Ultimate taco lover's guide to South 12th Avenue
- Updated
We combed the neighborhood up and down to find the best tacos. Here they are! Plus, two bonus spots from earlier in the series.
- Updated
Here are seven spots to hit up while in the neighborhood. Video by Andi Berlin.
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
El Merendero sits at the south end of a street filled with food trucks and taquerias, almost like it's the capital building. The sprawling pink adobe has been here since the '60s when it was an A&W drive thru, and it's the only major sit-down dinner spot on South 12th Avenue.
They're big on the oysters and shrimp, but the restaurant's real specialty is the milanesa, a large slab of battered and fried beef with beans and French fries. The tacos here are old school tasty: crunchy fried shell, meat filling, lots of lettuce and Monterrey Jack cheese. My carne desebrada was filled with soft shredded beef that had been stewed in tomatoes and green chiles until it was plump and tangy. When I bit into it there was a nice crunch, followed by a torrent of juices spilling out all over my plate.
Interesting fact: The restaurant is owned by Ramon Bohon and his family, who also own Asadero y Taqueria Sonora on Irvington and South Sixth Avenue.
Location: 5443 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-294-1522
Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
I know where everyone's at on South 12th Avenue: They're holed up in a room lined with brown bricks, eating fat bulbs of crispy fried shrimp with chipotle sauce.
People around here all seem to know about this Ensenada-style seafood place Taco Fish, despite its tucked-away building and the fact that the inside kinda looks like a redecorated public swimming pool.
That's half the fun. But the real draw is the restaurant's equivalent of the combo plate, the Taco Gordo, stacked with three specialties: fried fish, a scoop of shredded red marlin studded with soft onions, and a single curled shrimp on top, cherry style.
This is one of the finest things I've consumed in my journeys. (And possibly the largest taco I've eaten in my life.) It's all about the crisp bubbly batter, so rich without being too heavy, giving way to a perfectly-cooked piece of fish. A masterpiece of the fryer fit for the finest gourmet restaurant; best consumed at the table in the back, while tapping your foot on the pavement.
Weird fact: This place started out as a food truck, and was so popular the owners built up a brick-and-mortar on the same spot.
Location: 4841 S. 12th Ave., but they also have a taco truck at 250 E. Grant Road.
Phone: 520-777-6235
Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
2015 is the year of the goat. But even though el chivo is one of the most widely-consumed animals in the world, I could only find it at one place in Tucson: an Irvington taco truck pulled by a refurbished ambulance.
El Chivo de Oro, or Golden Goat in Spanish, serves goat birria: a spicy rich stew that originated in Jalisco, Mexico. (They're also big on the beef cabeza, as well as Sonoran hot dogs.) The truck serves the stew in big bowls spiked with cilantro, but they also do it taco-style with spongy corn tortillas that reminded me of injera bread.
The meat itself isn't gamey in the slightest; it's actually very mellow shredded in its sauce with just a touch of sweet. The fun is adding all the toppings that come along with the plastic-bag wrapped plate: the onions, the cabbage, the herbaceous chile de arbol salsa laden with seeds. No big deal here, just a snack!
Insider's tip: They stay open late on Thursdays because they do $1 hot dogs.
Location: Just off South 12th Avenue at 463 W. Irvington Road
Phone: 520-909-9123
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays
Payment: cash only
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
There are a lot of tire shops and car places on South 12th Avenue, but this is the only one I know of with a taco truck. Los Dos Potrillos serves "la mas rica birria estilo Sonora": fragrant bowls of stewed beef in a spicy red soup.
But they also do a taco dorado ahogado, a fried taco stuffed with shredded beef and potatoes, and then "drowned" with the soup from the birria beef. It's a simple little thing with a nice crunch, despite the sauce. And it only gets crazy when you pour on some of that toasted habanero chile oil from the plastic bottle on the table. I could drink that smokey stuff, but I resisted ... Trying to be classy here.
Interesting tidbit: The owner Samuel Rubio also owns the car wash next door.
Location: 3425 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-203-4603
Hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
There are soft tacos, and then there are these tacos: Soaked in shiny red salsa and thrown in a steamer before they come to your table, they're slippery and wild little things. And they are unbelievably delicious.
They're called tacos al vapor, which means steamed in Spanish, and they're kind of a riff on the steamy canasta tacos that street vendors sell from little baskets. You don't see al vapor much around here, unless of course you get over to Taqueria Porfis.
The destination spot started out as a push cart in Nogales, Sonora, and has been in this nondescript strip mall on South 12th Avenue for 15 years. On my recent visit, it was 3 p.m. and 105 degrees outside, and every table was full.
