LA's Best Tacos Come From North Africa, Apparently

The annual Taco Madness tournament over at food and art blog L.A. Taco always draws a riled-up crowd of voters, but this year's surprise ending could lead to even more good-natured yelling and finger-pointing than usual. In a surprise upset for the City of Angels, the as-voted-on winner of the yearly tournament is none other than Revolutionario North African Tacos.

Run by longtime chef Farid Zadi — first as a rambling pop-up series and more recently as a small storefront off Jefferson — Revolutionario is a far cry from what diehard taco fans might expect. There's no carne asada, no al pastor, and no carnitas on the menu, but rather a collection of cross-border favorites like a chicken tagine or shakshouka.

The runner-up this year is perennial favorite Mariscos Jalisco, the fried shrimp taco vendor that's long been known as one of the best trucks in all of Los Angeles (and, by extension, America). Others, like Ricky's Fish Taco, Carnitas El Momo, and Guerrilla Tacos slowly fell by the wayside as voting took place in stages, starting at the end of March.

So what does the win mean for Zadi and his team? Not much, really, though he'd surely welcome the boost in sales to his South L.A. shop. Mostly the chef has been hard at work keeping that place running smoothly while simultaneously jumping onboard a new project up in Malibu that's set to open sometime soon.