The 20 best tacos in NYC

Enrique Olvera’s elegant, high-gear small plates—pristine, pricey and as market-fresh as anything coming out of Thomas Keller’s kitchen—include one stunning, singular taco appearance. A generous portion of duck carnitas, cooked to the sinful midpoint of unctuous fat and seared flesh, is perfectly complimented by a bright tangle of onions, radish and cilantro, plus soft blue-corn rounds. 

Chef-owner Akhtar Nawab felt distinct similarities between the cuisines of Mexico and India, his parents’ native country. At Alta Calidad, he’s created a marriage of the two cuisines with exciting flavors and satisfying standout dishes, including his crispy shrimp tempura tacos, which pack plump shrimp, crispy tempura, cabbage remoulade and chorizo salsa seca into house-made shells. 

Missing the kitschy delight of eating takeaway tacos off a knee-balanced plate at Rockaway Taco? The seasonal sit-down setup at this offshoot, housed inside the Rockaway Beach Surf Club, is a much-welcome upgrade. Just like at that OG Queens taco shack, chef Andrew Field fuels off-duty surfers and beach-bound locals with exemplary beer-battered fish tacos and watermelon juice.

Small, from-scratch corn tortillas puff up on the grill like blowfish at this West Coaster-approved taco chainlet (with locations in Noho, Times Square, Tribeca and inside Grand Central, Penn Station and the original Chelsea Market counter), then ease down before they’re piled with superbly juicy adobada pork. The red-chili-marinated pig is trimmed shawarma-style from a glistening spit, its natural sweetness improved upon with shards of pineapple and a squirt of lime.

Hands-down, the best NYC neighborhood for a taco crawl is Sunset Park, where some of the most amazing Mexican food you’ve had in your whole life is behind nearly every door. Our very favorite spot is Tacos El Bronco, which serves up a truly transcendent lengua taco: Beef tongue is roasted until it’s impossibly tender, then topped with a handful of cilantro and a tart guacamole to cut through the fatty crackle of the meat.

La Esquina's sit-down café and takeout taqueria offers a number of dependable bites, but we particularly like its straightforward treatment of fish—a hunk of grilled market fish, speared with a skewer and brightened with shredded cabbage and a tomatillo salsa verde.

At this narrow East Village takeout taqueria, chef-owner Matthew La Rue (the Meatball Shop) shaves off quivering, yielding bites of blistered, spit-roasted pork for his al pastor taco, stacked high on house-pressed corn tortillas with chopped onions and optional dollops of smooth guacamole and morita-chili salsa.

This opened-in-'22 South Williamsburg offering from a team of Cosme alums celebrates Mexican mariscos and mezcal in a buzzy atmosphere. The crispy fried fish, which tops tortillas made from Brooklyn-based For All Things Good’s masa, soaks up all the drinking you’ll do as you make your way through their mezcal menu, which is made up largely of producer-owned brands. 

Beer-battered Alaskan cod is given a sunny Baja-inspired makeover at this taqueria chain, which has a dozen locations throughout the boroughs: the fish is fried to a golden crisp, then loaded into a housemade Vista Hermosa corn tortilla and finished with poblano mayo and zippy pickled cabbage.

Alex Stupak’s masa proves the hydrocolloid skills he honed at wd~50 and Alinea are still intact. His tortillas—made from nixtamalized corn (the grains are cooked in limewater and hulled) and pressed in-house daily—are thin and springy, with a delicate maize sweetness, and best filled with the spot’s spit-roasted namesake. 

The battered, Baja-fresh fish taco is the star of the menu at this Crayola-bright Mexican canteen in the Bowery. The tempura-fried crust shatters around flaky tilapia, with lime-infused crema adding richness and Napa red cabbage echoing the batter’s crunch.

Carnitas Ramírez is, deliciously, a whole-animal affair: The taco selection features slow-simmered cabeza (head), buche (stomach), lengua (tongue), trompa (snout), oreja (pig's ear) and more. You can get each nose-to-tail taco for only five bucks a pop, or if you want a little crumbled chicharron on top for a salty crunch, that'll be a dollar extra.

This East Harlem hole-in-the-wall serves some of the city's finest al pastor tacos, with juicy marinated pork sliced to order off a rotating spit crowned with a hunk of grilled pineapple. Even better, the tortilla-to-meat ratio is perfectly balanced.

Soft chunks of rich, pungent cow's-head meat are spread on a pair of griddled corn tortillas with salsa verde at this Sunset Park stalwart.

Inspired by tacos he tasted in Veracruz, Mexico, chef Julian Medina sautés buttery hunks of poached lobster with a chile de arbol-based morita salsa. The decadent mix is finished with a dice of creamy avocado and a drizzle of chipotle mayo.

Inspired by travel and festive meals taken in the family homes, executive chef Marc Meyer showcases traditional Mexican dishes, from appetizing antojitos made at an in-house comal bar to Veracruz-style whole roasted fish. Tacos, folded using a single house corn tortilla, include charred summer squash with sweet corn, battered fish with avocado-tomatillo salsa and and the al pastor—succulent spit-roasted marinated pork with pineapple.

At this Jackson Heights taqueria—which also runs food trucks in Williamsburg and Park Slope—the suadero is cheap and satisfying: Chewy, steamed slices of brisket are pepped up with a mix of onion, cilantro and guacamole.

The chorizo at this Bushwick tortilla factory is some of the city's best, featuring ground bits of sausage sautéed with potato, cinnamon, chili and pork fat. Piled on two freshly-made tortillas and topped with cilantro and a squirt of crema, it’s one of the most satisfying meals you can get for six bucks.

Miguel Gallardo dishes out some of the city's best carne asada specimens from this LaGuardia-adjacent cart. He deftly chops well-seasoned beef, piles on homemade salsa and toppings (onions! cilantro! guacamole!) and wraps the whole thing into a perfectly portable tortilla cone.

Named for its Arabic origins, this Lebanese-Mexican roll-up combines spiced spit-roasted pork with sweet strings of caramelized onion in a pita-like, flour-based flatbread.