For the last few years, the food media narrative behind L.A.’s bedraggled restaurant scene has been all doom and gloom. And for good reason, since so many chefs and restaurateurs are recovering the income and trajectory lost during the pandemic and sky-high inflation affecting everything from flour to meat to take-out containers. On average, food costs rose 28% in the last five years.
Despite these overwhelming odds against restaurants, L.A. is experiencing a taquería explosion. In the last three months, a new taquería has opened for you to try somewhere new on every day of the week. This includes two expansions of celebrated northern Mexican-style taquerias, a modern Mexican bar, a first-of-its-kind masa shop, and the proliferation of Tijuana-style tacos that continue to dominate L.A.’s Taco Life.
It’s never been a better time to live in L.A. and love tacos. Here is a guide for soaking in the glory of mesquite-grilled asada, handmade flour tortillas, and so much more at these seven new L.A. taquerías.
Tacos Frontera ~ Cypress Park
Taquería Frontera made an immediate splash in Cypress Park's emerging restaurant scene during their soft opening last month. By importing everything, from the tacos to the employees, from their family’s small Tijuana chain, Tijuanazo Taquerías, this new destination embodies everything we love about Tijuana’s taco scene.
Most admirably, it’s built to encourage conversations on border politics by figuratively hoping to replace the borders people maintain between each other through their delicious Tijuana-style tacos. Even with hundreds of great taquerías in Los Angeles, you seldom bite into a new taco and instantly think, "This is a winner." This is one of those rare times. Their adobada (which they call "al pastor" because that's what people know the Tijuana variation as here in L.A.) is the best we've tasted.
700 Cypress Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90065
El Tijuanazo ~ East Los Angeles
Tijuanazo, whose family-led owners just opened the aforementioned Taquería Frontera in Cypress Park, also just opened the first U.S. location of its Tijuanazo chain in East Los Angeles. Already, this newly transplanted taquería offers plenty to get excited about.
It stands out on Atlantic Boulevard, even amid the extensive taco stands surrounding East Los Angeles, with its meticulous approach to preparing each taco. It is the eighth Tijuanazo, with the ninth planned to open in San Diego this month. The East L.A. location is spearheaded by Aria Esquivel, the 26-year-old daughter of Antonio Esquivel, who founded and operates all of Tijuanzo’s locations in Tijuana. Aria’s older half-brother opened the hit Frontera location in Cypress Park, which has some nuanced similarities but specific differences that leap out.
355 S. Atlantic Blvd. East Los Angeles, CA 90022
Asadero Chikali ~ Inglewood
This Mexicali-style food truck first launched on Atlantic Boulevard in East Los Angeles in 2018 and was immediately welcomed with open arms by L.A.’s flour tortilla geeks. Their hand-rolled flour tortillas are just a bit thicker than Sonoran-style, a delicious alternative to driving down to Mexicali to get your fix. The flour tortilla stands out in Los Angeles as the only ones in the city to cradle northern Mexico-style breakfast guisado offerings like chicharrón en salsa roja and rich beef barbacoa, on top of the tried-and-true flour tortilla topping, carne asada. Asadero Chikali's expansion to Inglewood earlier this month marks another power move by flour tortillas in Los Angeles.
4233 W Century Blvd #7, Inglewood, CA 90304
Bar A Tí ~ Echo Park
After working alongside chef Ori Menashe as the chef de cuisine at Bestia, as well as in later cooking stints at Taco Maria and Santa Monica’s short-lived Onda, chef Andrew Ponce has finally been “finding his own cooking voice” through A Tí.
The emerging chef’s bar menu will include hits from his pop-up: tostadas topped in akamai (lean bluefin tuna) with lemon aioli, salsa negra made with Turkish urfa biber chiles, confit duck legs in a complex, date-based mole, and his customer favorites: Hokkaido scallop tostada and koji-cured fish tacos.
1498 W. Sunset Blvd. #2, Los Angeles, CA 90026.
El Lechoncito ~ Taquiza (Catering)
There’s always room for one more regional-style taco in Southern California’s vast taco universe, especially if it’s as succulent and satisfying as El Lechoncito O.C. Just when you thought you had experienced all the possible toppings that can go on meat and tortillas, Israel Mejía and Alan Sanz, the co-founders of this taquiza-only concept, are here to unlock a new level of taco-porkiness with their chicharrón-topped suckling pig tacos.
The style is "one thousand percent" inspired by Oaxaca's legendary stand offering the same taco. The catch is you'll have to work a bit to try this taco since they mostly do catering or occasional pop-ups at events, but it'll only make that first incredible big bite all the more memorable.
Molino Komal ~ South Central
Why did it take so long for L.A., the undisputed best taco city in the United States, to get its own craft molino (mill)? One that nixtamalizes nothing but ethically sourced heirloom corn from Mexico? We can think of a couple of likely factors, but all we care about now is that one is finally open.
You can make up for lost time at their booth located inside Mercado La Paloma. The small opening menu includes a “Taco Sonia,” an ode to Júarez’s mother, and the filling, working-class tacos that Júarez ate weekly growing up in Mexico City. It features a six-inch handmade tortilla with a seared slice of lean beef shoulder, crispy crumbled pork longaniza made by hand, and a generous amount of fluffy mashed potato. The menu also features other antojitos never before seen in Los Ángelestitlán like molotes de plátano and more.
3655 S. Grand Ave. Los Angeles, California 90007
Sonoratown ~ Long Beach
The highly anticipated opening of L.A.'s northern Mexican favorite, Sonoratown, has finally arrived in Long Beach. They kicked off the opening with a live banda norteña, as their housemade Sonora-style flour tortillas, filled with mesquite-grilled asada, were making the rounds and guests made their way through the restaurant.
You'll find the same menu here as at their two other locations in L.A.'s Fashion District and Mid-City neighborhood, but this is their largest space yet, with high ceilings and enough space to fully expand your arms while eating arguably L.A.'s most consistently best tacos de asada. However, their taco de tripa and cabeza are our current obsessions.
Opening in Long Beach is unique to Teo and Jen, not only because it’s another link in their locally-grown Sonoratown chain, but also because the city holds a special place in their hearts. It’s where Teo attended Cal State Long Beach and ultimately met Jen.
244 E. 3rd St. Long Beach, CA 90802
