Taquería El Califa de León

Taquería El Califa de León
The taqueria's entrance
Restaurant information
Established	1968 (1968)
Owner(s)	Mario Hernández Alonso
Food type	Antojito
Dress code	None
Rating	(Michelin Guide, 2024)
Street address	Av. Ribera de San Cosme 56, San Rafael, Cuauhtémoc
City	Mexico City
Postal/ZIP Code	06470
Country	Mexico
Coordinates	19°26′28″N 99°9′33″W

Taquería El Califa de León is a taqueria in Colonia San Rafael, Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City. The restaurant received a Michelin star in 2024, the first Mexican taco stand so awarded.

The restaurant was opened in 1968 by Juan Hernández González and is named after the nickname of bullfighter Rodolfo Gaona. Its signature taco, the Gaonera, is named for him; it is one of three items on the menu, alongside steak and rib tacos. The menu has remained much the same; Hernández González told his son, Mario Hernández Alonso, that it was not worth expanding because "avarice rips the bag". Most of the restaurant's small footprint—variously cited as 100 square feet (9.3 m²) or 50 square metres (540 sq ft)—is dominated by the large grill while customers cram into the other half, where there is no seating. The sidewalk outside is occupied by street vendors, further limiting capacity.

A noted regular in the 1980s and early 1990s was Luis Donaldo Colosio, later a presidential candidate who was assassinated in 1994. Framed on one wall is a 1993 column from the newspaper Ovaciones in which the author recounts running into Colosio and states, "It's the most egalitarian eatery in Mexico. Everyone eats standing, dripping salsa on the stools, whiffed by sleepless dogs." Other politicians, including Eruviel Ávila, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, Humberto Moreira Valdés, and Carlos Salinas de Gortari, were known to be regular customers; the restaurant is four blocks and 650 meters (2,130 ft), nine minutes' walk, from the national headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

On May 15, 2024, El Califa de León was awarded a Michelin star, the first time a Mexican taco stand had received such a distinction. The announcement praised the Gaonera's beef fillet and corn tortillas as an "elemental and pure" combination. The news caused crowds and long lines to form outside the restaurant.

The name "El Califa" was never trademarked, and a 15-unit taco chain in the Mexico City area is also known as La Califa.