Despite popular belief, Spanish and Mexican food have nothing in common. Tortilla is a dish of eggs and potatoes. Late night cheap and greasy food is not tacos but kebabs. Chips and salsa are a rare commodity, sometimes costing up to 7 euros at a supermercado. And don't even try to make a Spainards food spicy: give them some bread and anything soaked or fried in oil, and they're happy.

Just about every Erasmus student from the US is on the hunt for a piece of nostalgia from home: good and honest Mexican food.

And if I've learned anything from being abroad, it's that there is always an exception to the rule.

I found the holy grail.

And its clandestine location is a give away that this is no place for tourists. Just around the corner off Calle de Segovia on the end of Calle Armarillo, I would not have even known a restaurant existed on this residential street unless my host parents told me.

This wasn't my first attempt to this joint. I've been tuned away twice, being chastised for not making una reservaciòn, taking the walk of shame in and out of their narrow outdoor eating area, and inside past the seated bar and long tabled interior.

Third times a charm, even if it was rushed: they were thirty minutes from closing with only one table open by their entrance.