13 Best Tacos in Broward County

What makes a taco worthy of being called one of the best in Broward? Some people prefer corn tortillas over flour. Others want a traditional Mexican taco with nothing more than meat, diced white onion, and cilantro. Still more prefer their tacos stuffed with crazy ingredients, from chicken fried steak to marinated mushrooms. 

Luckily, this list has it all, from octopus tacos at JoJo's in Fort Lauderdale to the gourmet-style food truck takes courtesy of Nacho Bizness and BC Tacos, and of course those authentic pibil tacos at Los Tacos or the pit-smoked meats at Wapo Taco in Hallandale Beach. 

Whether you're a purist or an adventurous eater, this list has just the taco for you.

13. Alegria Tacos
3801 N. Andrews Ave., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-563-7170.
What Alegria lacks in style and size, this tiny taco restaurant makes up for in authentic Mexican eats on the cheap. This husband-and-wife operation is friendly and traditional: They cook their tacos on a hot griddle in the quaint kitchen behind the order station, doubling-up corn tortillas to hold plenty of meat, tomato, chopped cilantro, and onion. A devoted neighborhood crowd daily files in and out daily thanks to affordable prices, like tacos at just $2.75 apiece. We envy the people living above the small corner store; they probably get to lounge in the few patio-style tables outside the front door anytime they like, enjoying intricately seasoned chorizo, chicken, steak, carnitas (even lengua, i.e., tongue) tacos whenever they please. Ask for avocado and the extra-hot sauce for more layered flavors.

12. Tropical Tacos (food truck) 
1620 State Road 84, Fort Lauderdale.
The Tropical Tacos food truck — located off Marina Mile Boulevard just east of I-95 — has been serving delicious Mexican-style cuisine for years. The truck prepares everything from nachos and quesadillas to burritos and even huarache (a traditional Mexican dish). The tacos are where it's at, however, served on a homemade warm corn tortilla with onions, cilantro, and your choice of homemade salsas and meat served with a slice of lime, radishes, and jalapeño. Choose from carne asada, lengua (beef tongue), al pastor, chorizo, pollo, or carnitas. Like it crunchy? The tacos also come with the option of a hard shell, the same soft corn tortillas fried up to a crisp. The best part: Any of the above served with two tortillas for double the fun — one soft on the outside with a crispy tortilla on the inside and stuffed with lettuce, pico de gallo, guacamole, and cream sauce.

11. El Agave Azul
13040 W. State Road 84, Davie. Call 954-530-4321, or visit ElAgaveAzul.com.
This tiny taco shop sandwiched in between a bar and a pet store in Western Davie feels just like an authentic Mexico City taco stand. The storefront is impossibly small and narrow, with one table inside and two out front. Adding to the vibe are the lines that form throughout the day, with Latin folks, locals, and workers from the nearby industrial park each looking to get their taco fix. Trompo (another word for al pastor) is the house specialty. The spicy pork is coated with ancho chili seasoning and napped into small corn tortillas, making five mini tacos that are good for a couple of bites each. Or it's stuffed into gigantic burritos alongside rice, beans, Chihuahua cheese, and fresh pico de gallo. Each of the other guisados (fillings) we tried was bursting with flavor, from marinated asado chicken shredded with spicy sauce to chicharron, crispy pork rinds married with salsa verde. The later makes about the best topping you could ask for on a tostada-like fried sope. The staff is amazingly cheerful, and the line is impeccably clean (you can see the entirety of it from the front counter). Add to that low prices and you've got one helluva taco shop out west.

10. Taqueria Dona Raquel
793 S. Dixie Highway, Pompano Beach. Call 954-946-4490, or visit donaraquel.info.
Off a lonely stretch of Dixie Highway in Pompano Beach sits Taqueria Dona Raquel, a casual sit-down Mexican restaurant best-known for its authentic tacos. The entire menu covers it all, from sopes and tostadas to pambazos, burritos, and gorditas. Start anywhere — virtually everything is good, from tender chicken in a perfectly balanced mole and vibrantly flavorful fajitas served with fresh tortillas made in-house to an aromatic bowl of pozole on weekends. The tacos take up much of the menu, offering a unique array of meats. There's the usual pollo, chorizo, carne asada, and barbacoa, of course. But also tripe, cueritos (pork skin), cesina (a traditional Mexican dried beef), campechanos (grilled steak with sausage), and cabeza (tender, rich meat from the cow's head). 

