The 12 Best Tacos in LA

Javier Cabral is an LA-based journalist who has been writing about food professionally since he was a teen. At 21, he became a restaurant scout for legendary ‘Los Angeles Times’ restaurant critic Jonathan Gold. Now, Cabral is the editor of the James Beard Award–winning food and culture website L.A. TACO, a coauthor of a cookbook about Mexican grilling, and a taco curator for Netflix’s ‘Taco Chronicles.’ Whether you’re after tacos packed with mesquite–grilled asada or slow-cooked tripe, he’s your guy. So when in search of the very best tacos in LA, we turned to Cabral to put together a guide.

This is perhaps the most exciting time (dare I say ever?) to love tacos in LA. There are so many different styles being cooked across the city, from regional classics to vegan variations—but it wasn’t always like this. Over the 18 years that I’ve been writing about food in the city, I’ve seen the taco scene evolve from the same five tacos (asada, carnitas, tripa, al pastor, and chicken), to tacos that now represent hyper-regional approaches honoring places such as Puebla, Sinaloa, and Oaxaca, to name just a few. The best tacos in LA right now include rich, saucy goat birria, smoky, mesquite-grilled asada, and tender, slow-braised cabeza.

There are a couple of factors that make LA’s taco scene more robust than Texas’s, New York’s, or even San Francisco’s. The first is the city’s immigrant population. LA has such a rich and diverse population of people who have immigrated from all over Mexico. That makes for a huge amount of regional Mexican cooking, and also a hungry audience for all of those different regional cuisines. There’s a lot more space to grow as a Mexican regional restaurant here because there are entire communities that fuel demand for it. LA’s taco culture also benefits enormously from its proximity to Mexico, via Tijuana—chefs here source everything from ingredients to ceramics from Tijuana, helping to complete the dining experience. The closeness of the border means a lot of culinary influences flow back and forth between the cities, which are about two hours away from each other on a no-traffic day.

There are a few boxes to tick if you’re hoping to find a memorable taco in LA. Seeing some kind of marker of regional pride—the state emblem of Sinaloa on a taco truck, for instance—is always a good sign. That often indicates that taqueros care enough to not homogenize the food they’re serving. I also usually look for a sense of connection and loyalty between taqueros and their customers. In Mexico, service is particularly important, so when I see that a taquero and their customer have a rapport and a sense of mutual loyalty, that’s a sign that the tacos are good enough to come back for. 

Of course, tortillas are a huge part of what makes a taco great too. If taqueros can tell you where the tortillas are made, chances are they care enough about the final product to make a superb taco. Whether or not a shop makes its own agua fresca from scratch or uses concentrated syrups—rendering a watery version—also says a lot about a taquería’s general philosophy. If all else fails, there’s always the salsa test: Try a bit on the back of your hand to make sure it’s thick, flavorful, and not at all watered-down. 

Over many, many years of eating across this city, I’ve put all of the tacos on this list through their paces. These 12 (including a vegan option!) represent the best of regional Mexican cooking in LA. Some of them may be familiar, while others might be completely new to you, but rest assured: They’re all worth the trip.

Sonoratown

Downtown Los Angeles, multiple locations

If I had to choose one taco to best represent the LA taco scene, it would be from Sonoratown. The restaurant doesn’t have a traditional kitchen setup. Everything gets cooked over a mesquite grill, and instead of just using flap meat for asada, they use a unique rib cut that is extra juicy and crisp at the same time, as is customary in a lot of northern Mexican cuisines. Opened in 2016 by Teodoro Diaz-Rodriguez Jr. and Jennifer Feltham, this restaurant serves food in the style of San Luis Río Colorado, the small town in Sonora, Mexico, where Diaz-Rodriguez grew up. The region is famous for flour tortillas that are particularly thin. At Sonoratown, they’re made in-house, and they’re so paper-thin you can almost see through them. The cooks go through nearly 4,000 of those gorgeous tortillas each day between their Downtown and Mid-City locations.

The first bite of a Sonoratown taco feels different than any other taco in the city, because of those extra-thin, chewy flour tortillas. The meat inside has a slight crisp to it from the mesquite smoke. It’s deliciously delicate and a little fatty. Those big flavors are rounded out with a light, refreshing salsa and a bit of minced cabbage, which is the classic style of garnish in Mexico’s northern states—as opposed to onion and cilantro found pretty much everywhere else. Make sure you take a bite of the accompanying grilled green onion, which is customary in that part of Mexico to punctuate each bite of rich meat.

Order: The costilla asada taco, which features a very tender cut of rib. It’s spicy and meaty, and it’s best accompanied by the nondairy coconut horchata—the ideal way to wash down the smoky meat.

