The 10 Best Tacos in NYC

Neighborhood: Bushwick Address and phone: 211 Wyckoff Ave (718-497-4489) Carne enchilada, a common taco filling made of meat marinated in ground chiles, citrus, and spice, normally features pork as the orange-stained, chile-rubbed meat.  But, at Taqueria Cocoyoc, it’s sinewy dark goat meat that is braised and then given the carne enchilada treatment. The meat is massaged with a thick, vibrant chile paste, left to soak, then braised again, rendering the meat silky and supple. Chunks are crisped on the griddle and tucked into two corn tortillas from the local tortilleria. There’s cilantro and onion, of course, and a little lime to brighten, but the barbacoa comes so concentrated and savory (almost like good Texas BBQ) that even salsa seems superfluous.

Neighborhood: Queens Address and phone: 104-05 47th Ave (718-699-2434) Website: tortillerianixtamal.com Owners of Tortilleria Nixtamal Fernando Ruiz and Shauna Page are committed to a better tortilla. They have revitalized the ancient technique of nixtamalization, by soaking dried corn kernels in a lime (calcium hydroxide, not the little green guys) solution overnight, grinding the swollen kernels the next day, then mixing it into a dough. It’s a process that all other NYC tortillerias skip by purchasing pre-ground cornmeal. Hot off the conveyor belt, the tortillas are incredible, unmatched by any other local variety. The small taqueria that operates within the tortilleria offers a small menu based on masa—tamales, tostadas, and tacos, including a respectable section dedicated to vegetarian versions. As the foundation of a taco, a better tortilla should equal a better taco, and it often does. In the simple steamed lamb and the pulled pork fillings, seasonings falter and are inconsistent, but the nutty aroma and fresh corn flavor of their tortillas are alluring enough to eat plain.

Neighborhood: Sunset Park Address and phone: 505 51st St (718- 633-4816) Piaxtla es Mexico, a taqueria in Sunset Park, is better known as Ricos Tacos. They have a “RICOS TACOS” neon-lit sign, a flashy mural of a cartoon pig, and a guy screaming into a bull-horn, broadcasting their mantra to the neighborhood. Ricos Tacos is a carnitas restaurant, specializing in the wonderful alchemy that occurs when pork is cooked in its own fat. The chunks of flesh bubbling away in a large stock-pot in the back, slowly succumb to the liquid lard, release their juices, and become a mix of wet and crunchy shards of pure porcine goodness—the perfect filling for a stack of waiting tortillas. Every surface in the restaurant seems to be covered with a faint mist of hog, but in good weather the doors and windows open onto the sidewalk and the dining spills out onto the street. Ricos is a shrine to the power of the pig.

Neighborhood: Jackson Heights, Queens Address and phone: Roosevelt Ave, between 74th and 75th Sts The lighting quick cooks working the night shift at El Gallo Giro, a taco truck that operates from dusk til dawn on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, are doing God’s work. Searing meats with precision, plucking tortillas from the comal not a second too late, and folding the tacos into edible rosettes, they operating with the efficiency of BMW V8 engine. Their carne asada, well-seasoned, chopped-to-bits, and charred beef with a mineral tang, is pristine. Once an order of carne asada tacos is assembled, a sprinkle of chopped onion and cilantro is added, and a loose guacamole is spooned over the top. Any desired fire can be anointed via the self-serve salsa bar. Their tacos steady and soothe the hungry, the drunk, and the tired. Tip the cooks well.

Neighborhood: Bushwick Address and phone: 222 Wyckoff Ave (718-417-0941) It has been almost a decade since Angelo Tapia opened the first Cholula Deli on Myrtle avenue in Bushwick, selling dried chiles, tortillas, Mexican sodas, and international calling cards to the burgeoning Mexican community. With all of the ingredients on hand and locals asking for tacos and quesadillas, Tapia installed a small grill in back and began cooking. Now there are three locations of Cholula Delis in Bushwick, with similar menus, fridges stocked with ice-cold Modelo Especial, and bags of bulk spices. The kitchens have a deft hand with the pork, especially carne enchilada which is stained a bold neon orange and is loaded with spice. Piled onto tortas, huaraches, or tostadas, it shines most brightly in a doubled-tortilla taco, sprinkled with cilantro, onion, and given a spritz of lime.

