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La Taqueria
La Taqueria opened on Mission Street in 1973, founded by Miguel Jara, who emigrated from Tijuana in 1961 and built the space out himself after deciding to open a taqueria that could recreate the food he missed from home. More than fifty years later, it's one of the most cited taquerias in the country, not just the Mission District, and it's stayed under the same family's ownership the entire time. The restaurant is credited — by Bon Appétit and other national food publications — with helping create the Mission-style burrito format itself: a large, foil-wrapped burrito built without rice, leaning on meat, beans, cheese, and salsa rather than filler to bulk up the portion. That same kitchen discipline carries over to the tacos, served on small corn tortillas with the same carefully cooked meats, without the rice-and-sour-cream additions that pad out many other taquerias' offerings. FiveThirtyEight named La Taqueria the best burrito in the country in 2014, and in 2017 the James Beard Foundation recognized it as one of "America's Classics," an honor specifically reserved for beloved, community-rooted restaurants rather than fine-dining destinations. That's a rare combination of data-driven ranking and institutional recognition for a counter-service taqueria that's never changed its basic format to chase either kind of attention. For a national tacos list, La Taqueria is the essential "this is where the format got defined" entry — corn tortilla tacos and rice-free burritos from the taqueria most directly credited with establishing Mission-style Mexican food as its own American tradition.
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Guisados
"Guisados" means "stews" in Spanish, and that's exactly what fills the small, hand-pressed corn tortillas at the restaurant of the same name — a format more common on home stoves in Mexico than on American taco menus, built around braised meat and vegetable fillings rather than anything grilled. Armando De La Torre Sr. opened the original Boyle Heights location in 2010 around that idea, encouraging customers to order several small tacos instead of committing to just one — a built-in tasting-menu structure most taquerias don't offer. The fillings rotate through a wide range — cochinita pibil, mole, chicharrón, and vegetarian options like squash blossom all show up regularly — each one built around a slow-cooked stew rather than a quickly grilled protein, which gives the kitchen a very different rhythm than a griddle-and-trompo taco stand. That format rewards ordering a mixed plate rather than committing to a single filling. From the original Boyle Heights location, Guisados has expanded to multiple Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Echo Park, downtown, and Highland Park, while keeping the same small-tortilla, stew-based format at every location — a rare instance of a concept scaling without diluting what made the original distinctive. For a national tacos list, Guisados is the essential "the stewed taco, not the grilled one" entry — small hand-pressed corn tortillas piled with slow-braised fillings, built specifically to be ordered five different ways on the same plate.
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