Apapacho: A comforting hug of Mexican food from Jalisco

In Mexico, an apapacho is more than just a hug, and for Joshua Arias, it was the perfect name for his Wellington restaurant.

Joshua is the owner and chef of Apapacho Mexican Fonda, which he runs with his younger brother Kevin, who manages the floor. Both are from Guadalajara — the capital of Jalisco, Mexico’s second city, and the birthplace of tequila, mariachi, and birria, the slow-cooked meat stew that would become one of Apapacho’s signature dishes. A fonda is a traditional casual Mexican eatery, and that informality is very much part of the point.

Joshua’s path to opening his own place was long and deliberate. He started his professional cooking career around fifteen years ago with a clear plan: to travel, learn, and build experience before taking the leap. Moving to New Zealand, he spent seven years working through some of Wellington’s best kitchens — Concord, Shepherd, and Cuba Street Tavern among them. “Those years gave me the opportunity to learn from great chefs, develop my skills, and gain valuable experience, with every kitchen helping to shape the cook and chef I am today.” Kevin, meanwhile, spent his early years in Wellington serving tacos and shaking margaritas at the much-loved Viva Mexico Left Bank.

Although they never had a restaurant back in Mexico, their biggest culinary influences were at home: their mother and grandmothers, whose recipes form the backbone of Apapacho’s menu. “I always missed the food and flavours I grew up with in Mexico,” says Joshua. With Kevin’s support and confidence built across seven years of Wellington kitchens, he finally felt ready. That’s how Apapacho was born.

The family’s influence is nowhere more evident than in the house hot sauce — a fiery, deeply flavoured condiment rooted in their mother’s Chile de Árbol salsa, developed over the years with techniques Joshua picked up along the way. It arrives at your table and stays there. I'm not the only customer to enquire about buying a bottle.

Initially aiming to exactly replicate the dishes from their hometown, they quickly realised they'd need to adapt. “Making Mexican food in New Zealand is not easy,” says Joshua. Where local producers can deliver quality alternatives, the brothers use them. Hands Down produces the corn flour for their tortillas; Conscious Valley raises the lamb for their birria; Wicked Hots supplies the fresh chillies and jalapeños for Apapacho’s homemade escabeche; and Luvo provides avocado oil from New Zealand-grown Hass avocados. “For us, it’s about finding the right balance between staying true to authentic Mexican flavours and supporting great local producers whenever possible.”

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On my first visit, the Suadero Taco was immediately the standout. It’s Kevin’s personal favourite on the menu: “It reminds me that the Mexican flavours everybody loves come from the streets.” He’s not wrong — the suadero is quintessential Mexico City street food, one of the most popular tacos in the country. The traditional cut of beef is nearly impossible to source in New Zealand, so Joshua uses brisket instead, cooked confit-style: low heat, a long time, submerged in its own fat and juices until the meat becomes, in his words, “incredibly tender and full of flavour.” Served on a fresh tortilla with a healthy dose of the house hot sauce, it's a dish I'll be going back for again and again.

Chilaquiles — tortilla chips soaked in salsa until they soften into something between a stew and a casserole — is one of Mexico’s great breakfast dishes. Joshua grew up visiting a Guadalajara restaurant that served them with a range of sauces, and he wanted to combine that memory with his mother’s birria to make Birriaquiles. “Since birria originates from Jalisco, bringing the two together just made perfect sense.” Their Birriaquiles is a large dish of tortilla chips tossed in birria broth with lamb birria, refried beans, sour cream and feta cheese. It was my first time trying birriaquiles, and I loved the different textures, and the lamb birria was tender and full of flavour.

Apapacho is currently open for breakfast and lunch only, and the menu is built around that rhythm. Joshua’s own favourite is the Huevos Rancheros: “Its simplicity and richness of flavour make it the perfect breakfast in my eyes.” It’s a reminder that the best version of a classic needs nothing added.

The name Apapacho captures everything the Arias brothers are working towards. Joshua puts it simply: “It is an embrace from the soul, a gesture of love, comfort, and care. That’s exactly what we hope every guest experiences when they walk through our doors: not just great food, but a genuine connection to our home, our family, and our culture, one plate at a time.”