“Fusion” is an expansive and ever-fresh culinary genre that too many critics are quick to discredit, forgetting that Tex-Mex chains and the 1980’s indulgences of celebrity chefs only make up one end of the spectrum.
Los Angeles, a town founded by Mexicans and open to all, with deep roots of multiculturalism running through its veins, remains fusion cooking's spiritual capital.
L.A.’s current fusion phenomenons come from chefs who grew up amid families and neighborhoods where firm cultural lines tend to disintegrate. From chefs who were raised between two or more different backgrounds or through eclectic L.A. upbringings, where it's normal to obsessively fill one's gullet with foods from other cultures, and today, have turned to fusing those flavors into their own cooking.
Chefs with enough talent to curate veritable microcosms of the dovetailing communities around them on every plate.
There aren’t any gimmicky fusion spots on this guide–only organic concepts from chefs sworn to honoring their backgrounds and edible fixations, and executing them as if they were always meant to be.
These are L.A.’s seven best tacos sprung from a fusion of Middle Eastern-and-Mexican ingredients.
TIRZAH'S MEXI-TERRANEAN ~ EL SERENO
Tirzah Farah of Tirzah's Mexi-Terranean, previously known as “Tirsa’s,” first captured hearts for her Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-dusted creations on the edge of Chinatown and Angeleno Heights in 2018.
She has since rebranded into El Sereno’s #1 spot to find hummus and falafel-laden tacos, fusing the flavor-bomb punch of Mexican street food with the fresh herbs of Middle Eastern cuisine, thanks to her husband Steve Farah, originally from Egypt. This pivot birthed a lineup of innovative dishes that celebrate Mexican-Middle Eastern mashups.
Seeking deeper roots, chef-owner Tirzah relocated the eatery to the calmer neighborhood that is the gateway to the San Gabriel Valley, transforming it into an unabashed ode to her husband’s Arab heritage. Don't miss the star of the menu: El Arabic Taco, a handmade corn tortilla, hummus, falafel, mixed greens, cilantro aioli, cucumber salad, and pickled red onions, all tucked into a handmade corn tortilla. The taco life evolution of Los Angeles marches on.
4625 Valley Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90032
Closest Metro line and stop: Bus Line 76 - "Valley/Del Paso"
X'TIOSU KITCHEN ~ BOYLE HEIGHTS
X’tiosu Kitchen is a Oaxacan-Lebanese mashup brought to you by two brothers, Felipe and Ignacio Santiago, who came to Los Angeles from Oaxaca as teenagers, cut their teeth in Lebanese restaurant kitchens before deciding to go all in with their own spot.
X’tiosu Kitchen is all theirs, a little place on the edge of a small strip mall where you order at the window and eat at one of the picnic tables.
This restaurant exudes Los Angeles and is worth coming just to try their “salsa arabesca” alone, their hyper-genius concoction of roasted tomatillo and tahini swirled with dried chiles.
You can adhere strictly to the taco life and order a falafel and chicken shawarma taco plate, or order a plate and swap their pita bread for some steamed corn tortillas.
923 Forest Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90033
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 106 Bus - "Wabash/Evergreen"
MID EAST EATS ~ WATTS
Mid East Eats is holding it down on Grape Street in the city of Watts, transforming a family home into a fully-legal front yard hub of Palestinian resistance through food.
Golden falafel sizzles in the front yard amid laughter, Spanish rock, and hip-hop. Founded by Sumer Durke, born in Maryland to Palestinian parents with roots in Jifna village, and her husband Andy, MEE launched as a pop-up in June 2024, evolving into L.A.'s first permitted home restaurant specializing in historic Levantine dishes after navigating the streamlined Microenterprise Home Kitchen Operations.
Inspired by her homeland's checkpoint-crossed childhood and village aunties' lessons, Durke channels resilience into meatless staples like herby falafel, sumac-spiced hummus, tabbouleh, ful, fatayer, and manoushe, which were recently joined by meat options at the July 12 grand re-opening.
The menu shines with falafel in pitas, rice bowls, salads, and nachos, but it's the innovative L.A. twist that steals the show: falafel tacos on corn tortillas. These tacos, a crowd favorite, embody Durke’s mantra—"They can burn our villages, but they cannot burn our culture."
9613 Grape St. Los Angeles, CA 90002
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 117 Bus - "Grape/Century"
LOS ORIGINALES TACOS ÁRABES DE PUEBLA ~ BOYLE HEIGHTS
On the corner of Olympic and Esperanza in Boyle Heights, you will find a bright-colored food truck named Los Originales Tacos Árabes, where the Villegas family specializes in Puebla-style food like cemitas and their renowned taco árabe especial.
