Mi Cocina is a Tex-Mex restaurant.
Chef Michael "Mico" Rodriguez, with $77,500 in backing from Ray Washburne, Dick Washburne, Bob McNutt, opened the first location of Mi Cocina in the summer of 1991 at Preston Road and Forest Lane in Dallas.[1] It accepted Visa credit cards, uncommon for a restaurant at that time. The original restaurant was still operational as of 2021.[2]
The restaurant expanded to Highland Park Village in 1993. By 1999, the Dallas Morning News called this location "the most popular 'see and be seen' Tex-Mex restaurant" in Texas, popular with celebrities such as Dallas Cowboys players.[2]
Rodriguez left under acrimonious terms in 2009 over accusations he stole from the company.
Mi Cocina opened a new restaurant within Klyde Warren Park in October 2021. In early 2022, its Uptown Dallas location relocated to McKinney Avenue.[2]
Sales of parent company M Crowd Restaurant Group reached $120 million in 2023. The Dallas Morning News credits Mi Cocina with bringing attention to Tex-Mex food.
The restaurant expanded to Houston in November 2023 with a new 10,000-square foot location in River Oaks, the largest of its 24 restaurants.[3]
Mi Cocina serves Tex-Mex cuisine, such as tacos, fajita plates, enchiladas, and margaritas.[2]
The restaurant is known for its signature "Mambo Taxi", a frozen margarita with a sangria swirl.[2] Mi Cocina and its sister restaurant Taco Diner served nearly 1.2 million Mambo Taxis in 2018.[4]
In a 2019 poll, D Magazine readers named the Mambo Taxi as Dallas' favorite margarita.[5] The margarita is associated with a famous saying, "With 1, you’re feeling good, with 2, you’re doing the Mambo and with 3, you need a taxi!" The drink was featured on an episode of Conan in 2014.[6]
In the late 1990s, Mi Cocina's parent company M Crowd Restaurant Group opened sibling restaurant Taco Diner, which served Mexico City-style tacos and Mambo Taxis in Dallas. It was known as a rare spot to eat sit-down tacos in Dallas. After most of its locations closed between 2019 and 2021, the last location shut its doors on January 13, 2024.[7]