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Viviana Montano

16 Taco Destinations in the East Bay

A hit list of some of the best carne asada, carnitas, birria —and even vegan — tacos in the East Bay

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Unlike Oakland A’s game attendees, tacos are easy to find in the East Bay. Street corners from Richmond to Hayward are dotted with trucks, pop-ups, and traditional restaurants dishing up everything from regional homespun specialties to modern, California-ized takes on classics. During the pandemic, the East Bay further cemented itself as a taco destination, as scores of newcomers emerged onto the scene. Here’s where to find some of the best across the Bay Bridge right now.

Health experts consider dining out to be a high-risk activity for the unvaccinated; it may pose a risk for the vaccinated, especially in areas with substantial COVID transmission.

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Tacos El Tucan

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As one of those places where everything is good, the go-to move here is to order the “red” tacos, a newer addition to this Richmond staple. Walk up to the window to place your order and choose from adobada freshly shaved from the trompo, grilled carne asada, succulent shrimp, or any other filling, and they’ll put it inside a crispy, handmade corn tortilla with mozzarella cheese, and finish it off with onions and cilantro. If you’re in a hurry, be sure to order online, as it’s common to wait a half hour for your food.

El Garage

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These are the best quesabirria tacos in the East Bay, full stop. The business started as a front-yard pop-up in 2019, and the tacos became an instant Instagram sensation, which helped the owners open their own brick-and-mortar location less than a year later. After you take your first bite, it’s immediately apparent why this has become one of the most popular taco joints in the Bay: juicy beef birria layered between gooey mozzarella, wrapped in a crisp “red” corn tortilla — which is made impossibly more delicious when dipped into their comforting consommé.

Viviana Montano

Tacos Oscar

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Designated as a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in 2021, Tacos Oscar continues to live up to the hype. The inventive, rotating menu of tacos made with handmade tortillas draw long lines and for good reason. If you see them, snag a tomatillo-braised pork shoulder or a renowned fried egg taco drizzled in “magic chile oil,” but don’t sleep on the vegan options either, especially the peanut-y charred broccoli or the flavor-packed mushroom mole coloradito tacos.

Tacos Oscar

La Guerrera’s Kitchen

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While best known for tamales, the tacos here are not to be missed — especially in the restaurant’s new digs in Swan Market. The best? The pescado sauteed in fresh garlic; the impossibly tender barbacoa; and perhaps best yet, the spicy-sweet masterpiece known as the fried plaintain with mole rojo.

Lena Park

Bombera

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Located on a quiet side street in the Dimond District, Bombera is the latest restaurant from celebrated chef, Dominica Rice-Cisernos. While tacos are not the focal point of the Mexico City-style menu, they’re certainly phenomenal. If you’re lucky to catch them when they’re on their often-rotating menu, be sure to try the pork belly tacos or jumbo battered shrimp tacos topped with chipotle crema.

Lena Park

Tacos Mi Rancho

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The expert move with Tacos Mi Rancho, a truck that has no seating save for perhaps some posting up in the bed of a friend’s pickup, is to grab a few barbacoa tacos and bring them over to nearby Lake Merritt and reflect on how lovely life is with solid taco. Tacos Mi Rancho also has the added bonus of being open until 2:30am, so those in need of post-bar solace can find their bliss.

Noah Cho

Tacos Sinaloa

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One of the classics in Fruitvale, there’s really no wrong order at Tacos Sinaloa #2. All of the proteins are well-composed and flavorful, but it’s hard not to fall totally in love with the carnitas and cabeza tacos.

Tacos Sinaloa

Tacos El Ultimo Baile

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The beloved roaming taco truck has finally found a permanent home in the heart of Fruitvale, the perfect locale for these impeccably executed, street-style tacos. While there are staples on the menu — including grilled carne asada, trompo-roasted adobada, and beautifully seasoned pollo asado — be on the lookout for rotating specials like crispy, melt-in-your-mouth carnitas, smoked brisket barbacoa, and more. Doctor it up any way you’d like at the salsa bar, and be sure to get your tacos on the freshly handmade tortillas. (They’re a must.)

Lena Park

Tacos El Gordo

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This longtime, East Bay favorite dishes up some of the juiciest, flavor-packed adobada and crispy (but never dry) and carne asada. This truck’s “specialty meats” are also expertly prepared, including their sesos (beef brain), tripas, and lengua.   

