The Greatest Tacos Ever Sold
They’re wrapped in yellow-corn or white-flour tortillas. They’re filled with beef, chicken, pork—even octopus. They’re topped with everything from fresh tomatoes to jalapeño relish. But of the hundreds of combinations we tasted, only one could rank as the best in the state. Are you ready to get your picadillo on?
julie says: take this article down.. It’s old and some restaurants are gone! (October 24th, 2010 at 10:55pm)
(Page 2 of 6)
8. Carne Asada Gringa
Taquitos El Güero | San Antonio
Who says you need hundreds of thousands of dollars to open a restaurant? You can start one with a concrete slab, a canvas carport roof, some recycled fast-food tables, and a trailer. Taquitos El Güero, otherwise known as “that taco truck on Commerce,” has further spiffed itself up with banners and Christmas lights. In the tiny kitchen excellent basic tacos emerge from the griddle on either fine flour tortillas or mini corn tortillas. They are all juicy and appealing, but choose the carne asada gringa, translated loosely as “Americanized.” Filled with grilled beef that has been chopped and assertively seasoned, it’s capped with melted white cheese on a warm flour tortilla. A dollop of sour cream comes on the side. If the weather cooperates, there’s no more agreeable, and less pretentious, outdoor dining, as you watch the traffic zip by and listen to soulful Mexican ballads on the radio. 3016 W. Commerce, 210-431-5468. Open Tue—Thur 1—midnight, Fri & Sat 1—12:30. Closed Sun & Mon.
9. Pork al Pastor
Curra’s Grill | Austin
The cooked pork is sliced thin and heated on the griddle, like breakfast ham, so it has a little crispy thing going on. The homemade white- or red-corn tortilla is thick and soft. The requisite pineapple chunks have been warmed and lightly caramelized. Topping off the compelling creation is a judicious sprinkle of white onion and cilantro, with avocado-tomatillo salsa on the side. As you lift the marvel mouthward, savory juices from the meat and fruit mingle and start to run. Careful, or you’ll be mopping your shirt with paper napkins—not that the crowds at this converted convenience store would notice or care. They’re too busy catching the latest Austin band or film fest or discussing how South Congress is (1) so great or (2) so over. 614 E. Oltorf, 512-444-0012 (multiple locations). Open Sun—Thur 7—10, Fri & Sat 7—11.
10. Six-Pack Combo
Tacos Santa Cecilia and Ay Cocula | El Paso
These two places share the same owner and menu, but the locations couldn’t be more different. Santa Cecilia occupies a no-frills concrete building resembling a fifties burger joint inside and a fifties fallout shelter outside, while Ay Cocula is in a bright, spacious room painted red and yellow with a tiled bar. It’s virtually impossible to tell the food apart, though. “Six-packs” offer half a dozen mini-tacos in a choice of two meats: pastor (chile-spiked, smoky pork lightly charred on a rotating spit) and carbón (beef hinting of a soy sauce marinade and cooked, like the pork, over mesquite). They come on small, soft corn tortillas generously garnished with half an avocado, a radish or two, and grilled onions and jalapeños on the side. Tacos Santa Cecilia: 5500 El Paso Dr., 915-772-3435. Open Mon—Fri 8—10, Sat & Sun 7—11. Ay Cocula: 1435 Lee Trevino Dr., 915-593-3117. Open daily 7—11.
11. Chicken Campesinos
La Fogata | San Antonio
You must eat outside here, even in the winter, when they roll down the plastic sheeting, turn on the heaters, and convert summer’s open-air terraces into cozy cold-weather retreats. Mountain laurels and planters of ivy can seem almost exotic if mariachis are playing their hearts out for somebody’s birthday or anniversary. Given the upscale neighborhood, the tacos are appropriately gussied up, but it’s all that extra stuff that makes the tacos campesinos so good. The corn tortillas are crisped on the grill, spread with refried beans, then layered with well-seasoned chicken, white cheese, sour cream, and a little sprinkle of queso fresco. If you order a plate of three tacos, you also get a mix of cabbage, tomatoes, and avocado. Tuck them in too. The more the merrier. 2427 Vance Jackson, 210-340-1337. Open Mon—Thur 11—10, Fri 11—11, Sat 10—11, Sun 10—10.
12. Taco a la Ninfa
Ninfa’s | Houston
No, the late Ninfa Laurenzo did not invent the taco al carbón. But that widowed-mom-turned-restaurateur certainly helped put the south-of-the-border version of a roast beef sandwich on every Houston diner’s culinary Hit Parade. A Taco a la Ninfa is simplicity itself: just fajitas wrapped in a flour tortilla. But the meat is so smokily succulent and the house-made tortilla is so pillowy that enlivening the combination with a splash of the table salsas (ruddy red and the famous creamy green) or a dose of the perky tomatillo salsa or the molten queso that comes with Mama Ninfa’s signature dish can seem akin to putting ketchup on filet mignon. 2704 Navigation Blvd., 713-228-1175. Open Sun—Thur 11—10, Fri & Sat 11—11.
13. Pork al Pastor
Fonda San Miguel | Austin
At Fonda San Miguel an order of tacos al pastor brings more than mere food. It brings you service with old-fashioned courtesy and the chance to relax in a room that is rich with original art, handcrafted pottery, and the feel of an ancient Mexican hacienda. Each of your four excellent, medium-sized homemade corn tortillas is filled with finely chopped, crisply grilled pork and nuggets of pineapple. Take your first bite sans salsa to appreciate how perfectly matched the two ingredients are. Then spoon on the two sauces provided: a sassy green avocado-and-tomatillo and a silky tomato-and-arbol-chile concoction, just hot enough to get your attention. 2330 W. North Loop Blvd., 512-459-4121. Open Mon—Thur 5:30—9:30, Fri & Sat 5:30—10:30, Sun 11—2.
14. El Norteño
Taco Taco | San Antonio
“This place looks like Austin,” said a friend. Well, maybe an Austin diner circa 1950. The look is very Anglo (white walls, orange swivel chairs at the abbreviated counter, and tiles with a frilly floral design). But the menu is pure Mexican, and among the plethora of tacos, the biggest and best is the norteño. This behemoth boasts a homemade flour tortilla nearly the size of an individual pizza. Said tortilla is grilled to a toasty finish and stuffed within an inch of its life with thickly sliced, reasonably tender beef fajita meat (the chicken is almost as good). Then it’s piled even higher with a layer of refried beans plus sliced avocado and bell pepper and melted white cheese. You won’t need to eat again for three days. 145 E. Hildebrand, 210-822-9533. Open daily 7—2.
15. Beef Fajita
Las Manitas | Austin
No marinade, not too much black pepper (a real no-no), no nonsense. The flavor of the smoky, salty beef and the quality of the soft homemade corn tortilla (you have to request it) raise this elemental taco far above its brethren. It comes with a skimpy amount of pico de gallo, so request more. Of course, the most important factor in all of this unpretentious cafe’s dishes is the extremely large helping of Latin soul that goes into everything they do. You’ll feel it in the buzz of conversation, in the time-honored custom of trekking through the kitchen to get to the patio, in the ever-changing displays of local art on the walls, and in the reassuring presence of co-owners (and sisters) Cynthia and Lydia Perez. They rule. 211 Congress Ave., 512-472-9357. Open Mon—Fri 7—4, Sat & Sun 7—2:30.
16. Beef Fajita
Mi Tierra | San Antonio
No Mexican restaurant in Texas has taken the fiesta motif to the stratosphere like Mi Tierra; the dining room looks as though a thousand sparklers are all going off at once, as foil banners, twinkling Christmas lights, and columns festooned with teeny sombreros, piñatas, and serapes transport you to a Mexican fairyland. The pleasant surprise is that the food is far better than you would expect, given the hordes of tourists in and out all day. Best bet: the beef fajita taco, derived not from traditional skirt steak but a more pliable, less sinewy cut of meat (by the way, the kitchen butchers its own beef). Grilled and wrapped in a homemade flour tortilla, the meaty strips are best if ladled judiciously with the roasted-cascabel-chile sauce, arguably the best of four offered. 218 Produce Row, 210-225-1262. Open 24 hours.
17. Barbacoa Mexicana
Tijuana Bar & Grill | Dallas
This hip, sassy newcomer to the Uptown scene provides diners with a blast of Latin American cuisine. The tiny fried appetizer tacos are tempting, but hold out for the Tasty Latino Tacos list. The stunner from this group is the barbacoa mexicana, superfine shreds of tender roasted beef cradled by a double layer of delicate white-corn tortillas. On top there’s a scattering of chopped onion and cilantro and a few crumbles of queso fresco; you add a squeeze of lime and a spoonful of the warm roasted-jalapeño salsa from a ramekin on your platter. Fluffy white rice and Cuban-style black beans fill out the plate. Jamaica agua fresca (a refreshing drink made from flor de Jamaica, or hibiscus petals) is the ideal complement, but a frozen prickly pear margarita couldn’t hurt. 4900 McKinney Ave., 214-443-9293. Open Sun—Wed 10:30— midnight, Thur—Sat 10:30 a.m.—2 a.m.
My Library