The place sells all manner of tacos, mini chimis and tortas, but the showpiece is the al vapor: Shredded beef and potatoes are wrapped in a corn tortilla that's made special for the steamer, so it comes out hearty and suave with just a touch of firmness. After that, it's stuffed with lettuce, tomato cubes and a brush of bright white creamy mayo.
Three bites. That's all it took and the thing was gone. But wow, what a memory ...
Insider's tip: The tacos are $1 on Tuesdays.
Location: 3553 S. 12th Ave., Suite 117. But they also have a taco truck at First Avenue and Fort Lowell.
Phone: 520-882-4724
Hours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit, credit and EBT
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
As you step into this sunlit cafe on the South 12th Avenue, be careful not to scuff the cowhide rug. It may be the nicest thing you'll see all day, unless of course you're talking about Sylvia Gonzales' food.
Her restaurant Cafe Santa Rosa serves Tohono O'Odham specialties with finesse, and that is very apparent in the Indian taco with red chili beef.
Gonzales takes dried chile pods brought in from New Mexico, then cuts and cleans them before boiling them down to a viscous maroon sauce that's actually rather mellow. It just glides right over those refried beans, creating a powerhouse of a sauce for that fluffy golden dough. Beautifully-done, but at its essence, approachable ...
Weird fact: If you've got room, you've gotta try the ground beef patty tacos. She slips green peas into them!
Location: 3303 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-203-7569
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays, closed Mondays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The truck's specialty is the Percheron: A heaping hot burrito packed with carne asada, avocado and mozzarella cheese. But I think people really come here for the pepperoni.
Diego Armando, who's been running this stationary taco truck What A Burro on South Twelfth Avenue for the past couple years, says Italian burritos are common where he's from in Hermosillo. He brings one out, unrolled with all the ingredients intricately layered like a casserole: carne asada, pepperoni, mushrooms, avocado and mozzarella cheese.
They don't do this on the tacos, so I got the Percheron piled high with plump cuts of diesmillo and topped with avocados and a sprawled out green chile. Gosh, I love carne asada. As far as regional specialties go, we've got it pretty good up here in Sonora, the land of juicy soft steaks with that perfect crunch. Put whatever you want on them, they're gonna be great.
Weird fact: They've also got a calzone quesadilla with pepperoni and mushrooms.
Location: northwest corner of West Irvington Road and South 12th Avenue
Phone: 520-272-5490
Hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 1 to 10 p.m. Sundays
Payment: cash only
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
We came for the music. But we left with bellies full of beef cabeza and crispy chunks of steak charred on a mesquite grill.
In between? Well, that was interesting ...
The little rock-and-roll-themed restaurant Tacos Apson has been going strong for 14 years on South Twelfth Avenue, turning out freshly grilled meats and a few under-the-radar Sonoran specialties. One of them is the costilla de res, an enormous beef rib that gets slapped on a little corn tortilla.
As far as I know, it's also the only restaurant in town that serves huevo becerro criadillas. This is the kinda thing you might see on a cattle ranch in northern Mexico: squishy little testicles from a calf that get chopped up and thrown on the flattop. They come out kinda crispy on the outside, with the springy texture like a hot dog and a flavor that reminds me of chopped liver.
They were more palatable than I thought, but I admit, I had to steal half my lunchmate's cheesy carne asada caramelo. Which wasn't actually a big deal, because it was enormous. Overall, a five-star experience!
Weird fact: The restaurant is named after Los Apson Boys, a Mexican band that covered oldies tunes like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones and "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Location: 3501 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-670-1248
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
- Andi Berlin Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
You'll know you're there when you see the abandoned TV rental place that's covered with decaying wall art. In the dirt lot next door, there's a bright yellow taco truck with a sign that reads "Tacos de cabeza 99 cents." The business run by Guaymas-native Rosario Palomares is called El Ta' Comiendo. Because, eating luscious, meaty tacos is what you'll want to do ...
It's all very simple. Four meats — cabeza, birria, asada and adobada — topped with your choice of diced onions, cabbage, radiant red chile and a vegetal green tomatillo salsa. Hearty tortillas from Alejandro's Tortilla Factory just down the street are barely enough to hold in the stew of tender shredded beef known as birria. The juice is going to seep out all over the plate, and probably your face while you're eating. But you will keep going, and it will be the highlight of your day.
Weird fact: You can also order big cups of cabeza and birria and take them to-go.
Location: Southwest corner of South Twelfth Avenue and West Drexel Road.
