America's 75 Best Tacos For 2016

Take a peek behind the counter at this two-year-old Dallas taquería and you'll spy a spinning stack of pork on the trompo (vertical spit) right near the grill, tended to by owner Luis Villalva's sister Vanessa.

Find more details on El Come Taco here.

Order this al pastor and she'll slice some deep-red, caramelized pork right off of the spit and into a tortilla and top it with some onions and cilantro. You'll be asked if you'd also like some grilled pineapple on top. Say yes. 

The Eastern Europeans who dominated the area surrounding Maxwell Street in Chicago from the 1880s to the 1920s are credited for turning the original open-air market into the bustling hub it is today.

Find more details on Rubi's here.

The market has moved to a new location, but it remains a center for food and goods vendors to hawk their wares. Rubi's At Maxwell Street Market is ranked No. 4 on Foursquare for tacos in the South Loop, and their huitlacoche probably has a lot to do with that. Huitlacoche, also known as corn smut, is really a fungus, but we like to think of it as corn cheese, or perhaps even corn truffle.  It's a Mexican delicacy that tastes a bit like mushrooms, and Rubi's gets major authenticity points for helping to make it a widely known and appreciated food in Chicago.

Since Carnitas Uruapan opened in 1975, chef and owner "El Güero" Carbajal has undertaken the mission of introducing "the authentic carnitas of his hometown of Uruapan to Chicagoans."

Find more details on Carnitas Uruapan here.

We think he can count his mission accomplished, as his carnitas taco is one of the best in the business. The pork is slow-cooked for over two hours and then loaded into a flour tortilla. Feel free to garnish it with pico de gallo, although there's really no need. Bonus tip: you can order a pound of the carnitas to take home, which you should absolutely do.

Serving Dallas since 1973, Gonzalez offers authentic Tex-Mex fare, and makes many of their products in-house, including the bread and tortillas.

Find more details on Gonzalez here.

Go with the crispy beef tacos with salsa fresca — the subtle play between the fresh tomatoes and onions and the crispy taco shell is certain to please your taste buds.

With six locations around Los Angeles, Loteria Grill is a bit of an LA institution, and the one in Hollywood holds the reputation as the best of the lot.

Find more details on Loteria Grill here.

Many repeat customers will encourage you to order the taco platter, but if we had to pick just one variety, we'd go with the carne deshebrada: braised shredded beef, cilantro, guacamole, onions, and salsa roja.

We think one of Good 2 Go's "Paris Texas" tacos is a meal unto themselves, and just because they include eggs doesn't mean you can't enjoy them any time of day (well, at least until 3 p.m., when Good 2 Go closes).

Find more details on Good 2 Go here.

First, spinach is layered over a tortilla that has been placed in a plastic basket with a sheet of tin foil, and in goes grilled hanger steak, scrambled eggs, and cubed and roasted potatoes, which is then all topped with grated cheese and a thick layer of charred tomato hollandaise (the Paris part). 

The trio of Jon Shook, Vinny Dotolo, and Ludo Lefebvre (the same guys behind the insanely popular Trois Mec and Petit Trois) have turned their attention to French-Mexican hybrid cuisine for their third outing, casual brunch spot Trois Familia, with stellar results.

Find more details on Trois Familia here.

A sleeper hit of the menu are the double-decker potato tacos: A soft flour tortilla and a hard-shell corn tortilla barely contain a heaping pile of soft and flavorful potato mash, crème fraîche, lime, and pico de gallo kicked up by some shredded carrot. Not only is it a great taco, it's one of L.A.'s best new vegetarian dishes. 

Neighbor to the south San Diego tends to be recognized as the mecca of fish tacos, but L.A. has some fine takes on this specialty of its own.

Find more details on CaCao here.

One excellent example: the fish taco de Ensenada at CaCao Mexicatessen, which comprises a fresh, handmade corn tortilla; Alesmith Nut Brown beer-battered and fried red snapper; cabbage; lime aïoli; and pico de gallo. Those who are gluten-concerned or simply have an aversion to fried fish can ask them to pan-sear the snapper instead.

Located in an unassuming Barrio Logan back alley, Las Cuatro Milpas has been serving some of San Diego's best tacos since 1933.

Find more details on Las Cuatro Milpas here.

