Woman Calls Out Gentrified ‘Mexican’ Restaurants Serving $8 Elote: ‘Are You Nuts?’

Have you ever happened upon a Mexican restaurant, only to find out it’s gentrified, overpriced and puts microgreens on everything? Well, that just happened to one woman who called it out on TikTok.

With her video reaching one million views, it’s clear people are very tired of the gentrification of elote, birria and agua de Jamaica… or should we say “spa water”?

TikTok user @nairabills took to the social platform to share her frustration with gentrified restaurants serving supposed Mexican dishes. She started her video with, “I cannot stand a gentrified Mexican restaurant that wants to charge you $7 or $8 for some elote.”

“This is corn. You think we don’t know how much corn costs?” Corn is traditionally cheap food, partly because of its vast supply around the world.

As one commenter put it, the worst part is that “They don’t even call it elote,” with others chiming in, “[It’s] Mexican street corn 🤣” to them.

As you can expect, the TikToker’s video has sparked a heated discussion on the gentrification of Mexican food. One commenter summed it up like this: “The more you pay, the worse it seems to taste too. Ugh.”

The woman called gentrified “Mexican” restaurants “crazy” for their high prices

The TikTok user continued her discussion, all the while eating authentic esquites from a styrofoam cup she says cost her $3.

Speaking directly to gentrified restaurants serving “Mexican” food, she said, “You’re crazy. I will have the elotera from around the corner kick your [butt], bro. With a shoe.” LOL.

“Are you nuts?” she asked. “I hope the ‘Chancla of Justice’ shows you no mercy.” Hear, hear!

Later, the woman described her prior experience with overpriced elote. “The most expensive elote I’ve ever seen was like $12. Who told you to put microgreens on it?”

Really, though. Why the microgreens? Who is asking for this?

“It’s not even in a styrofoam cup,” the woman pointed out. “I will tell the health inspector that a rat served me this corn and have this place shut down.”

The woman then captioned her video with, “The cup of corn in my hand was like $3, and I’d slap all my siblings for just a spoonful. Like be for real.”

When the authentic version is so good, and it’s available, why get the gentrified version instead?

People continue to sound off on gentrified “Mexican” food, proving many feel the same

@nairabills‘ video has garnered thousands of comments, with one person questioning, “SEVEN DOLLARS FOR ELOTE??” Another laughed, “NOT THE MICROGREENS.”

Yet another agreed, “Nah if I got microgreens on elote I’d be so mad 😂😂😂.”

Others theorized the $8 elote wasn’t that great: “And I’m sure they’re using the sweet corn from a can 😂.” Another recalled their own overpriced experience: “No [because] girl I went to a Mexican restaurant in Chicago and the carne asada was $40 🥲.”

However, others did bring up inflation — pointing to how many of their local eloteros and eloteras have raised their prices, too. One wrote, “It’s usually $6-7 from the street vendors where I live!! 😭😭😭 so freaking sad but times are tough for them.”

Another chimed in, saying they still support their local vendors: “The local elote lady in my hood, its $4 now 😭 but we love her.”

Yet another wrote, “My local elotero that goes around the neighborhood sells elotes for $3 & in the cup $4 🥲 I remember them costing $1.50 🥲🥲🥲.”

That being said, it’s a very different story paying your local food vendors… than paying a gentrified restaurant to pour canned corn in a cup.

As one person who works in a restaurant put it, “My restaurant serves ‘street corn’ and we charge $8, it makes me sad.”

Over on X, people bring up this subject often. In fact, one user said their gentrified Mexican restaurant experience makes them feel like their “ancestors are screaming” at them.

Another said that paying nearly $6 for a “small agua de horchata” is just “what they get” for going to an inauthentic Mexican restaurant:

One way to know you’re in a gentrified restaurant instead of a local Mexican business? As per one X user, it’s all about whether they make you pay for the chips and salsa:

Another agreed, saying that’s when they know they “need to escape”:

And yes, as one person hilariously put it, you know a restaurant is gentrified when they call agua de Jamaica a “hibiscus refresher”: