Located at 357 West 44th Street, Reunion is an underground surf bar with some very good vegetarian tacos. It’s gets very crowded with the after-work crowd.

This round of tacos we eaten by committee. We had pork tacos and we had avocado tempura tacos. The avocado tempura taco might be the best vegetarian taco I’ve had.

In Response to the avocado taco:

LJ said the tacos were fresh and bright.

Laura, the vegetarian, says: It was not bland like some vege tacos. If ever there was a vegetarian taco, this is it. It’s the secret sauce that delivers a tang with the cabbage. There is nothing missing in this taco.

Christine says: It’s good and refreshing but I like beef. It’s a good taco but I much rather have a big piece if pork in the middle. It’s a good shell.

Carmay says: For a soon to be vegetarian, this would make my transition smooth.

About the  pork taco:

Not a good as avocado – not as well balanced. Pork has a tasty BBQ flavor but it was overpowering. Too much garnish. At one point, I had a whole bite of just cabbage.

Reunion Facebook Page

Reunion Website

Last, at some point, this was eaten:

Baja Surf Taco: Tempura cod, cabbage, pico, cilantro sauce, lime

New Jersey has a hidden secret. No, it’s not the supplier of Pauly D’s hair gel. It’s Surf Taco! Most people I’ve asked have never heard of it but it’s awesome! If for some gnarly reason you find yourself in New Jersey, check to see if there is a Surf Taco near by. I recently munched on these bodacious shrimp and cod tacos.

Garlic Shrimp Taco

Taco Salad

Lacey, NJ

Areba!

[via Cultivating Life]

I was excited for this event since I missed every other taco-related event this summer. We bought two $8 tickets in advance – not sure why because no one checked any tickets. We’ve been to a lot of food events this summer so maybe we were expecting too much. This wasn’t so much an event as it was just a temporary taco truck selling over-marketed food. The result: waiting 1 hr for two bean tacos, some arugula and a picked pepper. The tacos were OK, but the 1 hr wait was not – a poorly managed event left a bitter taste in our mouth. The beans needed some salt but the taco overall showed some thought was put into it. I did enjoy the carbonated iced coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee. To full the void in our stomachs, we finished the night with a burrito and taco from Little Mexico at The Woods (which were pretty good).

One last East River Bar rant: Why is the Poor Man’s Pina Colada $9?

Little Mexico is the food cart in the back of The Woods (48 S 4th St, Brooklyn) Steak taco above – $3 – awesome! Chicken burrito below – $6 – weird but still pretty tasty (Grilled tortilla, grilled rice, chicken, cheese, no beans)

Tacos Tumbras a Tomas is in the Grand Central Market in LA. For the most part, I hate LA but I might move there for this market. This is definitely the best carnitas I’ve ever had. My lady claims the same and so do many Yelpers. One guy even states “By far the best Carnitas I have had in my life, US or Mexico.”

So what you see above is a huge carnitas taco. It defies all other carnitas I’ve had. It’s not greasy but it is tender. It’s delicious and flavorful but not heavy. It doesn’t even need garnish. There seems to be some magical mixture of cilantro, onions, and spices in the meat. This is first taco I’ve eaten to get 5 sombreros! I think that calls for a margarita…

What you see below is an absurdly huge asada burrito with about 75 lbs of meat.

The Market

Tacos Tumbras a Tomas

Beautiful meat selection

Another vendor, selling tons of peppers and spices

Where do you think flavor comes from?

Olvera Street is the birthplace of Los Angeles! Now it’s a tiny tourist trap with serapes and masks everywhere and some little tacos shops.

At Rodolfo’s we enjoyed some very authentic asada, chicken, and carnitas tacos there. Then we ordered a more-American hard shell taco which was fried-to-order – yes! Getting these tacos at such a tourist trap makes me believe that even bad California tacos are better than most east coast tacos.

From Timeout: 5 Burro Café The owners of a 20-year-old Forest Hills Tex-Mex cantina open a sister location in Brooklyn, serving the same menu of tacos, fajitas and nachos. The bonus: a garden ideal for sipping the margaritas in the heat.

127 Columbia St between DeGraw and Kane Sts, Brooklyn (718-875-5515)

5burrocafe.com

For Cinco de Mayo, we went to Papacito’s in Greenpoint (999 Manhattan Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11222 – (718) 349-7292). I’ve been told it’s one of the best. Well, it’s pretty damn good. The tacos are bigger than usual. Three will leave you full. I like that each type of filling corresponds with it’s own toppings. I got to munch on the fish, chicken, and verde pork tacos. No going wrong with those. Tecates were $1!!

Read on…

The place was packed as shit, because of the holiday, but we got a seat outside. Papacito’s recently(?) expanded and took over the ex-psychic next door. They are now twice as big inside and have direct access to their outdoor patio. The newish bartender, who didn’t know the price of a tequila shot, was kind of an aloof idiot. The hostess was typically stand offish per her pretty head. The waiters and bus boys were working hard and getting stuff done. I approve.

Chris eagerly awaiting a table and a Tecate

Dug this old thing up from Oct. 22nd 2009. We’re talkin’ the renovated Tacos Nuevo Mexico at 489 5th Ave, Brooklyn. Park Slope? Sunset Park? I dunno.

What we got there is a spicy pork taco and a veal brain taco! Don’t be afraid of the brain, it’s like a braised meat and it has so much garnish it doesn’t matter! You are what you eat. I remember it being pretty damn good but I also got pretty drunk after so who knows. I’m giving it 4/5 nonetheless.

