Bill Addison’s list of best tacos in L.A.

Where there is a taco conversation in Los Angeles, there is debate. Or, as is often the case, less polite exchanges than the word “debate” can encompass.

To live in Los Angeles, and invest in its food culture, is to have opinions about tacos. None of us will ever completely agree. And yet, after months of eating so many tacos for this project, I felt pulled to name-check some of my favorites.

Get to know Los Angeles through the tacos that bring it to life. From restaurants to trucks to carts and more, here’s 101 of the city’s best.

Read the guide

Here are a few things to know: I think of this roster as a starting point, among the 101 luminaries we selected as a group, by which to survey Southern California’s taco culture geographically and stylistically. Some places uphold regional Mexican traditions, others take creative chances, charting flavors that more directly express our corner of the world. Many top-tier tacos can require some final customer assembly; here I thought mostly about tacos that arrive in your hand feeling like complete packages. With one incredible exception in the San Fernando Valley, I sidestepped obscurer pop-ups. (You’ll find plenty of those in the main guide.)

Let me also say: Sonoratown has year after year been the taqueria that ranks highest on the 101 Best Restaurants in the Los Angeles guide I write annually. I am technically most obsessed with Sonoratown’s burritos and chivichangas, so feel free to consider Teodoro Díaz Rodriguez Jr. and Jennifer Feltham’s growing empire as part of this group.

My colleagues would readily tell you that each of our personal lists would look different. Here are my critic’s picks.