Mariscos Jalisco

Multiple locations

There have been times I’ve made myself late to meetings because I’ve been driving by the Mariscos Jalisco truck and couldn’t resist stopping in for one or two tacos, scarfing them down, and then moving on with my day. The truck—which Raul Ortega has run since 2002—is a great daytime spot for incredible tacos de camarón, or shrimp tacos. If you love seafood, this will probably become your next obsession.

No one outside of the kitchen knows exactly how the taco de camarón is made here—it’s a secret recipe. My theory is that it’s filled with chopped shrimp, onion, tomato, cilantro, and a soaked bread mixture, like a panade. But, of course, this is all conjecture. What I do know is that the filled taco is almost creamy inside, fried so the outside is extra crisp. Once pulled out of the oil, the corn tortilla takes on a crackly crispness, almost like a lumpia. It’s all topped with a slice of ripe avocado for a balanced, creamy, crunchy bite.

Order: The taco de camarón is the star of the show. I recently discovered you can customize these tacos, so I like to order them with one or two oysters on top for another wave of brininess.

Tire Shop Taquería

4077 Avalon Blvd, Los Angeles

This may very well be LA’s best nighttime taco spot. Tire Shop Taquería is spectacular because it truly feels like Tijuana. That feeling of “I’m not in Los Angeles” briefly overcomes you when you take a bite of these tacos, which are made Tijuana-style: with handmade corn tortillas, mesquite-grilled asada, and thick guacamole.

The stand is an extremely streamlined operation that sets up in a liquor store parking lot (not in the namesake tire shop anymore). There are about eight taqueros and taqueras making quesadillas and tacos in a long line. When waiting to order, a lot of people go into autopilot and order carne asada—it’s always going to be delicious, sure. But the cabeza taco is really the sleeper hit at Tire Shop. Cabeza means “head,” and you’ll be getting mostly cheek meat, with maybe a little bit of tongue as well.

The meat is slowly braised, and because there’s so much collagen in that particular cut, it’s very tender and melts in your mouth with each bite. Its flavor is best described as beefy, in a rich and unctuous way. In each bite, you’ll find a little nuttiness from the corn tortilla, buttery guacamole, and that wave of umami from the cabeza. It’s hard to screw up a cabeza taco, but when you have a particularly excellent one, you’ll know it. It’s a feeling I call taco euphoria.

Order: Whether you’ve never had a cabeza taco before or can’t get enough, Tire Shop Taquería’s version is the one to beat. Its asada, which is smoky and tender, also deserves an honorable mention.

Santa Cecilia Restaurant

1707 Mariachi Plz De Los, 1707 Pleasant Ave, Los Angeles

There comes a point in every taco-obsessed person’s life when they have to graduate from asada and carnitas and try some of the other meats out there. That means venturing into the world of offal. I understand that some view tripe as an acquired taste, but the tripe taco at Santa Cecilia is the perfect entry-level offal taco.

Santa Cecilia Restaurant, opened by Armando Salazar in 1995, is phenomenal for two reasons that go beyond the food: First, you can get there using public transportation (a blessing, because parking is tough in this area), and second, because it’s in Mariachi Plaza—an iconic fixture of the Boyle Heights neighborhood. The small restaurant serves incredible tacos out of a window on the plaza, where a lot of mariachi musicians hang out in their uniforms waiting to get work.

Tripe has to be cleaned very, very thoroughly, and a lot of places don’t do it with the same care and attention as Santa Cecilia. That well-prepped tripe is reflected in the final product, which is shatteringly crispy and accompanied by a beautifully thick salsa on a handmade corn tortilla. The tripe is aggressively fried so that it almost has the texture of chicharrón. It’s also intensely seasoned with cumin, chili powder, and other spices, such that it almost ends up tasting like a Flamin’ Hot Cheeto. There aren’t a ton of great tripa tacos out there, and this one might just ruin you for all other versions.

Order: The tripa doradita taco.

Taquería Juquilita

5944 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles

This taco spot consists of a few folding tables under tents, set up right in the center of Hollywood, outside the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Catch an outdoor showing of a classic movie at the outdoor theater Cinespia, have a couple of drinks with the picnic you brought, and, before you head home, stop by Taquería Juquilita for tacos.

The taqueros at Taquería Juquilita are all from a specific, unique region of Oaxaca. The area has produced most of the masterful taqueros that are behind LA’s best al pastor tacos—a style that might just be LA’s official taco; It feels like there is al pastor being cooked on every other corner in this beautiful city. As a refresher, al pastor is seasoned and marinated pork that is cut thin, layered, and roasted on a trompo (a vertical spit) along with a whole pineapple. 

This particular al pastor doesn’t have the same savory-sweet chorizo flavor a lot of people are used to. Instead, the typical mixture of adobo, chiles, and vinegar is adjusted to boost that bright acidic flavor. The taqueros marinate the pork before roasting it on a rotating trompo, and the final taco is finished with sliced pineapple for a really well-balanced sweet-and-savory combination. The meat, slightly crisped at the edges, then gets sliced directly onto the waiting corn tortilla to bring together those vinegary, spicy, and sweet flavors. The result is an al pastor that’s much lighter and more bracing than is typical.