I’ve noticed this weird loading dock creation while driving by on Tillary St. I just thought someone had put some Christmas lights on their loading dock – because it’s no place for a food cart! But The Brooklyn Paper informs me that this is god damn taco cart! Now, only if it weren’t impossible to get to on foot. I used to live on Tillary and Gold St. Literally dodging bullets on the way to the bodega back then, I hope I grab a taco, un-grazed!

The Loading Dock
170 Tillary St. between Flatbush Avenue and Gold Street
Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am-3 pm
Wednesday-Saturday, 6-10 pm.
Cash only.

[A taco cart opens in Downtown — no, this is big]

Barrio Chino at 253  Broome St. in the Lower East Side is quite good. The wait is long and the tables are tiny but the food is awesome. DO get the fish tacos for $8. DO also get the Jalapeño Margarita. DO NOT get the Habanero Margarita unless you think Phall Curry goes down like ice cream.

Habanero Margarita (ouch!)

Go to La Superior at 295 Berry St. Just stop reading this and go. Oh, and get the beef tongue taco – it’s not chewy, it’s like pork belly – but beefy. Just get it and shut up.

I got shrimp, steak, and beef tongue tacos. All good – tongue was the best. Decent prices also, here’s the menu [pdf].

Tacos!

Quesadilla.

Gauc.

Fast and Fresh at 84 Hoyt St. gets toooooooons of praise around town – real ass kissing occurs. I was excited to go there. It’s a side-street, hole-in-the-wall deli where local Mexicans chow down and it’s acclaimed by Californians. Californians always know what’s up! (debatable) When we arrived, we ordered up chicken, salted beef, carnitas and, last but not least, goat tacos!  (goat is pictured above)

I’ll firstly comment on “Fast”. We waited about 15 minutes for 4 tacos and beans. Strike Uno! This is a deli with no one in it, not a restaurant. And believe me – the meats aren’t cooked to order. 15 minutes in a deli is the same as 4 hours in a restaurant.

The goat was a bit goaty as one might expect but it wasn’t bad. I think it’s preparation is where it failed. Dry, bland, chewy. Nothing tastes good like that.

The chicken (above) was actually the best one out of the bunch. It was grilled, a little crispy, and had a good sauce but was a bit…party? Meaning it included some parts that were not meat. It was also quite large.

Look at that pork! The carnitas looks delicious but for some reason was boring. It was also dry and chewy like it was cooked twice or maybe thrice. It was oily (in a bad way) and a bit dirty tasting (in a bad way).

Similar to the pork, the beef was dry, chewy and dirty. At this point, the tacos just aren’t appetizing so we failed to finish them. Overall, I found it neither Fast nor Fresh. The tacos did not embody any feeling of freshness. I felt kind of dirty afterwords. With the taste test over, we moved on to some beans!

I’ve been going to Los Pollitos II in Park Slope for many years now. Not because it’s great but because there isn’t any real competition close by (Mezcals is slop, in my opinion). Well, it was time to try their tacos as it’s been a while since I had them. I ordered 1 shrimp ($3), 1 pork ($2.25), and 1 chicken ($2.25)

The shrimp was taco was decent – it’s hard to fuck up shrimp. There was no discernible sauce on the shrimp so it was a little boring. And way too much lettuce (as pictured).

The pork taco was bland and was piled with lettuce – I rather call this one a salad taco. And lastly, the chicken taco; well, we don’t even have to talk about it. Sadly, I have to give these taco a rating of 2. With a few minor adjustments, they have a real chance of being good. But for now, I wouldn’t get them again. Los Pollitos’ specialties are enchiladas and burritos – go there for that. Not the tacos.

They have three kinds of tacos for $3 each – fish, chorizo and tofu. An extra buck gets you a deluxe version, which as far as I could tell only means that it has guacamole on top. Seemed kind of pricey to me, but it really is quite a trek out there so I couldn’t begrudge them too much. I guess I got used to eating the lunchtime half-priced tacos at Papacito’s during my unemployment and my sense of pricing has become skewed. So I ordered a couple deluxe fish tacos and a special elote (an ear of corn with mayonnaise, lime, cheese and pepper).

The tacos that were delivered by the cute surfer-girl-waitress looked pretty disappointing. The fish was battered and fried, held in one dry tortilla, covered in guacamole and lettuce with a few radishes as garnish. No sauce. Though, we were brought both homemade red and green salsas that vastly improved the tacos. Otherwise, they were pretty tasteless. The corn was also mediocre; boiled or steamed, not grilled, and kind of tough. The guacamole was delicious though; just the right amount of chunky versus creamy and super fresh. I immediately regretted not ordering just a side of guacamole, which they serve with tortilla or plantain chips. Yum.

My friend and I finished our tacos and were still hungry, but didn’t want to spend more cash so we walked back to the S train at 98th Street to make the long journey back to Northern Brooklyn. It’s not worth a trip and I am not sure if I will make it back there this summer, but if I end up nearby and hungry I will definitely be stopping by to eat more of that guacamole and maybe try one of their fruit drinks or quesadillas. They are off my taco list though.

I am secretly a beach bum Californian at heart trapped in the body and life of a New Yorker. Fish tacos and the beach are probably my two most beloved things. When I go out to LA my first stop is always a taco truck (where even the iceberg lettuce tastes fresh and delicious) followed by a trip to to the beach. So while I am trapped in New York during the summer, I often make the long trek out to Jacob Riis Beach and obsessively search for a decent approximation of my beloved fish taco. So far my favorite has been Papacito’s in Greenpoint. They are big and greasy but also delicious, fresh and cheap!

http://rockawaytaco.com/