Skip to content

The Best Tacos in Seattle

In a city with so much great food, we wanted to know: What really takes the prize? Our critics tasted dozens of the very best tacos to find out

By Naomi Tomky August 24, 2018

1_50

This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of Seattle magazine.

This article appears in print as the cover story of the September 2018 issue. Read more from the Best of the Best Restaurants feature story hereClick here to subscribe.

Best of the Best: Taco Street

San Buenaventura, a Mexican town about 180 miles south of El Paso, Texas, is known for red chiles, pecan trees and beef. Thus, now that Martin Perez, who hails from that Chihuahua city, and his wife, Elonka, have finally acted on their dream to open a Mexican restaurant, those ingredients feature prominently.

That’s particularly evident in their barbacoa taco ($2.75): beef marinated in the famous red chiles they import directly from San Buenaventura, cooked and wrapped up in their locally sourced flour tortillas. The tortillas do equal justice to the rest of the menu, too, in dishes discovered by the couple during their years in Los Angeles, and which other Golden State transplants are thrilled to find in Seattle: California burritos and Texas-style breakfast tacos.

Columbia City, 7136 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S, No. 102; 206.659.0583; tacostreetseattle.com

OTHER FAVORITES

Taqueria La Fondita No. 2
White Center, 9811 15th Ave. SW; 206.551.0529

Rosticeria y Cocina el Paisano
White Center, 9615 15th Ave. SW; 206.763.0368
TIP: Stop in around the corner at the sibling butcher shop to pick up fixings to make your own tacos or for some of their tamales to-go.

Ambakity Cocina Mexicana
South Park, 8515 14th Ave S.; 206.257.5483

 

Follow Us

From the Archives: In Search Of The Best… And The Elusive

From the Archives: In Search Of The Best… And The Elusive

A 1970 Bigfoot feature captures Seattle’s quirky spirit and our ongoing curiosity about what might be hiding in plain sight.

In August of 1970, Seattle magazine ran a story that, by today’s standards, was gloriously unhinged. It asked, tongue fully in cheek, whether the legendary Sasquatch might be real and lamenting its own demise. Did the recent Patterson-Gimlin film, depicting an unidentified, ape-like biped walking out of the woods in Northern California, show the long-lost…

Seattle's Best of the Best

Seattle’s Best of the Best

Everyone loves a winner. And this issue is full of them.

The new issue of Seattle magazine is out—our Best of the Best edition, celebrating the city’s favorite places, spaces, and bites. Each year, Seattle magazine takes it to the people, inviting our readers to vote on their preferred picks. This time around, we did things a little differently, turning to our staff to determine, via…

2025 Readers' Choice Results

2025 Readers’ Choice Results

You’ve read about our favorites, now here are the winners chosen by you, the loyal readers of Seattle magazine. See how they compare to our picks. Best New Restaurant Hawks Peak at Snoqualmie Casino & Hotel Best Outdoor Dining Dock & Drink at Hyatt Regency Lake Washington Best Pizza Pagliacci Pizza Best Burger Joint Dick’s…

Best Boutique: Woodland Mod

Best Boutique: Woodland Mod

There is no shortage of independent shops along Ballard Avenue, but Woodland Mod is a must stop for, well, everything. Gorgeously stocked with home wares, cards, books, jewelry, skincare, fragrances, and more, this bright and airy shop focuses on handcrafted products from small-scale vendors in design-forward countries, including Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Japan, and the United…