Top Five:
1.) El Milagrito
In terms of service, food quality, and total ‘taco shop’ experience, look no further than El Milagrito, family owned and operated for over 40 years. Located on St. Mary’s Street between 281 and all the bars, its tacos are amazing. If it can be cracked open, sautéed, grilled, or stewed, they will put it in a taco for you, and do it quickly. And the tortillas: whoa, man. Their flour tortillas are tender and only slightly chewy, making them perfect for any and all things egg, and the corn tortillas were dense, slightly sweet, and durable. Even if you don’t know what it is, do yourself a favor and get the Asada a la Mexicana with guacamole. Don’t ask questions, just do it.
2.) Taco Tex
The only thing keeping this Northside powerhouse on 281 and Brooke Hollow from garnering top spot on this list is their unfortunate lack of homemade corn tortillas. Flour they’ve got covered, but corn… sigh. Oh well, you’ll just have to suck it up and use their griddled, slightly crisped flour tortillas as your vehicle for tasting what are arguably the best ingredients of any taco shop in town. Sure the Norteno and Trash Can tacos are delicious, but their Tacos al Pastor are ethereal. Slow-smoked, adobo-chile marinated pork loin and a salsa that whups the competition, they are the single best breakfast tacos in town, but you’ve got to like pork, because they load it on there. Pity you.
3.) Taco Taco
Bon Appétit magazine rated them as ‘Best Tacos in America,’ and they are certainly delicious. But keep in mind, those food critics are of the French Culinary persuasion, and French food favors subtle spices and flavors, and San Antonians don’t want ‘no hints of nothin’!’ You have got to punch people in the face with your flavors to win them over here. That said, they do make the best corn tortillas around. Thicker than most, they have a robust corn bite to them that makes their chorizo and barbacoa (oh-so tender beef cheek) tacos some of the best around.
4.) Blanco’s Mexican Restaurant
Ironically located within the same parking lot as a Spectrum Athletic Club, Blanco’s is an unassuming square building with tinted windows, a drive through that allows you to pass by a dumpster, and big red letters mounted on its storefront. But this isn’t a decorating review, it is a food review, and Blanco’s has the best breakfast tacos in Alamo Heights, and maybe the best machacado (dried beef) and egg taco north of Culebra. Because their ingredients are so fresh, the peppers and onions still pop in your mouth, and their tortillas – both corn and flour – are wicked good. Their salsa is flavorful, though not spicy, and that is the only knock on them, as their food is good enough, fast enough, and inexpensive enough to make you overlook that.
5.) Las Carretas
They have really good breakfast tacos, all on fresh corn and flour tortillas, and the waitresses are helpful and knowledgeable, but the pastries here are so incredible, the tacos become an afterthought. Things you can’t even pronounce sit on mislabled shelves and are so sweet, creamy, flaky and tender… this is just a great place for breakfast. It cracks – CRACKS – the Top Five (over Las Brazas on Vance Jackson) because their breakfast tacos are really good (fresh, stuffed, and fast) and those pastries they serve are stupendous.
And you can’t have a list of good without at least a mention of bad, so here it is:
Biggest Taco Let Down:
Chacho’s and Chalucci’s on 410 and Perrin Beitel – Yes, the ingredients are fresh. Yes, you get way more food than you pay for, and it’s actually pretty good. But the environment is deplorable. During the day, it smells like bleach and bathroom cleaner, and after lunch… well, it just doesn’t feel like the safest place in town. Through no fault of its own, when the sun sets, it looks like the set of ‘Oz’ in there, and not the one with the wizard. Mix that with cheap margaritas and some bad blood, it’s a Maury Povich show.