Order up front, grab your table in the middle, and watch tortillas being made in the back. With the tortillas deep-fried to order, these crunchy tacos are filled with beef, chicken, or pork, but opt for the shredded pork, topped with lettuce and tangy, crumbled goat cheese. The hot sauce — which is made by simmering chiles and spices in lard — isn't for the spice-averse, but is addictively good. 

Credited as a cornerstone of the up-and-coming Mixson District in Charleston, Básico is known for its quietly beautiful setting and food — it's a great place for locals to decompress with first-rate margaritas and coconut mojitos.

Find more details on Básico here.

We suggest ordering their buttermilk-fried chicken tacos to accompany your cocktail. With cilantro, pickled jicama, spicy aïoli, and queso fresco, they're a great example of American Southern-Mexican fusion done just right.

Meat is the focus at Los Cinco Puntos, who, according to their website, "strive to correct the Americanized image of ground-beef tacos by marinating, braising, and frying a trove of traditional Mexican meats."

Find more details on Los Cinco Puntos here.

We think they're hitting their target, particularly with their carnitas tacos, which are topped with jalapeños and, for an additional 25 cents, with perfectly chunky guacamole.

What began as a modest street cart in Queens turned into a fleet of trucks and a Lower East Side brick-and-mortar establishment in 2013. 

Find more details on Tacos Morelos here.

Tacos Morelos has been embraced by local Mexican food enthusiasts with open arms and grateful exclamations that the search for authentic Mexican food in New York has come to an end. They offer no less than a dozen possible fillings, but our vote goes to the chorizo taco: it's served with cilantro, guacamole, and chopped onions.

Graciela Chavez and her crew make their own Mexican pastries and flour and corn tortillas, offer all the Mexican standards at low prices (the $1.35 breakfast burritos have a loyal local following), and serve classic menudo and caldo de res (beef soup) on weekends.

Find more details on La Ranchera here.

No wonder La Ranchera has been called this West Texas town's best Mexican restaurant. Enhance some of those (corn) tortillas with nothing more than a generous portion of tender, perfectly seasoned beef tongue and some onions and cilantro — simplicity itself — with rice and beans on the side, and you're all set, with change for a tenner in your pocket.

This tiny restaurant in an off-the-beaten-path location serves some of the finest tacos in Chicago.

Find more details on La Lagartija here.

The al pastor has won high praises, but the real standout here is the shrimp taco. The shrimp gets a light batter and fry that leaves it crispy, juicy, succulent, and not greasy at all. Topped with a creamy sauce and tucked into a house-made tortilla, this taco might just make you think you've been teleported to Mexico City. 

My Ceviche is a fast-casual seafood spot that's become a Miami standby, with five locations throughout the city.

Find more details on My Ceviche here.

Ceviche (made with your choice of three types of seafood and in six styles), burritos, bowls, and salads are all solid options, but don't miss the tacos, which are available with fish, shrimp, octopus, chicken, or raw tuna. It may be unexpected, but raw tuna is the way to go: It's chopped into tiny pieces and piled into a corn or flour tortilla with a bright combo of pickled red onions, julienned matchsticks, shredded queso fresco, and cilantro; we suggest you ask for some sliced avocado on top as well. 

Guisados has become an essential Los Angeles taquería, even though it's only been open for a few years.

Click here for more details on Guisados.

It currently has three locations, but the original is located in the heart of Boyle Heights and run by three generations of the De La Torre family, and these folks know what they're doing, right down to the homemade tortillas. The cochinita pibil is a thing of beauty: Pork shoulder is marinated overnight in a citrus-heavy mixture, and then simmered for nearly four hours before being shredded. Served with pickled onions, fresh cilantro, and as much habanero salsa as you can handle, it's a true masterpiece.

When the name of the restaurant contains both "octopus" and "seafood," you know that the octopus served there is going to be good, and this hidden-in-plain-sight San Diego gem is a winner.

Click here for more details on Mariscos El Pulpo.

There are three octopus tacos on the menu: one with the octopus sautéed in garlic butter (mojo de ajo), one in a house chili sauce (enchilada), and the third in a garlic and ancho chile butter (ajillo). Go for the ajillo; tender chunks of octopus are slathered in the most flavorful butter imaginable, topped with a sprinkling of cilantro and onion. If you weren't a fan of octopus before trying this, you will be once you do.