Taqueria El Paisa@.com

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The best-named taqueria in the East Bay also serves some of the most varied and tasty tacos in the already taco-notable Fruitvale district of Oakland. Don’t be weirded out by the strange ordering system; instead, just tell the cashier how many tacos you want and, at the next window, pick your fillings. Standouts here in addition to the typical carne asada and al pastor orders are the tripas, which aren’t overly chewy, and the creamy sesos (brain) tacos.

Tacos at Taqueria El Paisa@.com Noah Cho

La Grana Fish

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A current social media phenomenon but with actual deliciousness to match, everything here is pretty awesome. This is one of the few places in the East Bay that serves a quesabirria taco, which is a consomé-dipped tortilla with griddled cheese and birria de res piled inside. It’s exactly as amazing as it sounds, and you should clear out some time on the weekend — when La Grana Fish is open — to get one or five.

Tacos Mama Cuca

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Two words: Taco. Yaqui. Served on paper-thin flour tortillas, which are made by “Mama Cuca” herself, these larger Sonoran-style tacos include a heaping serving of asada, a grilled Anaheim chile, queso fundido, frijoles puercos (Sonoran-style refried beans), thinly sliced cabbage, and your choice of salsa.

Lena Park

La Parilla Loca

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Even on cold, windy nights, you can find a line outside of La Parilla Loca, one of the newest deep East Oakland spots serving Tijuana-style, al carbon tacos. While the chorizo and al pastor are certainly good bets, be sure to try the carne asada, which is perfectly salted, seasoned, and crisp.

La Parilla Loca

Tacos Mi Reynita

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As one of the first to serve Tijuana-style tacos in the Bay Area, Tacos Mi Reynita is one of the hottest new pop-ups in Oakland. True to the border town’s style, these tacos will come “standard” with your choice of meat, onions and cilantro, and a dollop of guacamole. (You get to pick from eight different salsas carefully crafted by the founder herself.) The lines can be long — as is the case with any popular joint — but once you order, your food will come out quickly.

Tacos Mi Reynita

Habibi's Birria

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Attached to a Valero gas station in Hayward, this unassuming taco outpost whips up “Mexiterranean” food with a menu that combines falafel, gyros, and birria. Before you fuel up, head inside to order a trio of halal quesabirria tacos (with consommé, of course). If you’re just driving through, order ahead for pickup and eat outside in their small, turf patio.

Lena Park

Los Carnalitos Restaurant

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A brilliant sit-down restaurant in a nondescript shopping plaza in Hayward, Los Carnalitos turns out incredible food even beyond its exceptional tacos. Of note is the cochinita taco, complete with pickled onions on top, and the al pastor, which comes adorned with an electric-green salsa. Veggie options includes a truly stunning quesadilla with a house-made tortilla that’s filled with huitlacoche, an incredibly earthy fungus that grows on corn.

Noah Cho

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Tacos El Tucan

As one of those places where everything is good, the go-to move here is to order the “red” tacos, a newer addition to this Richmond staple. Walk up to the window to place your order and choose from adobada freshly shaved from the trompo, grilled carne asada, succulent shrimp, or any other filling, and they’ll put it inside a crispy, handmade corn tortilla with mozzarella cheese, and finish it off with onions and cilantro. If you’re in a hurry, be sure to order online, as it’s common to wait a half hour for your food.

El Garage

These are the best quesabirria tacos in the East Bay, full stop. The business started as a front-yard pop-up in 2019, and the tacos became an instant Instagram sensation, which helped the owners open their own brick-and-mortar location less than a year later. After you take your first bite, it’s immediately apparent why this has become one of the most popular taco joints in the Bay: juicy beef birria layered between gooey mozzarella, wrapped in a crisp “red” corn tortilla — which is made impossibly more delicious when dipped into their comforting consommé.

Viviana Montano

Tacos Oscar

Designated as a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in 2021, Tacos Oscar continues to live up to the hype. The inventive, rotating menu of tacos made with handmade tortillas draw long lines and for good reason. If you see them, snag a tomatillo-braised pork shoulder or a renowned fried egg taco drizzled in “magic chile oil,” but don’t sleep on the vegan options either, especially the peanut-y charred broccoli or the flavor-packed mushroom mole coloradito tacos.

Tacos Oscar

La Guerrera’s Kitchen

While best known for tamales, the tacos here are not to be missed — especially in the restaurant’s new digs in Swan Market. The best? The pescado sauteed in fresh garlic; the impossibly tender barbacoa; and perhaps best yet, the spicy-sweet masterpiece known as the fried plaintain with mole rojo.