Phone: 520-304-1242
Hours: 6 a.m. to around 3 p.m. every day
Payment: Cash only
El Merendero sits at the south end of a street filled with food trucks and taquerias, almost like it's the capital building. The sprawling pink adobe has been here since the '60s when it was an A&W drive thru, and it's the only major sit-down dinner spot on South 12th Avenue.
They're big on the oysters and shrimp, but the restaurant's real specialty is the milanesa, a large slab of battered and fried beef with beans and French fries. The tacos here are old school tasty: crunchy fried shell, meat filling, lots of lettuce and Monterrey Jack cheese. My carne desebrada was filled with soft shredded beef that had been stewed in tomatoes and green chiles until it was plump and tangy. When I bit into it there was a nice crunch, followed by a torrent of juices spilling out all over my plate.
Interesting fact: The restaurant is owned by Ramon Bohon and his family, who also own Asadero y Taqueria Sonora on Irvington and South Sixth Avenue.
Location: 5443 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-294-1522
Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturdays through Thursdays, 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
I know where everyone's at on South 12th Avenue: They're holed up in a room lined with brown bricks, eating fat bulbs of crispy fried shrimp with chipotle sauce.
People around here all seem to know about this Ensenada-style seafood place Taco Fish, despite its tucked-away building and the fact that the inside kinda looks like a redecorated public swimming pool.
That's half the fun. But the real draw is the restaurant's equivalent of the combo plate, the Taco Gordo, stacked with three specialties: fried fish, a scoop of shredded red marlin studded with soft onions, and a single curled shrimp on top, cherry style.
This is one of the finest things I've consumed in my journeys. (And possibly the largest taco I've eaten in my life.) It's all about the crisp bubbly batter, so rich without being too heavy, giving way to a perfectly-cooked piece of fish. A masterpiece of the fryer fit for the finest gourmet restaurant; best consumed at the table in the back, while tapping your foot on the pavement.
Weird fact: This place started out as a food truck, and was so popular the owners built up a brick-and-mortar on the same spot.
Location: 4841 S. 12th Ave., but they also have a taco truck at 250 E. Grant Road.
Phone: 520-777-6235
Hours: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
2015 is the year of the goat. But even though el chivo is one of the most widely-consumed animals in the world, I could only find it at one place in Tucson: an Irvington taco truck pulled by a refurbished ambulance.
El Chivo de Oro, or Golden Goat in Spanish, serves goat birria: a spicy rich stew that originated in Jalisco, Mexico. (They're also big on the beef cabeza, as well as Sonoran hot dogs.) The truck serves the stew in big bowls spiked with cilantro, but they also do it taco-style with spongy corn tortillas that reminded me of injera bread.
The meat itself isn't gamey in the slightest; it's actually very mellow shredded in its sauce with just a touch of sweet. The fun is adding all the toppings that come along with the plastic-bag wrapped plate: the onions, the cabbage, the herbaceous chile de arbol salsa laden with seeds. No big deal here, just a snack!
Insider's tip: They stay open late on Thursdays because they do $1 hot dogs.
Location: Just off South 12th Avenue at 463 W. Irvington Road
Phone: 520-909-9123
Hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays through Wednesdays, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays
Payment: cash only
There are a lot of tire shops and car places on South 12th Avenue, but this is the only one I know of with a taco truck. Los Dos Potrillos serves "la mas rica birria estilo Sonora": fragrant bowls of stewed beef in a spicy red soup.
But they also do a taco dorado ahogado, a fried taco stuffed with shredded beef and potatoes, and then "drowned" with the soup from the birria beef. It's a simple little thing with a nice crunch, despite the sauce. And it only gets crazy when you pour on some of that toasted habanero chile oil from the plastic bottle on the table. I could drink that smokey stuff, but I resisted ... Trying to be classy here.
Interesting tidbit: The owner Samuel Rubio also owns the car wash next door.
Location: 3425 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-203-4603
Hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. every day
Payment: accepts debit and credit
There are soft tacos, and then there are these tacos: Soaked in shiny red salsa and thrown in a steamer before they come to your table, they're slippery and wild little things. And they are unbelievably delicious.
They're called tacos al vapor, which means steamed in Spanish, and they're kind of a riff on the steamy canasta tacos that street vendors sell from little baskets. You don't see al vapor much around here, unless of course you get over to Taqueria Porfis.
The destination spot started out as a push cart in Nogales, Sonora, and has been in this nondescript strip mall on South 12th Avenue for 15 years. On my recent visit, it was 3 p.m. and 105 degrees outside, and every table was full.
