diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 73b488e..ffa40b2 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 project(
   'opentitan', 'c', 'cpp',
   version: '0.1',
-  meson_version: '>=0.51.0', # Matches version in python-requirements.txt
+  meson_version: '>=0.53.0', # Matches version in python-requirements.txt
   default_options: [
     'c_std=c11',
     'build.c_std=c11',
diff --git a/python-requirements.txt b/python-requirements.txt
index 4e02949..167785f 100644
--- a/python-requirements.txt
+++ b/python-requirements.txt
@@ -10,11 +10,7 @@
 isort
 livereload
 mako
-# Meson 0.53.0 broke compatibility with Python 3.5.2, see
-# https://github.com/lowRISC/opentitan/issues/1288 for details.
-# Meson 0.54.0+ requires ninja 1.7+, which isn't available by default on
-# Ubuntu 16.04.
-meson >= 0.51.0, != 0.53.0, <0.54.0 # minimum matches version in meson.build
+meson >= 0.53.0, <= 0.54 # minimum matches version in meson.build
 mistletoe>=0.7.2
 premailer
 pyelftools