There are many great tacos in Los Angeles, but very few hit legendary status right from the first bite. I had no idea Tacos Royale even existed until June 11, when Octavio Olivas of Ceviche Project casually mentioned that his former employee had just opened a taquería while watching Mexico beat South Africa.
The name stuck with me. I’d only been back from Basque Country a few days, still thinking about the incredible txuleta—a contender for the best steak in the world—I’d eaten two days in a row at Extebarri, one of those meals that sharpens your standards for everything that follows.
The following week, after watching Mexico beat South Korea, I knew where I was going to go. Pulling up into the parking lot that is also home to the formerly viral Elio’s Woodfired Pizza, I could tell the tacos were going to be great the moment I heard the cashier’s warm northern Mexican accent, one of my favorite sounds in all of Mexican Spanish.
It also dawned on me that this streetside taco stand, with its glowing white tent, string lights, and refined menu board featuring classic rotuló-style typography and vibes you’d normally only see in Monterrey or Mexico City, was clearly trying to appeal to a different audience. That could have gone either way.
Then I saw the beef they were working with: Prime diezmilo, thick with marbling. It’s a common cut of beef used by 99% of other taqueros in L.A. for asada, which can result in what I jokingly call “chancla asada” (when the beef is a little too chewy).
But most aren’t down to drop up to double or triple more per pound for Prime. In this economy, you’d have to be crazy, or just be Saúl Pérez García.
“This is only our seventh day in business,” Pérez says humbly as he carefully slices 1-inch-thick steaks to try as you gaze into his grill like a hungry wolf locked onto a fresh kill—that deep, primal instinct kicking in hard at 10:45 P.M.
"Several of my customers who currently visit the taquería call us a ‘steakhouse taquería' because you can order your tacos rare or medium-rare here, and we make them that way; I have about five customers like that, " Pérez says.
He is not lying. On the two different nights I visited, the steak was always pink in the middle and juicy, with that pleasantly strong beefy flavor you only find in Prime beef.
Pérez opened his own taquería out of necessity because he couldn’t find a taquería like the ones back home for him in Hermosillo, Sonora. And I agree.
In Hermosillo, asada is a religion. People are loyal to farms there and don’t shop at carnicerías or butcher shops, but at “meat boutiques” instead. They are also among the few demographics in Mexico who never complain about the price of a taco because they know that good beef costs money.
“The truth is, I’ve been looking for three years for a taquería since moving to Los Angeles that brings me a little closer to Hermosillo and carne asada, without needing to light the grill at my house," he says. "It always ended up being very expensive for me to light my grill, and especially with the time I invested, only to be satisfied after 10 minutes . . . so why not open a taquería?"
Pérez called in his cousin, Eloy Aluri, a respected chef and personality in Hermosillo, whom I met while scouting the best tacos in Mexico for Netflix’s "Taco Chronicles," to teach him the philosophy of carne asada, including how to butcher his own meat and the recipes for the salsas.
His goals are high: to make the best asada taco in L.A. County. But at just a couple of weeks in, I would say he is well on his way. If not for the juicy Prime steak over mesquite, then for the custom flour tortillas he is having made privately just for him by a tortillería in the San Fernando Valley. The tortillas are worth going for on their own if you are a connoisseur and always hunting for the best.
Pérez and Aluri use organic wheat flour and grass-fed beef tallow to create an ideal tortilla to carry the boatload of beef in each taco. They are a little thicker than the paper-thin Sonoran style you’re probably used to. But they still melt in your mouth the same way.
The resulting taco de carne asada is one full of integrity and transparency, and on the heftier side of L.A.’s pantheon of Sonoran tacos. Peréz is so dedicated to his customers’ taco-eating experience that he refuses to sell more than two tacos at a time to customers who are eating there—so you always get a hot taco, and the other one doesn't get cold.
But the craziest part of all isn’t even the asada. Personally. I was stunned and wide-eyed with joy at my first bite of his “OG” taco, piled high with beef chicharrón made from the confit trimmings of the Prime chuck steak Pérez butchers himself.
They’re like beef carnitas; sticky and molten on the inside thanks to the caramelized fat, yet crispy and machaca-esque on the edges. It possesses perhaps the deepest dimensions of beef I have ever tasted. That is placed on top of thickly spread “party beans,” a secret recipe for umami-laden beans refried with cheese and other mystery ingredients. It’s a recipe passed down to Pérez and his wife, who comes from Nereida Vejar, an iconic cocinera tradicional and butcher in Matape, Sonora. She also appears on the "Taco Chronicles."
I wasn’t the only person stunned by the quality and taste. Aaron Lindell, co-owner and chef of Quarter Sheets down the street, happened to be there at the same time as me. He was so enthralled by his plate of tacos and the beans that he ate everything without salsa because everything was that good on its own.
But for the Silver Lake crowd, all they’re likely going to care about and why this taquería will likely go viral is because, like in true Hermosillo fashion, thick, unwatered-down guacamole is right next to the red and green salsas, radishes, and limes. As you’re gently ladling salsas onto your taco, you’ll try to play it cool, but good luck not turning into a full-on avocado-ravaging goblin when you realize this might be the first taquería in L.A. offering all-you-can-eat guacamole for free at the salsa bar.
Even Lindell advised Peréz about this: “I don’t know man, you may have some second thoughts on that later, but you do you!”
Unfussed, Peréz responds that he is a firm believer in the logic behind buffets.
“Some people may abuse it, others may not even touch it,” he says. “It’s in my costs, and I think we’ll be just fine.”
Tacos Royale is just the latest in what I’m calling the “northernerfication” of American taco life. Tacos Domingo just opened in New York, and in Los Angeles, and Tacos Royale adds to the Sonoran depth we have, up there with Sonoratown, Mochomitos in Whittier, and La Rueda.
“I’m doing this project to test the market,” Peréz says. “I have the growth plan. We have something very clear: To be 10% the size of In-N-Out by 2036. In November, we’ll be at Cienega/Melrose with a central kitchen, 24-hour delivery, and 30 locations nationwide—drive-thru locations only.”
After July 11, Tacos Royale will also have a beer and wine license. Peréz is already working on his beers; he is brewing with a local brewery made with Sonoran wheat and a lager.
“Va a estar chingon.”
Tacos Royale ~ 2511 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
