The story of Mexico City-style al pastor has been written by a small group of indigenous Mihe entrepreneurs from Oaxaca like Fermin Martinez, whose trompos stretch from the San Fernando Valley, to San Bernardino County, to Torrance. Multiple locations serve tender al pastor in a sweet adobo that’s best enjoyed in a plate of tacos, gringas, with melted cheese inside a flour tortillas, or alambres — a stirfry of cheese, peppers, onions, ham, and al pastor that comes with a stack of corn tortillas.

Teddy Vasquez is making good on his dream to put a delicious taco into as many LA hands as possible. His outlet in Venice sits just by the beach in a prime location, and serves up the same delicious birria de res, or simmered beef, tacos with signature bright red consomme as his Slauson truck original.

For barbacoyero Gonzalo Ramírez, there’s only one way to make barbacoa, the recipe he learned from his grandfather in Atotonilco El Grande, Hidalgo. Ramírez raises his own lambs, butchers them, roasts large lamb cuts in a cylindrical pit wrapped in maguey spines, and then serves smoky, tender lamb barbacoa tacos across from the DMV in Arleta on Sunday mornings only. Order a mix of barbacoa; well-herbed, stewed moronga (blood sausage); and pancita (offal stuffed stomach), and Ramírez’s earthy consomé, a stock made from the lamb drippings that taste like the smoldering essence of the pit.

Connie Cossio’s Nayarit-style seafood mecca is known for tacos de marlin, yet, the pescado zarandeado tacos have always been the showstopper at its two locations, where grilled, plump snook imported from Mexico are always cooked to perfection. Grab a corn tortilla, tear slippery chunks of fatty, marinated flesh from the whole, butterflied fish, then add the house dressing of purple onions pickled in lime and Worcestershire sauce. The result is a blackened fish taco that melts in your mouth. Paired with an icy michelada, and you’re transported to a balmy, beach escape to San Blas, Mexcaltitán, or Playa Novillero.

Maria Ramos is a third-generation Oaxacan barbacoa master with deep roots in the Mercado de Tlacolula in Oaxaca. Her barbacoa enchilada, or pit-roasted lamb in a chile-based marinade, is a smoky, spicy taste of pre-Hispanic tacos de barbacoa. In a city full of Oaxacan restaurants, Gish Bac is the best restaurant in its class for its esteemed barbacoa and traditional Oaxacan cookery. 

LA doesn’t have many restaurants representing the Yucatán peninsula, but the Burgos family has been delivering the (baked) goods since 1971. Order a taco de relleno negro, where shredded turkey is cooking in a black achiote paste contrasted by pickled red onions and a creamy guacamole. Chasing each bite with a whole raw habanero is conventional, but for humanity’s sake, optional.

One of LA’s most celebrated contemporary Mexican seafood stands, created by chef Gilberto Cetina Jr., who also runs the contiguous counter, and Yucatán-cuisine institution, Chichen Itza, located inside the Mercado La Paloma complex. Holbox is a real destination for seafood tacos, like delicately smoked kanpachi tacos; grilled Maine scallop tacos with bright, spicy chile x’catic; or grilled octopus in a briny bed of squid ink sofrito.

The al pastor here is worthy to be among the top vendors in town, but where this food truck sets itself apart from others in its grade is by serving true suadero, or brisket tacos. Tacos de fritanga, or meats fried in a stainless steel disc with a convex center are mostly supplied by Jaliscans, who don’t get into as much offal as their CDMX (Mexico City) counterparts, but one can still find chorizo, hog’s maw, chitterlings, and brisket.

There’s no room for nostalgia here, but these legendary taquitos aren’t just the original taco in Los Angeles. They’re solely responsible for the current taco craze in America, and they’re delicious. Order deep fried beef taquitos drowned in a runny avocado salsa oozing with a piquant beefiness thickened with avocado. It’s like being one with the taco universe. Since 1934, the story of the taco north of the Rio Grande begins and ends here. 

Steven Orozco Torres’s flautas (deep fried tacos) are as colorful as his ice cream truck, splashed in kaleidoscope of purples and blues. The flautas are colorful too, with golden crunchy pipettes filled with smoky chicken tinga, potato and chorizo, or potato. The tacos are dressed in thick avocado sauce, cream, and a thin line of red salsa, coated in finely-crumbled cotija cheese. But the lamb barbacoa is on a whole other level. Opt for their dark, silky salsa, that’s a secret blend of dried chiles, that sticks to the flauta like a truck wrap, and the perfect amount of sour from Mexican cream. Antojitos don’t get better than this.

