The house
Two people who love cooking, have never set foot in Mexico — and spent a very long time getting the real taco right anyway.
Let's get it out of the way: there was no founding trip. What caught Cyril and Marie was Mexican cooking itself. They read it, watched it, compared it, then tried it. And it won them over for a whole set of reasons at once: the role of the sauces, the long cooking times, the balance between slow-braised and fresh, and that way of making a great deal out of very little.
No inherited recipe, no shortcut: every dish went through the same method — try, taste, adjust, start again. A recipe reaches the menu the day it is genuinely good, not the day it is ready. It takes longer, and that is exactly the point.
One thing became obvious early on: what France calls « tacos » has nothing to do with the Mexican taco. One is pressed and grilled, the other is a soft tortilla holding something properly cooked, folded and eaten by hand. Making that difference known has more or less become the point of the place.
The pork comes from the Aveyron, the vegetables are fresh and local wherever possible, the sauces are made here. What cannot come from nearby — the corn, the dried chillies, the spices — comes from Mexico, without pointless middlemen.
Hot or Not is still a neighbourhood restaurant: people come with family, with colleagues, or alone at the counter for three tacos at lunch. Nobody leaves still hungry.
The house
Open Tuesday to Saturday, lunch and dinner. For a group or something special, let's talk.