Order: An al pastor taco. It’s a zingy, refreshing explosion of flavor. 

Birriería El Jalicience

3440 E Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles

When Spanish colonizers arrived in Mexico, they cast off goat to the indigenous Mexican people as a so-called “inferior meat,” but the indigenous people found a way to make it tasty. That eventually led to birria, which in Mexico is traditionally made with goat. In recent years, birria has exploded in the taco scene. It’s delicious, and since it’s often made with beef in the U.S., it’s cost-effective for restaurants. Plus, it’s fun to be able to dip your taco in a rich meaty sauce. Birria tacos generally consist of stewed beef, pork, or goat served in tortillas, alongside a rich broth for dipping.

Most birria is pretty tasty, but the goat birria at Birrieria El Jalicience is its own kind of special. This business consists of a few tents and tables set up on the sidewalk and opens up just one day a week, on Saturdays, at 8 a.m. They’re usually sold out by noon. If you want to try these tacos, you’ll have to make a point of stopping by early, but I promise, it’s worth the effort. The meat is accompanied by what could almost be mistaken for tomato soup. It has the unmistakable taste of smoky goat, which is rounded out by the savory flavor of roasted tomato.

I always order the birria de chivo plate, and you can usually choose between rib, neck, and back meat depending on what’s available. Ordering the plate means the meat, handmade tortillas, and broth come separately, which allows you the pleasure of building each bite. That’s the real birria experience—plus your hands smell like birria tacos for the rest of the day, which isn’t the worst thing in the world.

Order: A birria de chivo plate.

Tacos El Cachetón

Roving food truck

Tacos El Cachetón, a taco truck located in the parking lot of a gas station, is my favorite spot for tacos al vapor, which means steamed tacos. These are the kind of tacos you could eat every day if you wanted to. They’re made with steamed tortillas and steamed meat—that’s it. The meat breaks down under its own weight. These tacos aren’t necessarily a flavor bomb—but that’s what’s great about them; you can eat six or seven of them and still feel good afterward because they aren’t cooked with any added oil or fat.

No matter how many times I’ve tried to find out who the owners of this gem are, their staff always give me the runaround. What I do know is that the owners are from Nayarit, evident by the Huichol art—done by an indigenous group in Nayarit—adorning the food truck. You can inhale these tacos at one of the few picnic tables in the parking lot by the truck.

Tacos El Cachetón’s tacos al vapor are so satisfying thanks to the ingredients they use. Because these tacos consist of just a few elements, it’s crucial that each part of the taco is excellent: a really fresh, soft tortilla, high-quality meat, and a refreshingly light green salsa over the top. If you’re looking to add a little kick, you can spoon over a few slices of habanero. Grab an order of the tacos de labío, made with soft, tender beef lip. These tacos have a super straightforward beef flavor, and since the beef is steamed, the meat is buttery soft on the tortilla. When you’ve been eating tacos professionally for years, these are the ones you still want to eat every day.

Order: An order of tacos de labío.

Los Dorados LA

Roving food truck

No one in LA was making tacos quite like this before 2019 when Los Dorados founder Steven Orozco Torres found one niche that wasn’t saturated: crispy taquitos. These tacos are rolled up and fried until they are splintery crisp. Inside is a deeply smoky, satisfying barbacoa. Whereas a lot of barbacoa is made with beef—especially as the dish made its way to northern Mexico and Texas—the traditional barbacoa served at Los Dorados is made with slow-roasted, maguey-wrapped lamb, a style that’s a bit harder to find.

The meat at the edges of a taco at Los Dorados is almost like jerky since it gets fried and becomes crisp and brown—but inside, it’s still soft and tender. The taco is rolled up thin, topped with salsa borracha, and, finally, covered with some Cotija cheese to bring everything together. The salsa is part of what makes Los Dorados stand out. The name salsa borracha, or “drunken salsa,” comes from the use of beer in the mixture. The boozy note is subtle, but it has an intense charred flavor from the burnt chiles. It’s complex, lightly spicy, and the ideal complement to the smoky barbacoa.

Order: The tacos dorados de barbacoa. 

Taco Nazo

Multiple Locations

Taco Nazo is a small chain of five locations around LA, owned by the Romeros, the same family that founded the original food truck in 1978. They call themselves the pioneers of fish tacos, and they very well may be the ones who popularized fish tacos in LA. And they’re still kings of the game. Taco Nazo goes above and beyond to source high-quality fish while keeping prices reasonable.

