A chef shares 5 red flags to look for when dining at a Mexican restaurant

• Celebrity chef Pati Jinich knows how to spot a good — and bad — Mexican restaurant.
• Cold salsa and premade guacamole are both bad signs, according to the Mexican chef.
• She said too many places are trying to do birria, and most of them aren’t great.

Chef Pati Jinich — known for programs like PBS’ “La Frontera” and “Pati’s Mexican Table” — has dined at countless Mexican (and Mexican-inspired) restaurants.

Although she’s had good meals at spots where she now lives in Washington, DC, and across the US, she can also sense when an establishment isn’t doing her home country’s cuisine justice.

Here are the five red flags she looks out for at Mexican restaurants.