Tacodeli

The TACOLOCO
Was the stand out by far— pile
on that dona sauce

I originally met the owner of this wonderful chain some years back. My first experience was at the north location when my office was up off of Steck. Unfortunately, it was a place I would forget about when I was thinking of lunch. Not that it was forgettable experience since I have always enjoyed my taco’s here. Frankly, I think Torchys probably ripped off most of their menu from Tacodeli. This Lamar location was convenient since I moved my office to be near the UT campus. I would get my haircut and then pop in to Tacodeli for a couple of taco’s to go. On my last visit I picked up the Mojo Fish Taco and an El Conquistador. Odd combination in retrospect. Both were yummy, but next time I think if I decide to pair something with the Mojo Fish Taco, it will probably be with a shrimp taco. The El Conquistador had a wonderful rich and full Chile Pasilla Sauce. Obviously there has been great care and time put into that. The Mojo was filled with very fresh drum, lightly grilled and matched with the Mojo Garlic Sauce and pico and guac. Very different flavor consistencies with this pairing. I like how they have all their sauces individually packaged and you are encouraged to help yourself. The service was friendly, efficient and quick. It actually felt like they enjoyed working their. Maybe I didn’t notice, but I would love to be able to purchase some of their salsa’s by the jar to stash at home. I will definitely need to inquire about this since I am pretty sure they have all taken 1^st place in the Austin Hot Sauce festival at some point.

As I’ve said before and I’ll say again, I love this place. Their breakfast tacos are the ultimate. However, they NEED to get a better phone system. This place is always jammed packed (and rightfully so), especially on weekends, and calling in just makes life so much better… That is when their phone lines actually work. Most the time it’s just dead air before being hung up on. It sucks, big time. My only complaint. Please, update your phones!!!

Had a meeting and was told we had to meet here. Ok, I didn’t care other than it took me over 45 minutes to get there at 8am on a Friday morning. I was coming from Round Rock and people in Austin just do not know how to drive but I digress… It was pretty busy in there and we wound up sitting outside too. Friendly staff as well.
I ordered the Migas Taco and a coffee. I was pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture of the taco. It did taste like I was eating migas, well I guess I was, just wrapped in a tortilla. It was a decent taco, good flour tortilla and I just had it plain, no salsa or anything else. I was a little disappointed in the value though. For $ 2.35 I was expecting a little more food. It was gone in just a few bites. My breakfast associate ordered 3 of the sirloin tacos and actually offered me one when he saw that mine was gone and he was eating alone. I did not accept, I just drank my coffee.
The coffee was much better than I expected. I had the dark roast and it was quite tasty. I was glad there were refills on that!
All in all it was pretty good, I will eat there again.
A side note — sitting outside allowed me a great view of the parking lot. For people coming into the parking lot. Please pay attention to the «DO NOT ENTER» sign! For the love people — it is ONE WAY and when you go against the grain expect the people going the right way to get irritated and by the way — you have no right to be mad either– you are going the wrong way. Also, please park in between the white lines, the other areas are what allows cars to come in and out of the lot in an orderly fashion, it is not one HUGE parking spot for you, even though it is obvious you are special, very special. I have never seen so many people drive over the curb to go the wrong way. WOW! It was entertaining watching all of this unfold though.

Delicious breakfast tacos with fluffy perfectly cooked eggs and fresh ingredients. We ordered the Jess, the vaquero, the queso fundido, the cowboy, and they Otto. They were all mm-​mm/​good, and the service was fast. The doña was not as spicy as advertised, which was alright by me. The red sauce had a great flavor too. The prices seem more than fair being that the ingredients are organic and local.

I LOVE TACODELI! This place is a incredible! Of course, part of the reason is the variety of sauces, my weakness. Their house sauce (the green one) is perfect for their taco. After reading a few reviews, I opted for the Cowboy Taco (OMG!) and the salmon taco (sweet, crunchy, tender perfection!) I can’t wait to go back and try all of their tacos!

