Pre-gaming with tacos before a Dodger game will always be the right decision in life. With hours to make it through the ninth, you'll need long-lasting energy. Hell, just to get in and out of the Stadium, you'll need the endurance of a Roy Campanella in his prime.
So rather than sacrifice your bank account to the concession stand gods, get fueled up on masa, salsa, and meat. Tacos are an excellent buffer for all the booze you may be tempted to indulge in, too, whether that's their infamous $28 micheladas, $9 Dodger Dogs, or $9 soft serve cones.
After the game, tacos are even more of a must, whether the boys in blue have won or lost. Nothing is more L.A. than chasing a Dodgers victory with a stop for tacos, or commiserating with your fellow fans over smoky carne asada.
Here is your L.A. TACO-approved list for the best taquerías located near Dodger stadium.
Teddy’s Red Tacos ~ Echo Park
Owner Teddy Vasquez uses a beef shoulder cut in his birria de res, which yields a deeper, robust, and beefy flavor. The meat is shredded into a texture of thin threads and served incredibly tender, making it one of the city's best versions of birria de res.
The vampiros at Teddy’s Red Tacos are made with two chile de árbol-stained tortillas, seared on the plancha and topped with a thin layer of Monterey Jack that spills onto the grill, giving them a satisfying crispy edge. Instead of radishes, his vampiros come garnished with cucumber, helping balance the intense flavor and spice from the birria and salsa.
If you are looking for the type of taco you've seen a lot of on Instagram, which shows a hand dunking the taco into consomé, this is your spot. Taquero Teddy Velasquez has been making beef birria since way before it was trendy, too.
10 AM to 8 PM., 1170 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Angel's Tijuana Tacos ~ Echo Park
If you don’t have an Angel’s within spitting distance of your place, just wait. This workhorse of a Tijuana taquería has stands spread widely throughout the city, from Chatsworth to West Covina, the Inland Empire, and even O.C. This means there are seldom the hour-long lines of the past for its tender, thick handmade corn tortillas filled with charcoal-grilled asada and massive, loaded spuds.
We tend to skip the asada entirely for Angel’s tacos stuffed with al pastor, plane-shaved from a squat trompo of salty pork packed with crispy-edged angles. They plop a sizable nub of ripe pineapple, a dollop of guacamole, plus onions, cilantro, and your pick of a salsa roja and/or verde on top, to hold you over until the next Dodgers postseason nailbiter. We're not Angels fans, but we are Angel's fans.
Open 4:30 PM to midnight, 1185 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
Guisados ~ Echo Park
Guisados is a pioneer in stewing meats and vegetables in the world of Los Angeles tacos. If you're craving something besides the city's ubiquitous tacos of grilled or confit meat on a tortilla, the chain's long-cooked proteins, vegetables, cheese, beans, and everything in between satisfies a deeper kind of craving.
The sampler plate is little slice of Mexico within city limits. This place also deserves credit for always nixtamalizing its own yellow corn masa and making its own tortillas.
However, the unique benefit of this taco style is that there are usually a few options for non-meat eaters, like tender calabacitas or rajas. The way to do guisados is to point to the ones that look the most appetizing and try as many as you can. This is the time-honored guisado process.
Open from 10 AM to 11 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. 1261 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
A Tí Los Angeles ~ Echo Park
The older we get, the nicer things we want things to be. After all, we work hard for our money. If that's the case and the idea of some lights-out delicious tacos and a few nice cocktails or natural wine sounds good to you, then get to Echo Park's A Tí early enough to try out their cutting-edge, modern Mexican dishes.
We recommend its striped bass fish tacos, in particular. We've had a couple of iterations, including one with a koji-enriched guacamole. Ponce is serving them with a habanero-and-Kewpie mayonnaise at this freshly opened bar, which gets bonus points for staying committed to Kernel of Truth Organics's blue corn tortillas, L.A.'s only tortillería opened by L.A. locals that uses U.S.-grown organic corn.
Open 5 PM to midnight Wednesday through Sunday, 1498 W Sunset Blvd. Suite #2, Los Angeles, California 90026
El Ruso ~ Echo Park
If you crave a robust shot of northern Mexican flavor, hit up El Ruso on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park. Tijuana-born, Culiacán-descended chef Walter Soto has made a name for his meaty guisados and smoky asada, which come packed into tacos and burritos on Sonoran flour tortillas, including the giant 18" tortillas sobaqueras handmade and often offered here.
Soto's chile colorado bursts with slowly stewed pork, braised in dried red chiles. It is simple, more than filling, and completely satisfying, bearing an elaborate realm of spices and a subtle natural sweetness from the chiles in every bite.
