affected decor means that the food will either seem that much mo... view

Casa Mezcal

What promises to be a four-story temple of Mexican cuisine, complete with a tequ... view

El Aguila

East Harlem taqueria with some exception bakery selections as well. view

Hotel Tortuga

Mexican food in an atmosphere reminiscent of mid-century Alcapulco from the prop... view

 

Sinigual

Sinigual celebrates a fusion of contemporary and native flavors of Mexico. Even ... view

Los Pollitos

Original location of the popular Sunset Park Mexican joint. view

El Pollitos Mexican

Solid Mexican restaurant and bar in the northern reaches of Park Slope with a fa... view

Ofrenda

Mexican cuisine done homestyle in the West Village. view