Tacodeli makes some of my favorite tacos in Austin. I’m a huge fan of the Tacodeli blue plate: 2 tacos + rice + beans which usually runs ~$ 10 for the meal.
The Tacos:
Tacodeli excels because it has the one of the most diverse taco selections you can get in Austin. The quality of the meat and tortillas may not live up to certain taco powerhouses in the area, but Tacodeli definitely makes up for it in the creativity behind its tacos. Tacos can run a little small though: I usually need 3 here when I need 2 at competitors.
The Sauce:
The salsas are so good they deserved their own section. The dona is my favorite and I could probably eat it on anything. The habanero is the perfect level of spiciness and gives a real mean kick.
My biggest complaint about Tacodeli is that it isn’t open longer /​for dinner: if it were I’d definitely spend more time there!

Best breakfast tacos in Austin hands down. I bring every visitor here for breakfast because it’s that good. And the entire menu is gluten free except for the flour tortillas. Their corn tortillas are hella good.

I’m a big fan of Tacodeli and eat here regularly, about twice a month on weekend afternoons. My current favorite taco is the El Conquistador, which is luscious pork in a chile pasilla sauce with avocado and the most perfect dicings of onion. Also basically every egg taco is delicious because the eggs are somehow impossibly always just the right level of moist. So for consistent value, Taacodeli delivers.
The goods!
— breakfast all day on the weekends!
— friendly customer service. Once, D. ordered a bacon egg breakfast taco and when the server brought it out, she commented that the bacon looked small and so brought out two mean strips of bacon deliciousness. Also, when we went over the Thanksgiving weekend two groups of two showed up right at 2:55pm (they close at 3pm) and the staff still seemed to be their normal, accessible selves instead of throwing them shade.
— happy employees. D.‘s been going for years and tells me that the staff at the Lamar location have been working there for years, so they seem to be doing labor right, in addition to their tasty foods.
— potentially free coffee! Another bonus is that they stop brewing coffee around 11, so if you order a coffee once they’re stopped making more, they’ll generally give it to you! gratis!
The bads:
–the potatoes are just odd. They’re more of a purée than home fries, and it takes a connoisseur of the root vegetable to appreciate that kind of mouth feel. Avoid it.
–they often sell out of specials. We went last Saturday and the delibelly was already gone by 2pm If you want something popular, get there early.

Tacos for breakfast. So simple yet so good.
Thoughtful, yet simple. These tacos are so great.
My one complaint is that they don’t do lunch tacos for breakfast.

Honestly, I wish Tacodeli was just open more. I can rarely go for breakfast or lunch. I get it, but it’d be so awesome if they’d stay open a bit later, I’d be there all the damn time. Just dreaming…
Tacodeli is really winning with those vegetarian tacos though. I think a bit too often about the next time I’ll be able to eat a Papadulce. Those sweet potatoes? The sauce? Just perfection.
The salsas are award-​winning, can’t go wrong there.
The only thing that threw me was the guacamole. It’s not like a regular guacamole, it’s a cool guacamole. Really, it just wasn’t the traditional version that I was expecting and much too spicy so I wish there was a warning or description.
I do like how they give you chips in little serving sized bags. Cute. And hygienic!

THEY NEED ONE IN HOUSTON. That is all.
Came here with a few friends and tried a ton of different tacos, and none of them disappointed. From the sirloin, egg & cheese to the pollo fantastico (the only two names I remember off the top of my head), the flavors were perfection. The Dona (?) sauce was the perfect amount of spicy. The queso was decent, and the medium is HUGE — probably enough for ~5 people. Good prices compared to a lot of other taco places ($ 3−5/ea). The service is also extremely friendly. No complaints here! I will definitely be back.

A Saturday afternoon at Tacodeli was jam-​packed. The line was out the door and tables were full. The line moved quickly, but I was still able to peruse the lengthy menu. So many choices! I opted for a Topo Chico and «The Otto». Oh, The Otto. SO TASTY. A warm flour tortilla was the base for retried black beans, fresh avocado and bacon. Magic bacon. Thick, salty, magic bacon. It was a GLORIOUS taco. I had a variety of salsas from which to choose, and they all looked lovely, but I opted for the Otto au natural. And I don’t regret it:) I have had breakfast tacos from Tacodeli previously but none like this. Ready to try more of the menu and crazy impressed by their speedy service, fresh ingredients, and variety of choices. I’m a fan, Tacodeli. Keep being amazing.

