Any restaurant known for the best margaritas in town — especially if they’re large — won’t have good Mexican food.

You can tell a lot from a taco shell. Did it come pre-formed? Is it filled with ground beef? Then it’s not going to be a good taco.

Taco Bell, Del Taco, and any other American chain don’t have Mexican food — they have an Americanized, factory-built simulation. Taco Bell invents their own Mexamerican bastardizations, like the Chalupa and the Enchirito, not to mention the Doritaco or whatever new monstrosity they’re selling this month. If you can’t pronounce “Taco” or “Tamale” properly, go ahead and eat there, you won’t know the difference anyway.

Rubio’s is great, I love their fish tacos. It’s not Mexican food either, but it’s not bad.

Try the smaller places, especially the one-of-a-kind, not chains. Around here in southern California they’re all named something-bertos — Fidelbertos, Albertos, Guilermobertos, etc. If the chips are fresh and the salsa is good, the rest is probably decent. If they have Negro Modelo on draft, drink it.

The very best Mexican food is in places the farmhands used to eat, fifty-some years ago.

The best place I’ve ever eaten is Camacho’s Place in El Centro. Started as a pool hall for farm workers around 1946, three miles from the border. Sonoran style, northern Mexican, with fresh beef and great local ingredients. I grew up near there. They had a magical item called the Special Quesadilla — an uncooked white flour tortilla, with cheese, sides crimped, deep fried like an empanada. It’s local to the Sonoran desert, I think. Words fail me, you had to order it.

Sadly, Camacho’s is out of business now. But that was the best.

My go-to order: machaca burrito sin huevos, maybe a taco or a tostada. In El Centro, the Special Quesadilla, if they have it. If they call it a Special Quesadilla but it’s just a quesadilla with cheese and meat and other fillings, that’s not the same.

The most recognizable cheese used in Mexican food is Cotija. It’s soft and crumbly, comes from Michoacán. Queso fresco or queso blanco is softer and more common in other areas. Use whichever one tastes right.

Mexico itself has a very wide variety of authentic cuisine. Don’t let anyone tell you there’s just one.