9. Nacho Bizness (food truck)
Visit nachobizness.com.
When was the last time you ate a taco that was so good, you had dreams about it for weeks afterward? That's sorta the experience you'll get from the Nacho Bizness food truck, which now has a permanent lunch location situated in Fort Lauderdale's Riverwalk park. The menu offers burritos and salad bowls as well as a number of fusion-style taco takes. That includes the Kung Fu Tuna (sesame- and soy-glazed tuna) or the Marley (with Jamaican-style pulled pork).Try the spicy Korean pulled-pork concoction, chilled cucumber, spicy sour cream, and sweet chili sauce atop a righteous helping of juicy, seasoned pork. It's everything a taco lover has always wanted without ever knowing it was possible. 

8. Los Tacos by Chef Omar
12393 Pembroke Road, Pembroke Pines. Call 954-430-5180, or visit lostacosbychefomar.com.
Hailing from Mexico City, Los Tacos owner Omar Covarrubias doesn't just prepare Mexican cuisine. He prepares authentic Mexican cuisine using traditional recipes and the correct (and often Mexican-sourced) ingredients. Covarrubias will be the first to admit that most Mexican food outside of Mexico is a sham, much of it watered-down versions of the country's northernmost cuisine, served stateside as chicken-topped nachos, flavorless fajitas, and overfried chimichangas. While the dishes at Los Tacos may look and sound familiar, they're Covarrubias' way of delivering the real flavors of Mexico to the South Florida populace. The tacos, served three at a time, are among the best you'll have north of the border, several chef's specialties including the chorizo con papas, corn tortillas packed to the brim with a crumbly, flavorful chorizo made fresh by a local Mexican market and paired with cubes of soft roasted potatoes. The pork pibil tacos — named for the Mayan word pib, or oven — pop with a combination of citrusy marinade and earthy achiote paste. If it's your first visit, however, your server will undoubtably recommend the Tacos Locos, a brilliant combination of ancho-marinated pork, carne asada, and chicharrón topped with ripe slivers of avocado and bright pico de gallo. 

7. JoJo's
216 Commercial Blvd., Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Call 954-835-5561, or visit jojostacos.com.
JoJo's Tacos creates flavors you'd never think to find pocketed into a fresh corn tortilla. It's a prime example of Mexican dish extorted into blasphemy that's sinfully right in every way. Owner Joseph Parsons opened JoJo's Tacos in the touristy Lauderdale-by-the-Sea district, just steps from the beach, in a small corner spot off Commercial Boulevard. Despite its quaint exterior and slender interior space, you'll find bold flavors at this taco joint, and no surprise — Parson's food has a famous foundation, no doubt learned from time spent with renowned Chicago chef Charlie Trotter or perhaps Mark Miller of Santa Fe's Coyote Cafe. The menu offers standard picks and specialty tacos, chef-driven ingredients and pairings rebellious enough that they bear absolutely no resemblance to a true Mexican taco. Picks like the Shrooms and Asparagus and Peachy Pollo replace meat with vegetables and chopped onion and tomato with sweet, succulent fruit. We can't help but order the Blue Cow, sweet chunks of marinated beef buried under a pile of thin, crispy, fried onions, flavored enough to feel a bit transgressive. Need more flavor? Here, condiments are just as stellar as the tacos, changing frequently and optional for $1 extra each.

6. BC Tacos (food truck)
Visit BCTacos.com.
BC Tacos came on the scene in 2011, one of South Florida's first gourmet taco food trucks. Today, there's even a brick-and-mortar spinoff of the caveman-themed BC Taco truck, the "BC" standing for Broward County. And yes, owner and creator Brett Chiavari has certainly changed the world — "one taco at a time." Both the café and truck specialize in Neolithic-named dishes, with proportions to match. BC Tacos offers up ten types, served to you in fresh-made hard corn (or soft flour) tortillas, with your choice of one of their many homemade salsas, everything from pico de gallo and tomatillo, to habanero or avocado. The truck is best-known for its specialty taco, the Caveman, a combination of burger, steak, and braised short ribs with lettuce and cheese, sandwiched between two halves of a hard taco shell and wrapped in a flour tortilla. For the more traditional, there is steak, chicken, mahi, and pulled pork — even a vegetarian choice with deep-fried avocado. 

5. Wapo Taco
1955 E. Hallandale Beach Blvd., Hallandale Beach. Call 954-456-6969, or visit elwapotaco.com.
Hallandale Beach's Wapo Taco may resemble a chain restaurant, but its flavors are that of Mexico City. Look beyond the gleaming, modern dining space and you'll find some unexpected authentic touches. Pork and chicken al pastor slowly turn on a trompo, or spit. A woman makes corn tortillas by hand while a man stokes coals for the grill. Wapo Taco might look like a casual Americanized café, but its roots are steeped in traditions a half-century old, thanks to partner Francisco Musi, who explains that food is made using his family recipes that go back to El Farolito, which opened in Mexico City in 1962. The gringa features pork or chicken al pastor shaved to order atop twin flour tortillas, topped with onions, cilantro, and pineapple. Carne asada tacos are served two to an order ($9.99). They're made with a generous portion of charcoal-grilled steak with roasted chilies, onions, avocado, and cilantro.