Tacodeli will always hands down be my favorite taco place in Austin. In fact, this place is so good that it ruined tacos for me forever. Since I first tried this place several years ago, ever other taco place since has been compared to this place and has fallen short.
I think what makes Tacodeli special is the care they put into pairing ingredients and seasoning their meats. Every bite of every taco is just a heavenly explosion of flavor. Their salsas are also amazing — the red salsa and spicy creamy green salsa (gosh shouldn’t I know their names by now…) are my favorite.
My go to order is el conquistador + whatever attracts my eye for the day — all on corn. Cowboy is always good. Their fish tacos are good. Their corn tortilla is A+ although if you get a taco with marinated meat, the tortilla may begin to fall apart. But in a weird way I like that. Shows that the tortilla isn’t made of some crazy binders or like cardboard or something.
Only downside is that the food is kind of pricey and portions may be on the small side. But for me, 2 tacos is perfect and under $ 10.
So in the end, definitely come here… but be prepared. In fact, pray that you won’t like it as much as I do. Because tbh you’ll never have another taco as good as a tacodeli taco.

I’ve always been about the bean and cheese on flour with just a few drops of Salsa Dona. For us, Taco Deli is a naughty place to get the comfort food that we crave.
That said, Taco Deli recently put up primary menus in their locations with all prices absent. Clearly I don’t care how much I pay, as long as I can get the taco I want… It’s totally a snob move.

I prefer Torchys. Maybe it was because I had these to go so presentation wasnt as nice. I got two breakfast tacos– the Jess special and the Otto. I forget which was which but I preferred the Jess taco. I dont wanna bash on this place but maybe it really is because I didnt have it while it was fresh. Derp.

BLUF: Pretty good tacos, but pricey too.
I had the Cowboy taco and the Delibelly taco, both of which were really good. The meat in both tacos was really tender, and everything else was super tasty. Chips and salsa were also pretty tasty; the verde salsa was the highlight.
The only gripe I have with them is that each taco is around $ 3-​$ 5, which adds up really quickly. Especially if you eat at least two tacos!

When in Austin… must eat breakfast tacos! I know I have used this before but my favorite UT commercial is Walter Cronkite announcing, «We start each day with wide-​eyed opportunities for learning, with a curiosity to discover, a responsibility to explore… and with a couple of breakfast tacos. What starts here changes the world.»
In Austin for only one night, the group wanted to have breakfast tacos on Sunday morning. I provided my 2 suggestions, Tacodeli being one of them, and we über-​ed here from downtown. We got to the front of the line at 10:51, so the cashier let us order both breakfast and lunch. Last time I came here (January 2013 I think?) I ordered breakfast and then 15 minutes later went back in line and ordered lunch :)
I got the Jess Special (migas, avocado, jack cheese) and Vaquero (grilled corn, peppers, egg, jack cheese) on corn. Eric R. got the popeye (sauteed spinach, egg, queso fresco), the chicken mole, and the taco loco (brisket, caramelized onions, mushrooms, queso fresco, guac). We shared the loco. I also ordered a horchata which was deeeelicious. This place is solid and has a variety of tasty salsas including 2 green ones. All of them are spicy which I like.
Mainly I was impressed with how flavorful and juicy the scrambled eggs are in the tacos! I am not much of a scrambled egg fan — I prefer eggs many other ways. However, these just were bursting with flavor and that is hard to achieve.

I really love Taco Deli but despite all the rave and even the fact that I love the place myself, I think it is a bit overrated and needs to pick up their pace when it comes to getting orders out a bit faster. The staff is always really cool and so friendly but I would have to take a star away from a perfect rating of 5 stars just because of the slow-​paced service when it comes to the actually cooking part of it all.
The best way to go is to call in your order and pick it up at their call-​in counter or otherwise you will be in for the wait of your life for a few tacos. Call 10 – 15 minutes ahead and you can waltz in and out with your back of awesomeness in hand!

Lunch at Tacodeli is the bomb. 5 stars for that. Mojo Fish taco is my regular – Gulf Coast Drum sautéed in garlicky oil with guac and pico, mmm mm. Rice and beans are usually superfluous, but not here. The refried black beans and spanish rice are a flavor explosion! Definitely get a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ side of that.
Tacodeli loses a star because potato/​bacon/​egg/​cheese tacos are my meal of choice for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and they use instant mashed potatoes in their breakfast tacos. I don’t care how white you are – that’s just wrong. Stick to lunch here, folks.
P. S. they’ll never tell you about them, but they have loyalty cards! They’re hidden under the counter, so just ask for one next time you stop in. Buy 11 tacos, get the 12^th free!