Koko Lists
Start a new list
Log in
Sign up
← New random battle
Koko Battle
Tap your pick.
Velvet Taco
Velvet Taco is built around a very different premise than most of the traditional taquerias on this list: a scratch-made, globally-inspired taco chain offering more than 20 varieties at any given time, with ingredients pulled from well outside traditional Mexican cooking — Thai basil, waffle tortillas, and Nashville-style hot tofu all show up across the menu, alongside more expected options. The chain's signature format is the WTF — Weekly Taco Feature — a rotating, limited-time taco that changes every week, keeping the menu in constant motion rather than settling into a fixed lineup the way most taquerias do. Sides lean into the same fusion approach: elote corn sits next to red curry coconut queso, and the chain's red velvet cake dessert is distinctive enough to have become something of a signature on its own. Velvet Taco has scaled well beyond Chicago — more than 50 locations across Texas, Illinois, Georgia, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Florida, Arizona, North Carolina, and other states, with more opening regularly. That's a meaningfully different business than any of the independent, single-location taquerias elsewhere on this list; Velvet Taco is a genuine regional chain, and its Chicago locations (Lincoln Park and Near North Side) reflect that more polished, replicable format. Being explicit about that chain status matters for setting expectations — this isn't a spot chasing authenticity or a specific regional tradition the way most of the rest of this list is, it's a scratch-kitchen fast-casual concept built for consistency and rapid replication across markets. For anyone specifically looking for a break from traditional Mexican or Tex-Mex flavors on a taco crawl, the weekly WTF rotation and genuinely wide ingredient range make Velvet Taco a useful palate reset between more traditional stops. Velvet Taco was founded in Dallas in 2011 by restaurant entrepreneurs Randy DeWitt and Jack Gibbons, whose company FB Society opened the first location at the busy Knox-Henderson intersection with a specific idea in mind: apply scratch-kitchen, chef-driven technique to late-night, fast-casual food in a market that mostly offered fast food after hours. The WTF program has been running long enough to become an institution in its own right — 52 new rotating tacos a year, one per week, with no repeats within a given cycle — and it won a national Nation's Restaurant News MenuMasters Award in 2020 specifically for that limited-time-offer format. The chain has taken on private equity investment to fund its expansion beyond Texas, a growth-capital structure that sets it apart from the independent, family-run taquerias that make up most of the rest of Chicago's taco scene. For a Chicago taco list, Velvet Taco is the essential "taco as a global fusion canvas" entry — a fast-growing chain built on rotating weekly specials and ingredients borrowed from Thai, Nashville, and beyond, a genuinely different taco experience than the traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex spots that make up most of the rest of the city's scene.
VS
Antique Taco
Antique Taco started with what its founders, Rick and Ashley Ortiz, describe as a slightly odd idea: combine two things they loved — tacos and antiques — into a single restaurant. More than a decade later, the family-owned business is still built around that same premise, now with locations in both Wicker Park and Bridgeport, and remains a minority- and women-owned Chicago restaurant. The space itself is as much a part of the draw as the food: an eclectic, all-wood-finished dining room genuinely furnished with antique pieces and vintage design, giving the restaurant a lived-in, collected-over-time feel rather than the deliberately minimalist look most modern taco spots go for. It's one of the more visually distinct taquerias in the city specifically because the "antique" half of the name isn't just branding — the furniture is real. On the food side, Antique Taco leans into large, filling tacos built on thick, flour-style tortillas with creative, sometimes unexpected flavor combinations rather than sticking to strictly traditional fillings — a farmer's-market-adjacent, ingredient-forward approach that's earned it a reputation as one of Wicker Park's most reliably interesting taco kitchens rather than the most traditionally authentic one. Having sustained that concept for well over a decade, expanding to a second Bridgeport location along the way, is itself notable in a city where novelty-driven restaurant concepts often burn out within a few years. The Ortiz family's continued day-to-day involvement has kept both locations feeling like a genuine family business rather than a scaled-up brand, even as Antique Taco has become one of the more recognizable names on Chicago's broader taco scene. The Wicker Park original operated on its own for roughly four years before Rick and Ashley Ortiz opened the Bridgeport location in 2016 — a homecoming of sorts for Rick, who grew up in that neighborhood, at a former gas-station-turned-Mr.-Submarine site on 35th Street. The Bridgeport menu leans further into Rick's own family recipes and neighborhood-specific touches, including an al pastor spit and a "Super Crunchy" taco alongside carryover favorites like chili cheese curds. Antique Taco has picked up national attention along the way, with outlets naming it among America's best taco spots and its margarita program singled out for awards of its own — recognition for a restaurant that started, by the founders' own account, from the fairly odd premise of just wanting to combine two things they personally loved. For a Chicago taco list, Antique Taco is the essential "creative, ingredient-driven" entry — a family-run, antique-furnished Wicker Park taqueria built around inventive fillings and thick flour tortillas, proof that Chicago's taco scene has real room for kitchens that treat the format as a canvas rather than a fixed tradition.
Next battle
Full comparison
About Velvet Taco
About Antique Taco
Popular Battles
1984 vs. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
1 votes
Friends vs. Curb Your Enthusiasm
1 votes
Ideogram vs. Sora
1 votes
Navy Pier vs. Bishop Museum
1 votes
Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree vs. Skittles
1 votes
George Carlin vs. Oprah Winfrey
1 votes