The place sells all manner of tacos, mini chimis and tortas, but the showpiece is the al vapor: Shredded beef and potatoes are wrapped in a corn tortilla that's made special for the steamer, so it comes out hearty and suave with just a touch of firmness. After that, it's stuffed with lettuce, tomato cubes and a brush of bright white creamy mayo.
Three bites. That's all it took and the thing was gone. But wow, what a memory ...
Insider's tip: The tacos are $1 on Tuesdays.
Location: 3553 S. 12th Ave., Suite 117. But they also have a taco truck at First Avenue and Fort Lowell.
Phone: 520-882-4724
Hours: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit, credit and EBT
As you step into this sunlit cafe on the South 12th Avenue, be careful not to scuff the cowhide rug. It may be the nicest thing you'll see all day, unless of course you're talking about Sylvia Gonzales' food.
Her restaurant Cafe Santa Rosa serves Tohono O'Odham specialties with finesse, and that is very apparent in the Indian taco with red chili beef.
Gonzales takes dried chile pods brought in from New Mexico, then cuts and cleans them before boiling them down to a viscous maroon sauce that's actually rather mellow. It just glides right over those refried beans, creating a powerhouse of a sauce for that fluffy golden dough. Beautifully-done, but at its essence, approachable ...
Weird fact: If you've got room, you've gotta try the ground beef patty tacos. She slips green peas into them!
Location: 3303 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-203-7569
Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays, closed Mondays
Payment: accepts debit and credit cards
The truck's specialty is the Percheron: A heaping hot burrito packed with carne asada, avocado and mozzarella cheese. But I think people really come here for the pepperoni.
Diego Armando, who's been running this stationary taco truck What A Burro on South Twelfth Avenue for the past couple years, says Italian burritos are common where he's from in Hermosillo. He brings one out, unrolled with all the ingredients intricately layered like a casserole: carne asada, pepperoni, mushrooms, avocado and mozzarella cheese.
They don't do this on the tacos, so I got the Percheron piled high with plump cuts of diesmillo and topped with avocados and a sprawled out green chile. Gosh, I love carne asada. As far as regional specialties go, we've got it pretty good up here in Sonora, the land of juicy soft steaks with that perfect crunch. Put whatever you want on them, they're gonna be great.
Weird fact: They've also got a calzone quesadilla with pepperoni and mushrooms.
Location: northwest corner of West Irvington Road and South 12th Avenue
Phone: 520-272-5490
Hours: 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 1 to 10 p.m. Sundays
Payment: cash only
We came for the music. But we left with bellies full of beef cabeza and crispy chunks of steak charred on a mesquite grill.
In between? Well, that was interesting ...
The little rock-and-roll-themed restaurant Tacos Apson has been going strong for 14 years on South Twelfth Avenue, turning out freshly grilled meats and a few under-the-radar Sonoran specialties. One of them is the costilla de res, an enormous beef rib that gets slapped on a little corn tortilla.
As far as I know, it's also the only restaurant in town that serves huevo becerro criadillas. This is the kinda thing you might see on a cattle ranch in northern Mexico: squishy little testicles from a calf that get chopped up and thrown on the flattop. They come out kinda crispy on the outside, with the springy texture like a hot dog and a flavor that reminds me of chopped liver.
They were more palatable than I thought, but I admit, I had to steal half my lunchmate's cheesy carne asada caramelo. Which wasn't actually a big deal, because it was enormous. Overall, a five-star experience!
Weird fact: The restaurant is named after Los Apson Boys, a Mexican band that covered oldies tunes like "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones and "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters.
Location: 3501 S. 12th Ave.
Phone: 520-670-1248
Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sundays
Payment: accepts debit and credit
You'll know you're there when you see the abandoned TV rental place that's covered with decaying wall art. In the dirt lot next door, there's a bright yellow taco truck with a sign that reads "Tacos de cabeza 99 cents." The business run by Guaymas-native Rosario Palomares is called El Ta' Comiendo. Because, eating luscious, meaty tacos is what you'll want to do ...
It's all very simple. Four meats — cabeza, birria, asada and adobada — topped with your choice of diced onions, cabbage, radiant red chile and a vegetal green tomatillo salsa. Hearty tortillas from Alejandro's Tortilla Factory just down the street are barely enough to hold in the stew of tender shredded beef known as birria. The juice is going to seep out all over the plate, and probably your face while you're eating. But you will keep going, and it will be the highlight of your day.
Weird fact: You can also order big cups of cabeza and birria and take them to-go.
Location: Southwest corner of South Twelfth Avenue and West Drexel Road.
Phone: 520-304-1242
Hours: 6 a.m. to around 3 p.m. every day
Payment: Cash only
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