Image via Complex Original
You can't talk about food very long in Austin without trailers coming up. This may seem to discredit Austin as a food city, unless, of course, you've been here and sat down with a forty and a taco or three and spent some time sweating with your friends. That particualr religious act remains unique to Austin, though a few other cities further west can worship beside Austinites. Combine trailer love with taco love that borders on DSM IV levels of addiction and you've got a movement.
Everyone's got opinions about taco joints—the walkable spot, the midtown spot, the drive all day to it spot—but that said, somehow there's never been a legitimate list of the mothers contending for the top. So, here in all its biased and impassioned glory, to deconstruct, salute, and keep you up at night: The 10 Best Taco Trucks in Austin, Texas.
Taqueria Olivas
Taqueria Olivas (4140 South Congress Avenue), formerly known only as Taqueria, sits in the lower Congress side of town, on the fringes (mostly South), where so many good tacos roam. The lack of English speakers is no huge gap to cross, as the menu is about as standard as they come. All tacos come on corn tortillas and stay under the $2 mark.
Of the additions scrawled in marker on the bottom of the menu, the tripas will suit well anyone with a desire for chewing adventures, but you could throw a dart and hit the taco for you every time, though you’ll be spending a bit more time with the chicarron (also chew-heavy). You pay after you order, something unheard of in a restaurant with no walls!
El Naranjo
Naranjo (85 Rainey St) has a story you’re not likely to hear in relation to a taco truck. Its owner, a famous Oaxacan chef with a very famous restaurant, moved because of political riots and ended up, a few years later, on Rainey street with a trailer painted with that same name. For the time being, the truck offers a very small and simple menu of tacos, rotating moles, soup du jour (de dios?), and some wonderful masa empenadas and molotes.
You won't see any more expensive tacos in Austin, at least coming from a truck (La Condessa, I’m looking at you), which is probably the major downfall of the experience, but there are hints from the rest of the menu—the many regional moles and the incredibly playful and subtle (often chilled) soups—that there is some real magic hiding somewhere. So when they get it all together and move into the house next door, you can say you ate there when they were only a taco truck.
Taco Mex
It’s pretty easy to miss Taco Mex (2611 Manor Rd) if you’re driving down Manor Road. It’s pretty easy to miss if you’re walking on the sidewalk right next to it. Because it’s not technically a taco truck; rather, it's a taco window (and when you look in, it’s plain to see that the space is as small or maybe smaller than most trailers). Taco Mex is a leading contender for best tacos on a street that is full of them. Though they do most of their business selling breakfast tacos, they have an extensive lunch taco list. Plus, they're working with a very open mindset as far as special requests go. As it says on their sign, they will try to make anything you can come up with.
This little known fact offers the most potential for the lunch tacos, where you can order some pretty wonderful things off the menu (asking if they have any special tacos is a sort of code, where they will suggest some of their favorite non-menu treats). But breakfast is where the window really shines, making all their ingredients to order, cooking some of the softest, damn-close to runny (though so hot off they can cook themselves to death in the foil) eggs on the East Side. Those other taco places may come first on Manor, but Taco Mex certainly has the last word.
Izzoz
Authentic isn’t quite the first word that comes to mind when talking about Izzoz Tacos (1503 South 1st St). Much like Torchy's, its neighbor (before they relocated, anyway) and reigning gringo favorite in Austin, it plays with new ingredients and styles. Unlike Torchy's, Izzoz deliver intense flavor without having to cover everything in cheese grease that pours out the back of your tortilla at first bite.
Their oddball tweaks really elevate this taco truck to compete with heavyweights (or at least hang out in the dressing room, post-competition). A tempura shrimp taco may sound like a disastrous play on your standard tilapia, but it's a left of center success, with pickled onions and full-on slaw with aioli drizzled on top. This is Izzoz' forte. Not too close to cause insult to the authentic and just different enough to be interesting, slightly confusing, and downright memorable.
San Jaunitas
More shack than stand, San Jaunitas (Stassney and Congress Streets) serves up some of the best breakfast tacos this side of Tamale House, with the kind of salsa that makes your mouth want all the water you should have been drinking the night before. Try a barbacoa and egg or the brisket and rice, and get those legs going again. Try a papas rancheros (potato, jalapeño, cheese, and ranchero) or a bean and cheese (these beans might as well be considered meat) and have your whole body dancing again.