Ethnic eats abound on the Buford Highway, and this 24-hour Mexican diner doesn't disappoint.

Click here for more details on El Rey Del Taco.

Made-to-order tortillas come filled with exotic options like tongue, tripe, and pork stomach, but don't be afraid of the cabeza, or beef cheek, which is meltingly tender. Shredded and topped with some cilantro and onion (and roasted onions if you ask for them), these things are groan-inducing-ly good. 

Formerly known as Tacos Atoyac, this beloved Phoenix taquería closed down with no notice a couple years back and reopened nearly a month later with a new name, and thankfully the same menu.

Click here for more details on  Restaurant Atoyac Estilo Oaxaca.

While the standard lineup of meats are all spectacular (even the tripas, or intestines, are good), the fish taco is the way to go. Flaky white fish is fried until golden brown and crispy, topped with shredded cabbage and a flavorful chipotle sauce. Roasted onions and jalapeños are offered for free on the side; you're going to want to say yes to those. 

This San Francisco gem has four locations, and its success lies in fresh ingredients and an eye toward authenticity. T

Click here for more details on Tacolicious.

heir bistec adobado is a work of art: Flank steak gets a heady three-chile adobo marinade before being grilled to medium-rare and piled onto a fresh tortilla with a handful of pickled onions. A taco this good should cost far more than $3.95. 

Every Tuesday and Friday, you can get the fish tacos as the daily special at New York Bakery in Manhattan's NoMad neighborhood.

Click here for more details on New York Bakery.

The Korean couple who own the second-floor eatery speak fluent Spanish to customers who prefer to a hablar español, and offer a diverse menu of Mexican stand-bys, some with a Korean twist. The chicken quesadilla is a crowd pleaser, but the absolute favorite is the fish taco, with pieces of battered and fried fish, cilantro, onions, green sauce, and thin slices of avocado.

Pinche Taquería, now known as Tacos Tequila Whiskey because "pinche" isn't fit to translate on a family website (it's something you'd say when you're moved by extreme emotion), was originally a taco truck, and the name of the shop still harkens a bit of street attitude:. Given how good the restaurant's pork belly "Agridulce" is, you too may be emotionally moved.

Click here for more details on Tacos Tequila Whiskey.

Chef Kevin Morrison has put a modern twist on Mexican street food, serving a sweet-and-sour-braised pork belly with candied garlic, cabbage and cilantro slaw, and a nuanced braising jus to add extra flavor and moisture.

Cemitas (sandwiches on a sesame seed roll with meat, avocado, Oaxaca cheese, and chipotle sauce) may be the claim to fame at this beloved Chicago standby specializing in the cuisine of Puebla, but the tacos are definitely not to be ignored, especially the tacos arabe.

Click here for more details on Cemitas Puebla.

A Pueblan specialty, this falls somewhere between Lebanese-style shawarma and Mexico City's al pastor; pork is piled onto a tall spit and slowly roasted until crisped and caramelized, and it's sliced directly into a fresh flour tortilla. While it's deeply flavorful on its own, don't resist the opportunity to top it with the house-made salsa verde, salsa rojo, or chipotle salsa. 

Walk all the way to the back of an average-looking bodega in the bustling West Side neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, and you'll find yourself in a taco paradise. Opened in 2001, Miguel Fuentes' Tehuitzingo has become renowned for its high-quality tacos, with options for more adventurous eaters like tongue, pork tripe, pork skin, and pig ears as well as classics such as carne enchilada, chicken, chorizo, goat barbacoa, and Eric Ripert's favorite, carnitas.

Click here for more details on Tehuitzingo.

Our panel of experts urges us to try the suadero, which is fried beef cut from between the belly and the leg, heaped into a corn tortilla and topped with cilantro, onions, and your choice of green or red salsa.

Wicker Park's Big Star, from Chicago superstar chef Paul Kahan (of Publican fame) and chef de cuisine Julie Warpinski, combines Mexican street food with a honky-tonk atmosphere, and the results are phenomenal.

Click here for more details on Big Star.

