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Coyoacan Social is physically located in South Eveleigh but it has unshakeable connections to Mexico City. This street food eatery is named after the birthplace of artist Frida Kahlo – a neighbourhood known for its eye-dazzling heritage buildings and cobblestoned charm.

For Roman Cortes, who runs this venue with the Plate It Forward collective, the place has much significance. “My mum was born in Coyoacan,” he says.

His mother, Maru Navarro, has influenced this eatery in other ways. Cortes learnt how to feed queues of taco-hungry diners while working on her Maru’s Kitchen market stall in Sydney, and memories of eating her food in Mexico City are imprinted in Coyoacan Social’s menu.

“My mum always used to cook them,” he says, referring to the flautas (flutes), which are deep-fried, ingredient-stuffed tortillas he serves in South Eveleigh.

“You put the filling in there and you just roll it like … a little flute. That’s why they’re called flautas”

The cafe is linked to Mexico City in another meaningful way. Eat here and you’ll help Grupo Jovenes Alcoholicos Anonimos, the 24-hour drop-in centre that aided Cortes’ recovery from addiction when he lived there in 2002. “They put me back to life,” he says.

It’s why he’s giving back to the organisation. Every taco ordered at Coyoacan Social funds food for people in need there and in greater Sydney.

Like other Plate It Forward restaurants – such as the refugee-run Kabul Social in the CBD – this venue is about aiding communities both here and abroad.

At Coyoacan Social – which is housed in a shipping container that’s as bright as the zippy, salsa-topped fillings that get stuffed and drizzled into its tortillas – a sign above the kitchen tracks how many tacos have been given away.

Soon after they opened in April, the tally stood at 579 tacos. It’s updated every month or so – and it’s a good reason to request more tortillas from the transporting menu.

The cochinita pibil (pulled pork in fiery achiote paste) taco sends you to the Yucatan, a nearly 19-hour drive east of Mexico City, while the beef birria flavour directs you to Jalisco, 500 kilometres north-west of Cortes’ birthplace.

“My grandfather is from there,” he says, recalling times they’d try the taco-broth combination together.

Coyoacan Social’s version is based on a “rescued” family recipe, where the beef is stewed with guajillo and arbol chillies. The resulting consomme is also offered as a deeply spiced broth you can happily dip your taco into.

While nachos are a bestseller, it’s worth trying the great tostadas and flautas: they’re less common on Sydney menus and illustrate the many ways you can reshape corn tortillas.

The tostadas have an ingredient-scooping curve, like a hat-brim, which sturdily holds refried beans, a good showering of shredded cheese and lettuce and your salsa and protein of choice (such as the aforementioned chilli-simmered beef and achiote-marinated pork, for instance, or smoky chicken tinga and bracing cactus with charred corn).

The cigar-like flautas can be stuffed with the same ingredients, too, which can be mixed-and-matched across the menu. Look out for the upcoming “papa” flavour, which will hide a pocket of mashed potato.

After close contact with the habanero and pineapple salsa drizzled on your tacos, tostadas or flautas, you might need soothing glugs of horchata – a rice and cinnamon drink that Mexicans have savoured since the 16th century – or hibiscus iced tea.

Don’t overlook the hot chocolates: Mexico has a 4000-year-old history with cacao, after all (people even tried to counterfeit the beans when they were used as currency).

The Frido Cacao house blend is sweetened with a spice mix nicknamed Abuelo and is as comforting as grandfather’s presence. “Mexican food, it’s got a long heritage,” says Cortes.

Hopefully Coyoacan Social will get to showcase that heritage for a long time – with that taco-donating tally surging higher and higher as it does.