Tulum: Taco Quest

This post is dedicated to one of my favorite parts about Mexico, TACOS! If I had to estimate, I bet at least 75% of the meals I’ve eaten so far in Mexico have been tacos and I’m not mad about it.

Now that I have basically zero responsibilities in my life, I have to make some up to keep myself busy, so I made it my mission to find the best taco in Tulum. While tacos may seem pretty simple, there is a lot that goes into creating the perfect taco:

• Tortilla: Real tacos are served on corn tortillas, which are warmed up right before they are served to you and bring some great additional flavor to the taco. Some places do have flour tortillas, these tacos are called “gringas”
• Filling: This is where things get interesting, there was no shortage of taco fillings available in and around Tulum and I tried as many as I could. These included al pastor (marinated pork with pineapple), carne asada (steak), pulpo (octopus), camarones (shrimp), chorizo, pescado (fish), tripa (chitterlings aka pig/cow intestine 😳). Al pastor was the hands down winner, typically it was cooked on a spit similar to gyro meat and it was sooo damn good that I typically got at least one al pastor taco every place I went.
• Fixins: I’m a sucker for some good fixins’, especially at the street taco stands, which had an impressive amount of additional toppings you could add to your tacos. They ranged from grilled onions, green chiles, cilantro, pickled vegetables, crema, and so many different types of salsas and hot sauces. Typically I went overboard with this portion, resulting in my mouth becoming a fiery inferno by the end of each meal.

With no further ado, here are the can’t miss taco spots in Tulum:

• Pepe’s The Best Taco– accurately named, this was a small taco stand that coincidentally was about about a block from my place and I ate there 3 times in week. Mi favorito! Incredible al pastor, shrimp, mixta, chorizo, even tripa tacos (that’s cow intestine for the record, Pepe talked me into it). Pepe and his wife run the stand and are incredibly friendly and they had a huge assortment of fixins’ to throw on the tacos as well. 3 tacos for $5.
• Antojitos la Chiapaneca– small restaurant located in Centro, with incredible al pastor and cold beer. Pretty sure we were the only non-locals in there. They also had really good empanadas and gringas.
• El tio taco stand– learned about this place on reddit, the only directions were that it was across the street from the GoMart in Centro, sure enough we found it and had some excellent al pastor and chorizo tacos along with some great fixins
• El carboncito– open air restaurant, very crowded (for good reason), more amazing al pastor tacos
• Tres Galeones– cool little restaurant, more touristy/expensive (all the places above would feed you a full meal for about 100 pesos/$5). Great seafood tacos and mezcalitas
• La Taqueria- Pinches Taco Shop– Another more touristy joint, but they did have some bomb tacos
• Burrito Amor– Bonus, because it’s not a taco spot. They did have the best burritos in town however and serve breakfast all day

• Tacos
• tulum