Taco Selene
If you thought a taco stand selling breakfast tacos all day was a novel idea, how about the same taco stand flipping product at three in the morning? Of course getting the breakfast tacos at Taco Selene (1700 East Sixth St.) would be missing out on the serious business of the stand. For $2, you get a taco with pretty much anything you want on it, though, a wonderfully nice and patient feature for a stand that caters to the drunk hoards of East Sixth.
The real winners are the lengue (tongue: you can trust me, or you can be afraid; up to you) and the beef fajita, which is surprisingly deep in flavor. Everything else is in danger of being drowned in the deliciously hot Jalisco style salsas they offer (which will make your drunk mouth go crazy) but that’s not the worst thing that can happen to a taco. Have a seat at the Grackle and they’ll even deliver it to you. And even after all that running around, the couple who work the truck are some of the nicest you’ll meet.
Piedras Negras
Piedras Negras (East Cesar Chavez and Pleasant Valley) is another late-night, East-Austin taco truck that quietly and kindly delivers the goods time and time and what time is it again? (A little past 3:00 a.m.) They serve breakfast tacos until they run out, then carnitas until they run out, carne asada… It’s a pattern, good food, small portions, all day long. If you’re really hungry you can go for the gordita, which is massive, but also massively delicious. And I’m not sure if it’s safe to say this, but try the quesidilla if you’re feeling like a stoner wanting to ride the chill wave all the way home to the couch. It’s busy at breakfast and lunch, but you could certainly snag a place on the bench any other time of day. Of course, you can probably smell Rosita’s in the distance, which may be a bit distracting.
Antojitos Mexicanos
Look, I’m not saying don’t get the tacos. If that’s what you want, get the tacos already. BUT, if you wanted to break for, say, one meal and have some real Mexico City fare, stop at Antojitos Mexicanos (4221 South 1st) and have a pambaso, a sandwich where the bun is cooked in chile colorado sauce, then layered with beans, your choice of meat, lettuce, queso fresco, and salsa verde. Yes, it still sounds like a taco, but the taste combinations are vastly different.
Or you can try the huarache, a sort of open-faced quesadilla filled with beans and then layered with salsa onions and queso. They fill the dough with beans and press it right before your eyes, but if all this seems a bit much for you Jalisco-loving brain, get the tacos already! No seriously, they're great. Service comes with a complimentary smile, but some Spanish is necessary.
Tacos La Flor
This pretty little jewel hits really hard while hardly lifting a finger. After eating at Tacos La Flor (South 1st, between St. Elmo and Stassney), you’re likely to get spoiled (like, rose petals on the bed spoiled). You might start wondering, why doesn’t every taco stand make their tortillas to order? Why can’t Torchy’s do a picadillo that’s moist without acting like an oil slick? But for now, just marvel at the carnitas, which is simultaneously soft and crispy, fatty and fit. They do it all, they do it right, and they don’t break a sweat (because they’ve got AC in that mother!). They don’t bother with Al Pastor tacos, though; they’ve probably been to Rosita’s before.
Rosita's Al Pastor
Oh my. Just saying the name is enough to rouse the most hung-over of brains, or wake the tongue from its sandwich and pizza coma. What is it that makes Rosita’s (1911 East Riverside) so alluring? Is it the conveniently located trailer (a little over 40 feet from the restaurant). Is it the danger of eating in a strip mall that actually hires a security guard? Is it the impatient and not particularly friendly staff? Is it the fact that the trailer is open till 3:00 a.m. (and sometimes later)? Probably not. Probably it’s the tacos. Probably the best tacos you’ve ever had in Austin.
You can try and get the gringas with salsa verde, you can go for bistek; you can even try and get a breakfast taco, but seriously, it’s named for it, so why not just get the Al Pastor already? Roasted on a spit in the trailer itself (rumor his it that they transport it from the trailer to the restaurant, so it’s fresher here in the hot parking lot), it's moist, it’s tender, it’s like swarma or something, only fattier and burning through your tongue into your long term memory. People have been known to eat a half dozen in the same amount of minutes. Go hard.