Neighborhood: Bushwick Address and phone: 1503 Myrtle Ave (718-456-0569) Taqueria Izucar is a real hole-in-the-wall, located under the JMZ train in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The restaurant, if you can even call it that, is a slip of a space the size of a phone booth, with just three perpetually occupied stools and no tables. Nicely hand-drawn posters advertise specials, and are tacked to the window to add color to the space. The tacos are a purist’s tacos—tiny steaming tortillas that are almost too hot to touch, a jumble of perfectly seasoned meat, the crunch of sweet white onion, and maybe a drop or two of their smoky red salsa. The suadero (braised veal flank, lashed with vinegar, lime, salt, and black pepper then braised into submission) is the house favorite. Start with four and go from there.

Neighborhood: West Village Address and phone: 230 W 4th St (212-367-0999) Website: empellon.com You kind of want to hate Alex Stupak for his hubristic tackling of Mexican food, but it’s hard to hate when the flavors are just so good. At Empellon Taqueria, in the West Village the Massachusetts born, modernist pastry chef fashions delicate tacos with arresting flavors like maitake mushrooms with rajas, sweetbreads with chorizo gravy, and pork cheeks with pickled red onions. The finely-tuned list of salsa make good use of esoteric chiles, nuts and ground seeds. Some dishes may prompt the rigidly erudite to search their Kennedy tomes for credibility. However, things are not by the book here, just inspired and the best example are the smoky lamb barbacoa tacos, with cucumber and a salsa borracha that spins mezcal, orange, and Oaxacan chiles into gold.

Neighborhood: Rockaway Beach Address and phone: 95-19 Rockaway Beach Blvd (347-213-7466) Website: rockawaytaco.com Andrew Field realized thousands of surfers dreams when he and a bunch of friends hammered together a shack by the beach and started hawking fish tacos. Rockaway Taco is a requisite stop at Rockaway Beach, and everyone else thinks so too, judging from the lines that snake down the block. The wait may be long, but it ensures freshly fried, hot and crunchy tilapia, wrapped in a warm corn tortilla. We could quibble all day about the merits of the spicy mayonnaise, the authenticity of white cabbage over their shredded red, debate the cut on the slivered radishes, whether the guacamole obscures the purity of the assemblage... but there are much better pastimes, like catching waves, bra! The sun beats down, the breeze blows off the ocean, the waves beckon, and tacos are exactly what they need to be.

Neighborhood: Bushwick Address and phone: 271 Starr St (718-456-3422) Out in Bushwick’s industrial end there is a thriving homegrown industry of tortilla producers, spitting out thousands of the thin masa rounds and perfuming the streets with the smell of toasted corn. There are three tortillerias in operation these days but it is only Tortilleria Mexicana los Hermanos where you can eat the product in taco-form, inside of the factory. The owners of the tortilleria started with a small cart outside to sell tacos, tostadas, and tortas to locals, which grew into a makeshift stand inside where you would sit and eat, passing the salsa caddy to hair-netted workers on their lunch breaks. Now there’s full-service sit-down restaurant boxed out in the front of the warehouse, feeding hipsters and paesanos, alike. The chorizo tacos are the thing to get—finely ground crumbles of sausage, radiating with clove and chile, with flecks of soft potato in the mix. Don’t forget to grab a stack of tortillas, hot off the press, on your way out.

Neighborhood: East Harlem Address and phone: 234 E 116th St (212-831-8147, 212-582-0052) If the smell of smoky, charring meat doesn’t stop you in your tracks while strolling down East Harlem’s 116th street, the enormous vertical rotisserie of orange al pastor, will. Taco Mix’s sizzling column of chile-rubbed pork is called a “trompo”, a top, which slowly spins the stacked layers of meat and cooks from the outside in, a technique brought by the Lebanese who immigrated to Mexico after World War I. Most taquerias in New York City skip the spit, but if it isn’t making the rounds, it ain’t al pastor. Place an order and the tacquero slices from the stack, slips the wisps of meat—crunchy outer bits, juicy interiors, and shards of pineapple—into two stacked Poblanita tortillas, an exceptional brand of tiny thick tortillas from Yonkers, and tops them with a fine blitz of cilantro and onion. The blackened edges of the marinated meat counter the zip of pineapple. The tortillas saturate with pork drippings. The sidewalk catches the crumbs. All is well.