Where To Eat Tacos In London

Are you after the best tacos in London? Have you got a craving for vibrant salsa and juicy cochinita pibil? Do you need your fix of pliable tortillas loaded with the freshest ingredients around and brash, unflinching flavours? Well, you’re in luck. London’s Mexican food scene is improving on the daily and the city – once starved for anything outside of the occasional Cholula-drenched burrito – is now home to some wonderful taquerías who take the art of making a taco very seriously. Which is great news for people, like you and me, that want to go crate-digging for brilliant corn and flour vinyls that have been inscribed with deep grooves of flavour.

There’s Sonora Taquería in Netil Market with their lard-laden tortillas, there’s Homies On Donkeys with their fun and fresh approach to what constitutes a taco filling, and there’s even Santiago Lastra’s KOL over in Marylebone where you can find some of the most pondered-over tacos in the whole country. Basically, there’s plenty of great tacos dotted all across the capital. You just need to know where to look.

This list of the best places to eat tacos in London should hopefully act as a helpful guide the next time you’re in the mood for slow-cooked meat and nixtamalized corn. Be prepared to whip out your best Guy Fieri hunch when you're eating some of these tacos though – it's bound to get messy.

La Chingada’s Instagram bio says their aim is to “have the best tacos in London,” and honestly, I think they can tick that one off the to-do list. The al pastor, suadero , and chorizo tacos at this Surrey Quays taquería are all superlative. The al pastor is all sunshine chunks of juicy pork, jazzed up with pineapple and diced onions; the chorizo, a delicious crimson mass that’ll stain anything within a five-mile radius; and the suadero. a slow-cooked brisket option that’s so rich and unctuous it’ll make you want to have an instant siesta. Well-made corn tortillas hold everything together while the fluorescent aesthetic of the restaurant adds an undeniable charm. Worth the trip, no matter where you live.

206 Lower Road, SE8 5DJ

One of the biggest problems with most mediocre tacos in London is that the tortillas they’re made with are often treated as second fiddle to the filling; a drab and floury afterthought that’s nothing but a means of getting spicy meat and salsa into your mouth. That’s not the case at Sonora Taquería – a Hackney taco hatch where the handmade, pork fat-laden tortillas are given just as much attention as the beef barbacoa and pork chicharrón that they encase. Michelle Salazar and Sam Napier set up this taquería and tortillería in Netil Market with the intention of making the rest of London’s taco slingers take notice. It’s safe to say they’ve done just that with everyone seeming to have upped their game since Sonora strolled into town. Sonora is open from Friday to Sunday from 12-4 pm, or until they sell out. Which, I can tell you from personal experience, is usually well before 4 pm. Expect a queue. And some of the best tacos in London.

13-23 Westgate Street, E8 3RL

Carnitas, for those who haven’t already binge watched Taco Chronicles on Netflix, is a Michoacán specialty in which seasoned pork is slow-cooked until it's as tender as you are after a three-day festival before its fried in its own fat and torn to tender shreds. The folks at Tacos MX in Fulham make some of the meanest carnitas tacos you’ll find in the city, draping generous portions of that almost-liquid meat onto freshly handmade corn tortillas. Finished off with a simple garnish of chopped coriander and onion, it’s one of the best tacos in London. And it’s made even better when given a dash of Tacos MX’s bespoke salsa verde.

37 Lillie Road, SW6 7NR

Homies On Donkeys might have a relatively un-serious name but they make some serious tacos. Wood Street is where you can find these talented taco traders mixing local British ingredients and Mexican staples to come up with some inventive (and delicious) creations. All of which are then thrown onto a nixtamalized corn tortilla for your gustatory pleasure by chef Eric "Smokey" Sanchez. The pork cochinita and chicken adobo tacos are both excellent in their own right but my pick of the bunch is actually the camaron enchilado – a taco strewn with juicy king prawns that are cooked in a chilli, garlic, and tomato sauce till they’re practically swimming with flavour. Those pert prawns are then topped with coriander, pickled onions, and a heap of rustic salsa for good measure. Keep an eye out for the Saturday specials and make sure to bring an appetite. You’re going to want a round two.