Taco Thursdays at chef Wes Avila’s Chinatown window are taking fans back to the days when Guerrilla Tacos founder was on the streets of the Arts District writing his chapter in the story of Alta California cuisine — a modern Mexican-American style of cooking born in Southern California. There’s usually a Baja-style fish taco on the menu, crêpe-thin flautas filled with short ribs, as well as other market-driven specials. But on Thursdays, Avila serves cured tripe finished in hot duck fat; tacos gobernadores, a spicy shrimp and melted cheese taco; and duck confit covered in charred salsa macha on blue corn tortillas. Avila’s tacos are back!

Taquero Yasmany Mendoza’s popular food truck is one of the big winners in LA’s birria wars, always commanding a long line of taco devotees that show up for goat and beef birria. Mendoza serves the most requested Tijuana-style taco dishes Angeleno’s crave: tacos, dorados (crispy tortilla), mulitas (taco sandwiched in between two tortillas), quesatacos (tacos with melted/fried cheese), vampiros (taco on a toasted corn tortilla), and quesadillas dripping with birria juices. But with birria trucks on practically every corner, it’s the rich, herbal stew with streaks of animal fat in this truck’s birria that keeps them coming back for more. 

Could a recipe define a city? The secrets of flavorful shrimp are tucked into a corn tortilla then further obscured by the frenetic blistering of hot fat cooled by a frothy tomato salsa and a slice of avocado. Los Angeles hides its treasures in plain sight, under the fleeting shade doled out by rows of iconic fan palms, but on East Olympic Boulevard it’s the taco dorado de camarón from San Juan de Los Lagos that is an indelible image.   

The best way to have carnitas at Romulo Acosta’s shrine to Mexican confit-style pork cuts is to skip the onions and cilantro, and squeeze in some juices from a pickled jalapeño, chasing each bite of moist pork with some of the chile. That’s the way it’s done in Salamanca, Guanajuato. For more than half-century, “Momo” has been making artisanal carnitas, a trade he’s passed onto his children, ensuring the best carnitas in the U.S. are here to stay.

There’s nothing more welcoming on a Sunday morning than the sight of Héctor Ramírez’s modified pizza oven, as he removes baking sheets full of blistered slabs of birria tatemada de chivo, or oven-roasted goat birria. Ramírez’s recipe comes from the northwestern highlands of Jalisco. Tender, charred goat birria comes in tangy consomé, or separately to make your own tacos with corn tortillas. Slurp the meat stock separately, and for a dollar more, get the maciza, the connoisseurs choice — a meaty, juicy boneless cut from the leg.

Tacos árabes aren’t possible without the special tortillas, called pan árabe, that are made exclusively in Puebla. Most vendors will just place the roasted pork — cooked on a vertical spit just like al pastor but with a different marinade — on a corn tortilla, which are actually called tacos orientales in Puebla. The Villegas family brings in traditional products from Puebla and prepare their tacos with tender pork and a tangy chipotle salsa.

It would be easy for a customer from one of LA’s Mexican communities in the taco-know to see wayfaring taquero Walter Soto, a Tijuana native with culichi roots who has worked in Sinaloa, Sonora, and LA, and Julia Silva’s truck as curators of LA taco hits, yet there’s more than meets the eye. El Ruso is the most meta taqueria of the moment, with a menu of tacos about LA taco and tortilla trends. Here Mazatlan-style chorreadas, Tijuanense birria de res, Sonora-influenced carne asada with Sinaloan condiments, and Sonoran burritos wrapped in sobaqueras made by Silva from Baja Californian wheat filled with chile colorado reflect a menu that could only happen in LA. 

Carlos Pardo’s backyard beef head taco destination is back in action at a new location after a few years away. Pardo has been slowly building his business back with a handful of picnic benches and a steady stream of to-go orders out of his Compton home. Show up early for well-seasoned, steamed Sinaloan beef head cuts. Here tongue, head, cheeks, and palate arrive on corn tortillas, dressed with chopped cilantro, diced white onions, and a tangy salsa verde. Ask for beef head cuts in consomé, dressed with the same condiments eaten with corn tortillas.

Over 40 years ago, taquero Javier Morales began his career at Tacos El Memo in the Juan Carrasco neighborhood in Mazatlán. In 2005, he opened LA’s first Mazatlán-style carne asada stand in Compton, and today he continues to turn out satisfying tacos, chorreadas, and vampiros filled with mesquite-grilled chuck steak, covered in a flurry of finely cut cabbage and red onion, and mild tomato salsa and avocado salsa. Go for the spicy torito, a carne asada taco augmented by roasted chile Anaheim and melted cheese in a large flour tortilla, a meal of complex northern Mexican flavors.