So what is a taco árabe? It is the Lebanese-influenced cousin of al pastor, according to the Poblano owners, and while both are cooked similarly, the taste is significantly different, filled with marinated pork sliced straight off the trompo. It is topped with stringy quesillo, fresh slices of avocado, and a drizzle of chipotle salsa. That all sits on a flour tortilla known as "pan árabes" because of its thicker, pita-like consistency. Pair one with a refreshing agua de maracuya and you'll have a superlative street food supper in Boyle Heights.
3600 E. Olympic Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90023
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 66 Bus - "Olympic/Marisol"
ALMAYA ~ LINCOLN HEIGHTS
“Buen provecho habibi,” perfectly encapsulates the unique P.O.V. of Nikki Abeskharoun, who operates Almaya with her mother, Blanca, and partner, Joseph Doubleday.
Herself a result of the fusion of an Egyptian father and a mother from Mexico City, blending international styles comes naturally to Mar Vista-raised Nikki.
“We’re a mixed family . . . I grew up with the privilege of having both of them in the same household,” Nikki says, noting that salsa and guacamole often accompanied kebabs in her household, while her mother worked with Doubleday at Culver City’s Lebanese restaurant, Almaza.
While we recommend coming by for a shakshuka at breakfast, or a big, beautiful burrito stuffed with chicken shawarma, falafel, or asada kebab, if you can time your visit for a Tuesday, there will be tacos on tortillas made by hand and in-house from masa sourced at Graciana’s Tortilla Factory in Sylmar.
A changing selection of tacos never shies away from bold ideas. One day, we had a Baja-style fish taco made with Dover sole and a crema of tahini and cilantro. Another it was shredded lamb with a deep red salsa on top, with a side of two chicken shawarma tacos using tender, al pastor-spiced poultry sheared straight off the trompo.
It all works so well that . . . who knows? Maybe we’ll insist on having guacamole and salsa quemada with our next order of koobideh and follow Almaya’s example.
2020 Barranca St. Ste. C Los Angeles, CA 90031
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 251 Bus - "Ave. 26/Humboldt"
MIDEAST TACOS ~ SILVERLAKE
Armen Martirosyan, scion of the family behind Glendale’s 38-year-old Persian-Armenian legend, Mini Kabob, credits the day a friend came to the restaurant and made a burrito using lavash and grilled khorovats to make a burrito as the impetus behind MidEast Tacos.
“It was the most obnoxious thing ever,” he tells L.A. TACO. “But I knew that there was direction.”
Martirosyan, a locally-raised Mexican food fanatic, launched MidEast Tacos with partner Aram Kavoukjian in 2017, starting with a successful run at Smorgasburg and for the last two years as a sit-down dining concept in a small corner of Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.
Fusion is at its core, with a blazing grill searing marinated shrimp, chicken, and steak to fill the restaurant’s take on tacos Arabes, quesadillas, burritos, and bowls.
But the falafel taco is the signature here, with light, freshly fried, and thoroughly spiced chickpea balls stuffed into Mejorado’s corn tortillas, flooded with flavor from sumac, a heavy lashing of garlicky toum laced with chile de árbol and chipotle (influenced by chef Wes Avila’s own salsa de árbol), Thai basil, cilantro, and a divine avocado salsa.
True fusion that seamlessly tells the tale of this chef’s life, heritage, and culinary obsessions.
3536 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 2 Bus - "Sunset/Maltman"
CAMELLO ~ EAST HOLLYWOOD
After making a splash with his Ronnie’s Kickin chicken sandwich and tenders concept, East Hollywood-raised chef Ronnie Munoz bit off a beast of a unique concept in the form of Middle Eastern-Sonoran fusion. It’s to the credit of the chef’s thoughtful sourcing and love of technique that Camello works so well.
Central to the pop-up’s menu are pitas Munoz forges from masa, made by his own hands using Sonoran wheat with Oaxacan blue dent corn from Tehachapi Heritage Grain Project and Weiser Family Farms, and a pink-and-purple conico corn grown by a Tlaxcala farmer sold by San Diego’s Somos Maíz. The pitas are puffed on site in a mobile pizza oven.
Munoz typically stuffs these with your choice of grilled wagyu kibbeh with Palestinian za'atar and hoja santo mast-o khiar; or mesquite-grilled, labneh chicken thigh al pastor with avocado hummus and a shirazi salad. Both dishes come with a salsa roja made from Jimmy Nardello peppers.
Is it a taco? Not really, but also conceptually, not-not a taco.
He recently changed the menu to include a pita sandwich stuffed with black garlic-brushed oyster mushrooms, while also offering a trompo of koji-cured prime rib. On the side, you might add his Weiser-sourced Myrna spuds, fried in wagyu tallow and served with pomegranate molasses, za’atar, and mast o khir.
Might? We mean “must.”
You can catch Munoz, who inscribed a recent menu with “Fuck ICE & Free Palestine," Thursdays through Saturdays from 1-6:30 p.m.
906 N. Normandie Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90029
Closest Metro line and stop: Metro Local 206 Bus - "Normandie/Romaine"
