The Restaurant: San Julian, Cape Town

'When you live away from your country the first thing you miss is your family, the second is your food."

A taste of Sinaloa - their home state on Mexico's Pacific coast - was what Ricardo and Arturo Garcia-Aispuro hungered for when a quirk of intercontinental construction contracts landed the brothers and their parents in Cape Town in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"We found Mexican food was so popular here, but it was more like the Tex-Mex you get in America. Shell tacos, flour tortillas, chilli con carne ... it just didn't feel like Mexican," says Ricardo.

So they decided it was time to add an authentic Mexican eatery to Cape Town. It was just weeks before the World Cup kicked off, and San Julian became the unofficial home-from-home for hungry Mexican fans.

The brothers - who run the restaurant with their parents, mother Patricia and father Arturo Snr - are quick to clarify that their cosy, colourful eatery is really just a humble taqueria; a place where tortillas and tacos reign supreme - but these are made from scratch.

"Before we opened we quickly realised that there were no Mexican products here at all ... but there were the ingredients, so we were forced to make our own," says Ricardo. That began with the tortillas, handmade to their grandmother's recipe.

"You can make a good filling, but the key is the tortilla," he says solemnly. Maize is soaked overnight and ground into dough to be rolled out fresh each afternoon. Chorizo is handmade too, according to his aunt's recipe, as is the unusual goat's-milk caramel.

It's a menu that may look a little unfamiliar at first, but holds plenty of pleasant surprises. San Julian's guacamole is a perfect appetiser: avocados are mashed together with feta, white onion, coriander, green chilli and fresh lime, and served with handmade corn chips. Utterly delicious.

"This is a starter in Mexico," says Ricardo. "For tacos we also make 'taco guacamole', which is just avocado, lime and salt."

Nachos are notable by their absence - cue gasps of horror from Tex-Mex fans - but queso fundido is even better: melted cheese topped with house chorizo and salsa. "We serve it with corn chips, so this is like an authentic Mexican version of the Tex-Mex nachos," says Arturo.

In the main courses, the famous tortillas come to the fore. Enchiladas are topped with shredded beef or chicken, the fish tacos are made to a family recipe, and dishes like tacos dorados and sopes de chorizo are perhaps the reason San Julian was started in the first place.

"These are dishes from Sinaloa, our part of Mexico," says Ricardo. "Tacos dorados is a kind of empanada; a tortilla made into a parcel with shredded beef and served with sour cream, feta and red cabbage. Sopes is a basket of corn dough lightly fried and filled with creamy refried beans, our own chorizo, sour cream, feta and red cabbage."

"Street tacos" are served plain, as quesadillas (with cheese) or vampiros (lightly toasted), with fillings such as braised pork, chorizo or shredded chicken with smoked jalapeño salsa.

There's a small but growing wine list, excellent local craft beers and a few dozen tequila brands on offer - and margaritas concocted by Arturo Snr. For a taste of Mexico in the Mother City, it's hard to beat.

• 3 Rose Street, Green Point, Cape Town, 0214194233. Starters R28-R60, Mains R79-R100