Lena Park

Bombera

Located on a quiet side street in the Dimond District, Bombera is the latest restaurant from celebrated chef, Dominica Rice-Cisernos. While tacos are not the focal point of the Mexico City-style menu, they’re certainly phenomenal. If you’re lucky to catch them when they’re on their often-rotating menu, be sure to try the pork belly tacos or jumbo battered shrimp tacos topped with chipotle crema.

Lena Park

Tacos Mi Rancho

The expert move with Tacos Mi Rancho, a truck that has no seating save for perhaps some posting up in the bed of a friend’s pickup, is to grab a few barbacoa tacos and bring them over to nearby Lake Merritt and reflect on how lovely life is with solid taco. Tacos Mi Rancho also has the added bonus of being open until 2:30am, so those in need of post-bar solace can find their bliss.

Noah Cho

Tacos Sinaloa

One of the classics in Fruitvale, there’s really no wrong order at Tacos Sinaloa #2. All of the proteins are well-composed and flavorful, but it’s hard not to fall totally in love with the carnitas and cabeza tacos.

Tacos Sinaloa

Tacos El Ultimo Baile

The beloved roaming taco truck has finally found a permanent home in the heart of Fruitvale, the perfect locale for these impeccably executed, street-style tacos. While there are staples on the menu — including grilled carne asada, trompo-roasted adobada, and beautifully seasoned pollo asado — be on the lookout for rotating specials like crispy, melt-in-your-mouth carnitas, smoked brisket barbacoa, and more. Doctor it up any way you’d like at the salsa bar, and be sure to get your tacos on the freshly handmade tortillas. (They’re a must.)

Lena Park

Tacos El Gordo

This longtime, East Bay favorite dishes up some of the juiciest, flavor-packed adobada and crispy (but never dry) and carne asada. This truck’s “specialty meats” are also expertly prepared, including their sesos (beef brain), tripas, and lengua.   

Taqueria El Paisa@.com

The best-named taqueria in the East Bay also serves some of the most varied and tasty tacos in the already taco-notable Fruitvale district of Oakland. Don’t be weirded out by the strange ordering system; instead, just tell the cashier how many tacos you want and, at the next window, pick your fillings. Standouts here in addition to the typical carne asada and al pastor orders are the tripas, which aren’t overly chewy, and the creamy sesos (brain) tacos.

Tacos at Taqueria El Paisa@.com Noah Cho

La Grana Fish

A current social media phenomenon but with actual deliciousness to match, everything here is pretty awesome. This is one of the few places in the East Bay that serves a quesabirria taco, which is a consomé-dipped tortilla with griddled cheese and birria de res piled inside. It’s exactly as amazing as it sounds, and you should clear out some time on the weekend — when La Grana Fish is open — to get one or five.

Tacos Mama Cuca

Two words: Taco. Yaqui. Served on paper-thin flour tortillas, which are made by “Mama Cuca” herself, these larger Sonoran-style tacos include a heaping serving of asada, a grilled Anaheim chile, queso fundido, frijoles puercos (Sonoran-style refried beans), thinly sliced cabbage, and your choice of salsa.

Lena Park

La Parilla Loca

Even on cold, windy nights, you can find a line outside of La Parilla Loca, one of the newest deep East Oakland spots serving Tijuana-style, al carbon tacos. While the chorizo and al pastor are certainly good bets, be sure to try the carne asada, which is perfectly salted, seasoned, and crisp.

La Parilla Loca

Tacos Mi Reynita

As one of the first to serve Tijuana-style tacos in the Bay Area, Tacos Mi Reynita is one of the hottest new pop-ups in Oakland. True to the border town’s style, these tacos will come “standard” with your choice of meat, onions and cilantro, and a dollop of guacamole. (You get to pick from eight different salsas carefully crafted by the founder herself.) The lines can be long — as is the case with any popular joint — but once you order, your food will come out quickly.

Tacos Mi Reynita

Habibi's Birria

Attached to a Valero gas station in Hayward, this unassuming taco outpost whips up “Mexiterranean” food with a menu that combines falafel, gyros, and birria. Before you fuel up, head inside to order a trio of halal quesabirria tacos (with consommé, of course). If you’re just driving through, order ahead for pickup and eat outside in their small, turf patio.

Lena Park

Related Maps

Los Carnalitos Restaurant

A brilliant sit-down restaurant in a nondescript shopping plaza in Hayward, Los Carnalitos turns out incredible food even beyond its exceptional tacos. Of note is the cochinita taco, complete with pickled onions on top, and the al pastor, which comes adorned with an electric-green salsa. Veggie options includes a truly stunning quesadilla with a house-made tortilla that’s filled with huitlacoche, an incredibly earthy fungus that grows on corn.

Noah Cho

Related Maps