A lot of restaurants in LA that serve fish tacos use tilapia because it’s cheap, but tilapia has a very fishy flavor. Instead, Taco Nazo uses wild-caught cod—a lighter, fresher-tasting fish. In a taco with just a few ingredients, that makes all the difference. The cooks here batter filets of cod and fry them to a crackly-crunchy texture. The tacos are topped with a thinned-down cream-mayonnaise blend, minced cabbage, and salsa fresca. If you’re feeling spicy, you can opt for the chipotle mayo to finish it off.

Beyond the superb tacos, I love this spot because it’s a bona fide community hang. You'll see entire families celebrating birthdays, firefighters on break, and other working residents of southeast Los Angeles coming to eat. It’s always full and lively, and the line moves quickly. Yes, it’s a bit of a drive from central LA, but it’s a great place to taste LA’s fish taco history for yourself—and grab a cold Mexican beer on tap while you’re at it.

Order: A big plate of fish tacos is my go-to order; if you like shrimp, the fried shrimp taco is great too

Guerrilla Tacos

2000 E 7th St, Los Angeles

There’s a time and place for what I call “date night tacos,” or tacos featuring what some might consider untraditional, conversation-starting ingredients—Guerilla Tacos exemplifies the genre. In fact, the business ushered in a new era of tacos in LA, one that breaks tradition while remaining crave-worthy

The sweet potato taco here reinvented the wheel—taking the classic fried potato taco to the next level. The sweet potatoes are crisped, topped with a creamy, salty feta, and finished off with an almond salsa—almost like a thicker, spicier romesco. It’s complex, rich, and filling. People might be used to tacos under $5 a pop, but this $8 taco justifies its price tag. Other options like the fall apart-tender pork belly taco, topped with sour-sweet tamarind salsa, cleanly acidic gooseberry salsa, and bright serranos round out the thoughtful menu at Guerilla Tacos.

Wes Avila opened Guerilla Tacos as a stand in 2012. It evolved into a taco truck, and now it’s a counter that also serves a long and creative list of craft cocktails. Avila has worked in well-regarded kitchens, like L’Auberge Carmel and Le Comptoir, and at Guerrilla Tacos, he changed the game in terms of charging higher prices and demanding respect for taco culture. As he told me in 2018, the perceived value of a dish changes dramatically based on its context. No one bats an eye at sky-high prices in a French restaurant, but a $5 taco is the end of the world—even if it’s made with the same high-quality ingredients from the same purveyors. Trust me, these tacos are worth every dollar.

Order: The sweet potato taco.

Tacos La Carreta

3401 E 69th St, Long Beach

Trust me when I say these tacos are worth the drive to perhaps the most industrial area of North Long Beach. Remember: Even if you live an hour away, getting here is still cheaper and faster than actually flying to Mexico—and the tacos are just as good!

José Morales Jr.’s family comes from El Verde Concordia, Sinaloa, and has been rolling this taco truck through LA since 2020, serving Sinaloa-style tacos, which I think will become the next great taco trend in LA alongside birria and Tijuana-style. The tacos of El Verde are similar to those of Sonora—this style starts with a flour tortilla, which gets topped with mesquite-grilled meat, finely minced cabbage, a light salsa, and thin guacamole.

The torito de asada here is really special. Special enough that it won LA Taco’s extremely competitive Best in Show trophy at our annual Taco Madness taco competition. A flour tortilla comes together with melted cheese, roasted Anaheim chiles, and mesquite-grilled carne asada. The meat is smoky and just slightly charred from the mesquite, and the chiles are spicy and just a bit chewy. Wash it all down with sips of horchata made with toasty roasted barley. There aren’t any tables or chairs set up outside the food truck, so you’ll have to eat these tacos sitting on the hood of your car.

Order: The torito de asada.

El Cocinero

6265 Sepulveda Blvd Unit 12, Van Nuys

Jalisco-born Alex Vargas, the owner of El Cocinero, became vegan in 2014, which eventually led him to open the first vegan Mexican restaurant in the San Fernando Valley. He wanted to retain the rich, soulful flavors of the cooking he loves, but without meat products. To do so, he uses mostly old-school soy alternatives, as opposed to some newer non-meats like Impossible or Beyond. He gives these proteins a heavy fry and an intense seasoning until they take on the texture and flavor he’s after.

Though Vargas doesn’t use animal products, the flavors in his food are no less intricate. His green and red salsas have deep, layered flavors and just the right amount of heat. Everything is delicious, but I’m particularly impressed with the vegan chicharrón taco. Chicharrón is typically made by frying pork rinds, and, when they’re used in tacos, they’re stewed which can make them a bit spongy. At El Cocinero, Vargas has somehow gotten around that textural issue to create a vegan chicharrón taco with an amazing crunch. It’s made with soy curls that are fried until they’re airy and puffed up. It has those satisfying, umami-forward flavors of true chicharrón—But I think I prefer the vegan version.

Order: The vegan chicharrón taco.