Unit 38 Wood Street Indoor Market, 98 Wood Street, E17 3HX

Far more than just a sandwich shop, Bodega Rita’s is one of those beatific little places that do everything absolutely brilliantly. Including tacos. You can take your pick out of the carnitas taco (slow-roasted pork shoulder, collar, belly and hocks topped with a pared-back selection of diced sweet white onions, coriander, and lime) and the suadero taco (confit shin of beef topped with onions, coriander, and lime) or you can do the only truly sensible thing and order them both. Rita's chef Gabe Pryce has obviously done his research and, boy, is his taco thesis delicious.

91 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BH

Santiago Lastra’s KOL is a very special restaurant and while there is technically only one item listed as a “taco” on the menu, rest assured that it is a very special taco. A medley of langoustine, smoked chilli, and sea buckthorn, it’s a taco that toys with your perceptions of flavour in a way that the tacos you’ll eat hunched over a counter in your lunch hour simply cannot match. There’s obviously a time and a place for both of those eating experiences, but if you’re after a contemplative taco that’ll make you think deeply about how everything you’ve ever felt is just the result of electric signals pinging to and fro in your brain, then this is the singular taco you should be seeking out. If you’re also after something more substantial, KOL serves incredible platters of confit pork cheek carnitas and whole grilled octopus with bone marrow that come alongside an arsenal of condiments and fresh tortillas to be shared at the table. Yes, you can make your own little tacos right then and there and, yes, even when you’re making them yourself they’re easily some of the best tacos in London.

9 Seymour Street, W1H 7BA

As the latest restaurant in the growing El Pastór empire, this Brewer Street taquería does the absolute business on a range of mouth-watering tacos. Using only heritage, non-GMO corn sourced direct from farmers in Mexico, El Pastór makes all of their tortillas fresh in their Bermondsey tortilleria, every morning. That quality shines through in everything from the eponymous pastor tacos (in which 24-hour marinated free-range pork is paired with caramelised pineapple and avocado-serrano chilli salsa) to the crispy soft-shell crab and confit mushroom tacos. I’d personally recommend bringing a couple of mates along and going for two of the sharing plates with a side order of mezcal cocktails – it’s a ballsy way to see what El Pastór is all about.

66-70 Brewer Street, W1F 9UP

You might not expect a taquería run by someone named Nick Fitzgerald to be all that world-changing, but trust me when I tell you that Tacos Padre is one of the best taco joints in town. Fitzgerald, who previously worked at the much-fêted Pujol restaurant in Mexico City, has nailed a menu of brilliant tacos and Mexican-inspired small plates that deliver a real depth of flavour. The short-rib suadero taco is an intensely beefy boy, thanks to the addition of aged beef fat, but it gets rounded off nicely by the smokiness of a handsome morita salsa. Rich and wonderful pork cochinita, on the other hand, is lifted by a liberal amount of x-ni-pek (burnt habanero pickled red onions). Borough Market is a location that’s spoiled for great eats, but Tacos Padre should be at the summit of your hit list.

The Borough Market Kitchen Padre, Winchester Walk, Jubilee Place, SE1 9AG

What Taco Queen lacks in size, it more than makes up for in character. Walk into this Peckham taquería and the first thing you’re likely to be greeted by is an array of smiling faces, probably covered in some form of salsa. The second thing you’ll be greeted by is a waft of fragrant salsa and the comforting nose hug of freshly fried chicken. While the buttermilk fried chicken tacos are legit, the baja fish tacos are what you should be ordering; a tangle of hot, salty, spicy, and sweet where crisp masa-battered pollock is thrown in a soft tortilla with chipotle mayo, red cabbage, sour cream, cucumber, and chunks of mango. It’s hard to find a more enjoyable taco experience in London than chowing down on some of Taco Queen’s fish tacos with an icy cold Modela in your hand.

191 Rye Lane, SE15 4TP

“Keep it simple, keep it real” is the motto of this taco spot on Kingsland High Street, so I’m going to keep it real simple for you: Del74’s tacos are good. Nothing less, nothing more. The sautéed chicken thigh and sautéed tilapia tacos both err towards the fresh end of the fresh to full-bodied flavour spectrum while the lamb barbocoa and braised pork leg tacos tickle the opposite, heavier side just dandy. I’d recommend getting a couple of plates from each end for a fair reflection of what Del74 has got to offer. Which, as I’d like to reiterate, is good tacos.