The menu is small but brilliant: six tacos (plus a corn chip-based "walking taco"), queso fundido, chips and guacamole, and $3 whiskey shots to wash it all down, all prepared with the expert precision of a world-class chef. The taco al pastor is the first item on the menu and the one to order: Pork shoulder is spit-roasted and sliced off to order, and served with grilled pineapple, grilled onion, and cilantro. It's smoky, small enough to eat (more than) a few, and astoundingly delicious, especially after a couple of Big Star Margaritas. You might have to line up to get in, but you'll be glad you did.

If you're looking for a classic taquería experience in Las Vegas, you're going to need to abandon The Strip and head to Taco y Taco, which has locations on East Tropicana Avenue and South Eastern Avenue.

Click here for more details on Taco y Taco.

Opt for the al pastor and pork will be sliced from a giant rotating spit and deposited directly onto the flat top for some extra caramelization. Piled into a tortilla with onions, cilantro, and chopped pineapple with an elote (ear of corn) on the side, it's the perfect distraction for the glitz and glamor of The Strip. 

The carne adovada at the James Beard Award-winning Mary & Tito's Café in Albuquerque is nothing short of legendary, and has been for decades (since 1963, to be exact).

Find more details on Mary & Tito's here. 

The secret to that success? Two words: red chile. The fiery sauce, made simply from ground dried whole chiles, salt, and garlic, tops everything from eggs to chile rellenos, but the carne adovada, juicy and tender marinated and slow-baked pork, is the way to go. If a great taco requires perfection in all of its elements, then the carne adovada at Mary and Tito's, heaped into a fresh corn tortilla, is undeniably world-class.

A go-to Mexican restaurant for Austinites since 1952, Matt's, which advertises itself as having the "Best Mexican Food in the World — Always Good," is a big place with a big menu.

Find more details on Matt's here.

Dishes like the smoked duck enchiladas, the grilled shrimp with bean and cheese flautas, and even the chicken-fried steak ("cowboy-style" with chili) have their loyal fans, but the tacos are terrific. The al carbón version offers grilled beef tenderloin pieces wrapped in flour tortillas, with guacamole, rice, beans, chile con queso, and pico de gallo on the side, adding up to a serious meal.

At Torchy's, which has locations throughout Texas (centered in Austin, Dallas, and Houston), owner Michael Rypka has created tortilla-bound concoctions that are nothing short of devilish, and made fresh every day.

Find more details on Torchy's here. 

There's the Brush Fire (Jamaican jerk chicken, grilled jalapeños, and mango), the Dirty Sanchez (scrambled eggs with fried poblano chile, guacamole, escabeche carrots, and shredded cheese) and The Republican (grilled jalapeño sausage with shredded cheese and pico de gallo), but the wildest and most delicious creation on the menu is the Trailer Park, a massive battered and fried hunk of chicken breast, topped with sautéed green chiles, lettuce, pico de gallo, and shredded mixed cheese on a flour tortilla from El Milagro, topped with poblano sauce. If you prefer to "get it trashy," they'll remove the lettuce and replace it with cheese sauce. And who needs lettuce when cheese sauce is an option?

ABC Cocina is a partnership between ABC Carpet & Home and Michelin-starred chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten that highlights both the chef's and the store's commitment to conscious sourcing, and this means that are some really tasty high-end tacos.

Find more on ABC Cocina here.

Available only on the dinner menu, these tacos consist of tortillas filled with glazed short rib, frizzled onion, and habanero relish. 

The best way to explain how Chico's serves one of America's best tacos is to say how improbably bad this small chain and its fare appear at first.

Find more details on Chico's here.

Signs outside the drab, unimpressive buildings give no indication of its signature dish: three rolled "tacos" containing ground beef covered in finely shredded cheese, all soaked in translucent red "salsa" in a white cardboard boat and topped with jalapeño salsa. Take the cheese, which is so finely shredded you could swear you see powder. But something happens with that first bite. The "flautas" are crunchy, but soaked in the salsa, the crispness begins to give. And though it's more like a thin broth, there's surprisingly good flavor. The heat of the broth melts the cheese, turning it into a soupy mess of flavor punched up by the heat of the jalapeño sauce. There's a hot, dip-with-every-bite experience, and no need for plastic utensils. You pick one up, bite, dip, and bite again until they're gone and you're left with a quarter-inch of cheese and sauce that begs drinking.

Henry's may not be able to verify their authorship of the term "puffy tacos," but they do claim to be the "home of the original 'Puffy Tacos' in San Antonio since 1978."