4. El Guanaco 
331 NE 44th St., Oakland Park. Call 954-351-0792, or visit elguanacooaklandpark.com/Menu.html.
This Salvadoran-owned restaurant and taco shop offers a unique mix of authentic Mexican and Salvadoran recipes, everything from fresh handmade papusas and soups to classic simple street tacos. The small restaurant has sit-down seated service or a short bar where you can watch as the trio of cooks shuffle back and forth from one pot to another in the exposed kitchen beyond. Listed under "side orders," each taco is available à la carte, everything from pollo and shrimp to mahi and steak. The tortillas are thick and soft — much like their papusa cousin, also a good pick here — and baked on the griddle before serving. The carnitas is where it's at (and offers some of the best we've sampled) cooked in its own fat until the meat is juicy and succulent with that hallmark crispy, flavorful shell of long-simmered meat. Pair it with a glass of homemade horchata and you have an affordable meal that can't be beat.

3. Tacocraft Taqueria & Tequila Bar
204 SW Second St., Fort Lauderdale. Call 954-463-2003, or visit tacocraft.com.
We named them the best tacos in South Florida for a reason: These tacos are truly some amazing flavor bombs, each one a unique and creative riff on classic Mexican presentation, from homemade masa tortillas to imported cheeses and fresh sauces. Come Tuesday, Tacocraft celebrates the art of the taco with a great deal: $2 tacos, $4 beers (both draft and bottle), and $6 specialty Espolón margaritas. You can order several of the menu's most popular items — including the braised chicken with 24-hour adobo marinated chicken, queso fresco, guacamole, pica de gallo, and cilantro-lime crema; the popular crispy shredded pork, with adobo- and chili-rubbed pork, cotija cheese, charred pineapple, crema, and salsa verde; and the prime ground beef taco, with lettuce, tomato, sour cream, and cheddar cheese on a flour tortilla — available all day for the $2 apiece deal. That includes everything from the specialty sourced meats and imported cheese to the hand-formed corn tortillas made on-premise each day.

2. El Jefe Luchador
27 S. Federal Highway, Deerfield Beach. Call 954-246-5333, or visit jefetaco.com.
The creation of chef Mike Saperstein and partner Evan David — the pair behind Deerfield Beach's Charm City Burgers and Boca Raton's Rebel House — El Jefe Luchador offers "hard-core Mexican street food" in a fun, casual environment. Much of the menu pays homage to traditional street food style with tacos that sport simple topping of sweet onion, cilantro, and diced tomato. Others are colorful takes, including a recent special, a Cuban-style taco with lechon-style roast pork, a black bean garlic salsa, citrus crema, sweet plantains, and orange mojo sautéed onions. The easiest way to go: Simply choose your meat, preparation style, and toppings — and enjoy. The most popular? The barbacoa takes the taco, a whole beef brisket dry-rubbed and left to marinate overnight, then charred on the grill and braised in a tomato-flavored beef broth with roasted chili, onion, and garlic. For that alone, El Jefe will go through 400 pounds a week. For the more adventurous, however, there's the chef-driven side, where Saperstein has his fun. Looking for the most outrageous? Try the hamburguesa taco, taking the best of Charm City burger — its sister establishment — and fashioning it into one hell of a specialty quesadilla-hard-shell combo. And almost as important as the meat? The tortillas, made fresh by a local purveyor, stored in a humidity-controlled environment for no more than a day, and routinely blind taste-tested to ensure freshness and quality.

1. Taco Beach Shack
334 Arizona St., Hollywood. Call 954-920-6523, or visit tacobeachshack.com.
On prime real estate just a block off the beach in Hollywood, Taco Beach Shack offers loungey outdoor seating; cheap, delicious tacos; and a promise: If you get too drunk, you can always book a room at the nearby hotel. The restaurant — and the hotel — are owned by the same team from Maxine's Bistro & Bar and The Tavern at Hotel Croydon both in South Beach. The tacos come with a choice of corn, whole wheat, or soft flour tortilla and are stuffed with cheddar cheese, cabbage, cilantro cream sauce, pico de gallo, and fresh chopped cilantro and onion. If you stop here, you can't leave without trying the Korean short rib and kimchi slaw taco — best served in the restaurant's homemade crispy fried shells. Of course, they're all good — from the fried calamari and Baja-style mahi to the tender brisket, flavor-packed carnitas, or crispy shrimp served with a hearty pineapple salsa (pictured here).

Nicole Danna is a food writer covering Broward and Palm Beach counties. To get the latest in food and drink news in South Florida, follow her @SoFloNicole or find her latest food pics on the New Times Food & Drink Instagram.