Open 11:30 AM to 8 PM, 1157 Lemoyne St. Los Angeles, CA 90026
Taquería Frontera ~ Cypress Park
To be the best of the best in the most competitive taco city in the nation, you have to excel at all three facets of a taco, and Frontera’s al pastor taco does just that. It starts with heating yellow tortillas, imported from El Grano de Oro tortillería in Tijuana, to a slight oily crisp on the plancha, making for a tremendous textural introduction as you take your first bite. This is followed with a bold and robust marinade on the al pastor itself, which is slow-cooked and seared on the trompo before it's sliced directly right onto that glimmering tortilla.
The taco is finished with a custom salsa and tamed with a splash of the restaurant's signature cilantro crema and a slice of lightly grilled pineapple.
Frontera's taco al pastor wins with one bite, at a taqueria built to bring you close to others while standing at their counter and admiring the taco-making action. As if this perfect taco, representing the Tijuana-to-L.A. conduit, isn't already enough, Frontera's unbeatable message of “more tacos, less borders” exemplifies the best of L.A.’s cross-cultural, transnational relationship with tacos.
700 Cypress Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90065
5 Cazuelas ~ Elysian Valley
This small truck parked on Riverside Dr. leans into unique, flavorful bites for both meat and non-meat eaters alike. You can order a fully marinated chicken tinga or slow-cooked cochinita pibil. You can order a rare pipian verde or the humble rajas and vegetables.
And for full vegans, there’s a hearty soyrizo in a potato taco. They’re all served on blue corn tortillas and accompanied with their own garnish. These aren’t just average tacos, they’re skillful stews beautifully served on their tortillas.
Riverside Dr. and Clearwater St. Los Angeles, California 90039
The Original Carnitas Michoacán ~ Lincoln Heights
For the past 48 years, 24 hours a day, this taco spot has never stopped. It has a whole ‘Berto’s-esque menu and a complement of tacos for your hungry needs. It’s also a popular destination spot for local Dodger fans before and after the game. They don’t carry the full assortment of carnitas meats, just maciza and buche, but they do offer a thorough selection of other meat choices. It’s the one spot in Lincoln Heights that will always have a decent taco waiting for you, no matter what time of day. There’s plenty of seating for you and your friends, too. So what are you waiting for?
1901 N. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90031
Avenue 26 Tacos ~ Downtown
Avenue 26 Tacos are perhaps L.A.'s most crowd-pleasing taqueros, known for selling tacos that satisfy your genuine street taco cravings. The stand first established its legend in Lincoln Heights, and today, it can be found in both Eagle Rock and Little Tokyo, making rib-sticking tacos the same way.
Each taco—whether you get al pastor, asada, or chorizo—is a textbook-perfect example of a true, L.A.-style, two-bite taco, where they pile on the meat, making it's very easy to lose track of how many of the little guys you eat.
Now Avenue 26 offers smoked pork ribs and other barbecued meats, smoked on their Santa Maria-style smoker, spreading delicious fumes so potent, they'll find their way into your car and follow you home as you pass by. Even if your windows are closed.
353 S. Alameda St. Los Angeles, CA 90013
Mideast Tacos ~ Silver Lake
Mideast Tacos comes from chef-owner Armen Martirosyan, who was born in L.A. and raised in the culture of his parents' post-Soviet Armenian community. An L.A. child to the grain, Armen was raised on tacos, burritos, and quesadillas while helping his parents at their beloved restaurant Mini Kabob.
The chef officially brought his Armenian-Mexican fusion taco concept back from the dead at this Silver Lake address. His tacos and burritos feature both corn and flour Mejorado tortillas and options like crispy, exceptionally seasoned falafel and kebabs grilled over an open fire. His crew doesn’t skimp on crafting full-flavored and sufficiently spiced recipes to slip into these tortillas, from the deeply marinated meats to the surfeit of Aleppo pepper sprinkled around for its intricate essence and kick. In or out of tortillas, this is Armenian barbecue with fortitude beyond the typical.
3536 W. Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026
Mexicali Taco & Co ~ Chinatown
At this long-standing taquería in Chinatown, you’ll find paper-thin flour tortillas, and giant fried fish tacos.
Mexicali Taco & Co, founded by vaquero-turned-chef Esdras Ochoa, began as a parking lot set-up not far from where this address, home to their first brick-and-mortar, was opened in Downtown over a decade ago.
Today, two TACO MADNESS plaques hang above their assortment of self-serve salsas and taco garnishes at their DTLA location, making them one of only a couple taqueros to be crowned champions more than once.
Ochos’s extensive OG menu is inspired by Mexicali street food staples and the small border town where he grew up, with an added L.A. spin. Even though he's no longer involved, you can still go check out his pioneering flavor that was among the first to do it in L.A. You’ll want to try their tortillas de harina, salt-seasoned asada, and enormous, crispy-battered whitefish tacos topped with cabbage, spicy mayo-based crema, and pico de gallo.
Their chorizo also tastes great in a vampiro (a crispy, cheese-topped Kernel of Truth Organics corn tortilla topped), which comes infused with their “special” garlic sauce.
702 N. Figueroa St. Los Angeles, CA 90012.