Find more details on Henry's here. 

Whether they invented the genre and the name (Ray's Drive Inn claims the latter honor) or not, Henry's is an iconic spot for San Antonio's signature dish (one that has since spread significantly beyond San Antone to Dallas and Austin). Henry (who actually grew up in California) is retired, but his legacy continues at the family's friendly, eponymous strip mall restaurant run by his sons Rick, Robert, and Jaime and their sister Imelda Lopez-Sanchez. The famed tortillas are made in-house and fried so that they puff out, creating a fun way to eat what otherwise is a relatively conventional Tex-Mex taco. The puffy tortilla shell is filled with the meat of your choice (spicy beef fajita is the most popular), then topped with shredded iceberg lettuce, grated cheese, sour cream, and guacamole. With truly great puffy tacos, the shell shatters a little, adding textural variation to each bite, and that's exactly what happens here.

Locals and visitors alike fill this big, boisterous, absolutely dependable Tex-Mex restaurant and bakery — bedecked with Christmas lights and open 24 hours a day — for fajita platters, enchiladas, quesadillas, and more (including first-rate menudo for breakfast), but the flour-tortilla tacos are possibly the best in town — especially the ones filled with carnitas Michoacán: perfectly fried pieces of pork marinated in orange juice and spices, and presented with guacamole, pico de gallo, and beans.

Click here for more details on Mi Tierra.

Since the turn of the millennium, Durham has experienced a boom in the size of its Hispanic community, and helping to give the city's new residents a taste of home is Tacos La Vaquita.

Click here for more details on Tacos La Vaquita.

There's a whole lot to love about their menu, but make sure to order the barbacoa taco. It's composed of flavored beef with chopped onions, cilantro, radish, and green or red sauce, all rolled into a handmade corn tortilla.

At Chicago's family-run Birrieria Zaragoza, goat is the name of the game.

Click here for more details on Birrieria Zaragoza. 

Namely, the roasted goat taco, or birria tatemada, based on a recipe that's more than 100 years old. The goat is steamed for around five hours, then rubbed with an ancho chile-based red mole sauce before being roasted and served on house-made corn tortillas with fresh condiments, including onion, cilantro, red salsa, and roasted chiles. You can request any part of the goat you like, but we suggest you go with the pistola, or shank. It's juicy, tender, and full of flavor, a bite worth seeking out if you're even a passing fan of falling-off-the-bone meat. And who isn't?

Mariscos German's version is the quintessential San Diego fried fish taco: generous in size and filled with grated cabbage and fresh, battered pieces of fish fried to golden brown perfection, topped with a creamy sauce.

Click here for more details on Mariscos German.

If you're really hungry, order the Baha Trio — one fried fish taco, one marlin taco, and one shrimp taco — and wash it all down with a cheap can of beer or some coconut juice sipped right out of the coconut.

Santa Fe loves the green chiles from Hatch, down in the southern part of New Mexico, and their nearly supernatural ability to pair perfectly with just about any type of food you can think of.

Click here for more details on The Shed. 

At The Shed, in business since 1953, the chiles are grown especially for the restaurant and brought in fresh daily, then processed on-site. One of the best applications of this spicy green sauce that you'll find in the city is on the restaurant's taco plate: two fresh blue corn tortillas with baked chicken topped with green chile, Cheddar cheese, onion, lettuce, and tomato. The chicken is perfectly cooked, but the chile is the real star of the show (as is the stellar posole that comes with it).

When it comes to leaders of a culinary genre, there are few restaurants in America with greater gravitas for their respective focus than San Francisco's La Taqueria has for tacos.

Click here for more details on La Taqueria.

That gives it, and its tacos (carnitas among them, quite arguably the best), quite a heavy reputation to live up to. La Taqueria, just one of the Mission's many casual Mexican joints, does Mexican the way they should be done: fresh. As if the amazing rice-free burritos weren't enough (you'd never notice its absence), there are the tacos.  To prepare the carnitas, chef/owner Miguel Jara slow-cooks chunks of pork shoulder in cauldrons of bubbling lard until tender, then roasts it until it's crispy. When it's tucked into a double layer of corn tortillas and topped with your choice of pinto beans, onions, pico de gallo, cheese, crema, or guacamole (or none of the above), there's no better taco in America.