129 Kingsland High Street, E8 2PB

The tacos at Breddos Tacos either come served in pairs on 12cm corn tortillas or on a single homemade flour tortilla. The former can be topped with masa fried chicken, baja fish, and baja mushroom while the latter can be given birria de res (braided beef shin and short rib) or smoked aubergine for company. Whichever way you go, you won’t be disappointed. Honestly. Pretty much every taco that comes out of this Clerkenwell kitchen has been thought over long and hard so that it attains an optimum level of texture and flavour – all the way from the bitter and electric acidity of a freshly squeeze lime to a creamy, spicy shmear of habanero mayo. Breddos Tacos is one of the best places to eat tacos in London.

82 Goswell Road, EC1V 7DB

Edson Diaz-Fuentes, a México City native, started Santo Remedio along with his wife, Natalie, back in 2013 through a series of popular pop ups and supper clubs. They opened up this permanent spot in London Bridge around 2017 and it’s been consistently touted as one of the best Mexican restaurants in London ever since. Sample a few of Edson’s pork belly tacos and you’ll see why. Dressed with a sweet and spicy tomatillo salsa and topped with crunchy nugs of chicharrón, that taco is an excellent reminder of just how delicious a pig can be when it’s treated with the respect it deserves. The soft shell crab taco (with slaw, jalapeño and mint mayo) is also an absolute slobber knocker. Because God knows crabs deserve some R-E-S-P-E-C-T, too. Oh, and they do ice cream tacos. Yeah. I know.

152 Tooley Street, SE1 2TU

Bake Street is a great place to fuel up on specialty coffee and refined bakes during the week but it’s also an equally great place to get your fill of brilliant tacos once the weekend rolls around. Bake Street’s birria tacos have been prompting murmurs of excitement and grunts of pleasure among London’s fooderati for a good while now and if you’ve yet to sample them for yourself, you need to hop on the overground to Rectory Road. Stat. The kogi tacos (filled with Korean beef short-rib, salsa roja, and a funky kimchi-spiked slaw) and the vegan tinga tacos (hibiscus tinga with refried beans and vegan crema, thanks for asking) are also worth your time and money. Just like everything else at Bake Street.

58 Evering Road, Lower Clapton, N16 7SR

There are fifteen different types of tacos listed on the menu at Taquería. Fifteen! All of them come on soft corn tortillas and are loaded with quality ingredients. Which makes choosing which to get pretty difficult. As well as fresh veggies, Taquería only uses free-range chicken, locally-farmed pork and steak, line-caught fish, and organic prawns. If you’re a vegetarian with a taco-craving, this is probably the best place to hit up in London. Taquería’s green chile and potato tacos pack a serious punch and their plantain tacos are a prime example of fusion cuisine done right.

141-145 Westbourne Grove, W11 2RS

If you’re looking for one of the best (and ballsiest) tacos in London, go into any of the city’s Temper restaurants and order yourself the cheeseburger taco. Yes, as far as tacos go, one that contains an aged beef patty, Ogleshield cheese, and green mole is about as untraditional as you can get but, boy, is it delicious. If you’re in the mood for something a tad more classical, then you can always get a plate of Temper’s cochinita pibil tacos instead. That combination of flame-grilled meat with traditional corn tacos is hard to beat and it’s less likely to rock the boat with taco purists. Not that they’d care all that much after a few cheeky cheeseburger tacos.

Various locations

Located right in the beating, artery clogged heart of Soho, Corazón is a pleasant Mexican restaurant that’s very comfortable in its own skin. They’re not trying to claim any overt authenticity here (there is, after all, a chicken BLT taco on the menu) but have simply taken inspiration from Mexican cuisine and used it to create some pretty tasty plates of food. Plates including – you guessed it – tacos. The carne asada taco offers up a well-cooked piece of chipotle, orange and soy-marinated hanger steak alongside avocado purée, pickled onions, and jalapeño mojo on a house-made tortilla bed. Corazón is nice and a decent shout if you’re in the area with a hankering for tacos.

29 Poland Street, W1F 8QR