Dallas | Tacos

[mdleast 8,281]

Quesabirria tacos are damn tasty. Had these at a Roodies’ pop up kitchen at Odd Muse Brewing. They also have a kitchen at Craft and Growler but you have to check as they don’t make them everyday.

[C-Man 27,083]

Tacos El Metro just opened next door to A Step Up Lounge on Walnut Hill. (It's in the old Velvet Elvis location.)

An acquaintance of mine is part of the ownership group. We went up there Friday night before checking out one of my wife's friends' Dad Bands at Step Up. Pretty good. They're cooking whole hog along with typical Mexican street tacos. For $29, you get a pound of Mexican-style pulled pork, tortillas, etc. House frozen margarita is pretty good too. They'll be fantastic if they remain $5 but I think that was a grand opening Cinco de Mayo thing. At any rate, it's about 5 mins from my house and I'll be popping in there. They've got a full bar. One of the guys involved on the food side came up through Barsotti's group.

https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/restaurants-bars/tacos-el-metro-velvet-elvis/

[SimonBolivar 10,949]

I stumbled upon Taqueria Charly #2 after a concert a few weeks back by accident and the trompo was fantastic.

[C-Man 27,083]

Dallas snags two spots in the top 10 of TM's latest Top 50 Tacos in Texas list.

https://archive.is/RzXHu

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Dallas

El Come Taco

The Taco: Cabeza a la Casa

This East Dallas taqueria is both a traditional Mexico City–style joint and a contemporary restaurant. It hits all the CDMX highlights, including cabeza, longaniza, al pastor, and suadero. Succulent and served on small, doubled-up corn tortillas, the cabeza a la casa comes with fluffy chopped potatoes and tangy cactus strips that touch the taco lover’s heart. If you’re visiting after the dinner rush, walk toward the back of the restaurant to grab a drink at El Come’s mezcaleria, La Viuda Negra. 2513 N. Fitzhugh Ave, 214-821-3738. Sun 11–9, Tue–Thu 11–10, Fri & Sat 11–midnight.

Maskaras Mexican Grill

Ranking: No. 9

The Taco: Tacos ahogados GDl

Guadalajara-born Rodolfo Jiménez began his working life as a model, a telenovela star, and a TV presenter. Then, at 43, he gave it all up to share his love of tacos and Mexican wrestling through his taqueria, Maskaras Mexican Grill. Jiménez decorated the large space, located in a shopping strip near Oak Cliff’s Kiest Park, with lucha libre memorabilia, including figurines, framed masks, illustrations, and photos. The collection gives the restaurant a museum-like quality, but the specialties from his home state of Jalisco keep customers lining up. Jiménez and his wife, former pageant queen Zulma Hernández, serve up gems such as tacos ahogados: carnitas-filled corn tortillas folded and deep fried before being submersed in a mild salsa. Their bite is snappy enough, but customers who want something with more spark can request spicier salsa on the side. It will send ripples of heat across the tongue before settling down. 2423 W. Kiest Blvd, 469-466-9282. Tue–Sun 11–8.

Molino Olōyō

The Taco: Wagyu Suadero

Chef and Colima, Mexico, native Olivia López and her partner, Jonathan Percival, started doing deliveries and private dinners in 2021. The demand for their deceptively simple, made-from-scratch Mexican food eventually became great enough that they moved on to hosting pop-ups. López and Percival offer creatively colored and flavored nixtamalized tortillas and use produce from their own Pequeño Farms, in South Dallas. The sensational flavor of the suadero taco alternates between sweetness, tanginess, and spice. Follow Molino Olōyō on Instagram for its weekly schedule, or call 469-769-8950.

Resident Taqueria

The Taco: Caramelized cauliflower

Chef Andrew Savioe came to Dallas from the East Coast for love—luckily, the native New Yorker never looked back. He entrenched himself in his Lake Highlands neighborhood and turned to making tacos. Seasonal specials abound at Resident Taqueria, including a lengua pastrami, which is available in autumn. The best taco is the caramelized cauliflower, with strips of kale winding through the florets, topped with pepitas and an herbaceous epazote aioli and served on a fresh, airy flour tortilla. 9661 Audelia Rd, 972-685-5280. Tue–Sat 7:30–9.

Revolver Taco Lounge 

Ranking: No. 4

The Taco: Pulpo al pastor

Revolver Taco Lounge, which opened in Fort Worth in 2011 and moved to Dallas’s Deep Ellum six years later, has pushed the boundaries of Texas’s taco scene through its restaurants, including at its private, prix fixe Purépecha. Owner Regino Rojas and his family present customers with such imaginative taco options as seared duck breast, swordfish al pastor, and foie gras. They do traditional tacos excellently, too: the oven-roasted birria is made with kid goat imported from Monterrey. 

Rojas has fun with his food. Years ago, he created a taco filling of frogs’ legs mixed with yellow Thai curry and named the item Kermit in Bangkok. Another night, on a whim, he stacked suckling pigs’ heads on a trompo. The crisped skin contrasted with tender meat made for a rich combination, but the sight of it did make me feel a little guilty.

But I always return to his pulpo al pastor (a.k.a. octotrompo), which features octopus—tentacles and all—marinated in chiles and spices and stacked and cooked on the vertical rotisserie. He rolls it out for special events, cooking the mollusk with a blowtorch to showcase his natural flair for the dramatic. 2646 Elm, 214-258-5900. Sun 11-10, Tues–Thu 11–11, Fri & Sat 11–midnight.