What does Alex Garcia and Elvia Huerta’s taco popup, and thrash metal have in common?—take a listen to Slayer’s Repentless and it all makes sense. Alex Garcia is a former restaurant chef turned counterculture taquero whose only compromise in life is that he will keep popular menu items around for his loyal fans, even if he really doesn’t like it. Alongside partner Elvia Huerta, Garcia’s Evil Cooks pop-ups promise unconventional tacos like octopus al pastor in a smoky recaudo negro (charred chiles marinade) that’s sliced from a forebodingly dark trompo. The flan dessert taco on a flour tortilla, called La Bruja (witch), is a tribute to Huerta, while the family’s homemade herbed green chorizo tacos take their customers on a tasty journey between heaven and hell.

It is well documented in Mexico that burritos are tacos (tacos de harina, or tacos norteños) and since 1972, Manuela and Adeline Portillo’s East LA burrito stand has been a local favorite. Inside the classic 50’s- era burger stand, now run by grandson John Anthony, Mexican Americans cue up for LA-style combo burritos packed with refried beans, melted cheese, beef, and either a mild green salsa or a spicy red salsa. It all gets folded together inside of a large flour tortilla that’s warmed on a comal.

With poblano roots from Huehuetlan el Grande Puebla and Coatzingo, Puebla — the land where Tijuana taqueros are forged — father-and-son team Don Cuco and Jonathan Rios have crafted one of LA’s best taco spots. Along with family friend Manuel Mendez, who was on to help out at the 2018 opening, this group has managed to excel at tacos, mulitas, and tostadas topped with a tender mix of well-chopped chicken and shoulder clod steaks. It all comes dressed with diced onions and cilantro, mild tomato salsa, and a heaping serving spoon of creamy guacamole on a warmed corn tortilla. The family restaurant now counts three branches along with a pair of street stands (East LA and Boyle Heights).

Originally part of a second wave of Baja California-themed carne asada trucks, the Pérez family has added tacos made with northern Mexican guisados: steak and potatoes, scrambled eggs with ham, or chicharrónes in a red salsa. Get the guisados sampler; grab a stack of handmade flour tortillas made by Melva Pérez, and start eating. 

One of the original fish taco stands in southern California opened in 1998 by co-founders Lourdes Toscano and Martin Vásquez, featuring a highly-guarded, secret tempura batter for Ensenada-style fish and shrimp tacos. Toscano, now the sole owner, runs three busy locations alongside her daughters on the strength of the taquería’s golden, crispy fish and shrimp tacos, cooled by pico de gallo, crema, and cabbage. Don’t forget to grab the flavorful chiles güeros dressed with lime and chile powder, and for a taste of the restaurant’s Sonoran roots, order the weekend-only caguamanta, served as stingray soup, stingray tacos, and vichis, an umami-rich stock.

Regional carne asada has disseminated in recent years with provincial styles representing Mexicali, Tijuana, Sonora, and now Mazatlán, where mesquite-grilled steaks for chorreadas and vampiros fill the tangy beach resort air with a the balm of roasted meats. Now serving out of a taco truck, Jose Morales Jr. grills quality steak, greases a thick tortilla with asiento (unrefined pork lard) and melted cheese, then piles on the meat, creamy avocado salsa, pico de gallo, and slices of cucumber to snack on the side. 

Northern Mexican burritos (a regional style of taco) filled with savory stews were as much an innovation when the Bañuelos family opened Burritos La Palma in Jerez, Zacatecas in 1980 as they were when the first U.S. branch launched in El Monte five years ago. The beef birria burrito drips with simply seasoned meat juices and a light smear of refried beans, whose fragrant flavors permeate the fresh flour tortilla, staining through in a reddish-brown.   

From backyard barbacoa to a brick and mortar in Boyle Heights (and currently located in Baldwin Park), veteran barbacoa master Petra Zavaleta offers one of the most unique barbacoa styles in LA from her hometown of Tepeaca, Puebla. In addition to tender, flavorful lamb, and barbecued lamb skulls with eyes, tongue, and cheeks attached for making tacos with warming lamb consommé, there’s a rich, iron flavored lamb menudo called mole de panza enchilada. 

Stingray soup, tacos, and caguamanta draw in a crowd to Gabriel Morales’ food truck in Fontana. Expect brilliant shades of blue at this busy spot that pulls from Sonoran breakfast culture and highlights images of Mexican politicians and narcos. There’s a lot to take in, from the colorful pop-up canopy and the trailer that scoops hot, buttery stingray soup, to barra fria items (ceviches) and shrimp, tuna fin, and surimi that is served in bowls with corn tortillas so customers can make their own tacos de caguamanta.