15 fantastic carnitas and pastor tacos to try from the 101 Best Tacos Guide
Is there anything more majestic and visually arresting than a trompo of al pastor, crimson with adobo, juicy pork shimmering under harsh streetlights? You could make a similar case for the gleaming copper cazos that bubble with different cuts of carnitas from early morning until night. Or maybe you’re pulled in by the Nayarit-style whole-roasted suckling pig that is splayed next to salsas, cilantro, onions and limes at Los Sabrosos Al Horno’s roving taqueria. There’s no denying that some of L.A.’s best taqueros and taqueras are specializing in porcine cuts.
Get to know Los Angeles through the tacos that bring it to life. From restaurants to trucks to carts and more, here’s 101 of the city’s best.
But with taco trucks parked on nearly every corner after dark, it can be difficult to narrow down the best of the best. Thankfully, L.A. Times Food staff did the research for you with our guide to the 101 Best Tacos in Los Angeles. Picked directly from that guide, here are the best pork tacos, ranging from al pastor to chicharrón, carnitas and chorizo.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Al pastor queso taco at Angel's Tijuana Tacos
Tujunga Al Pastor Puesto $
If you see a line forming down the block for a towering, bright red trompo and the team manning the puestos stacked end-to-end looks more like a well-oiled assembly line than a casual pop-up, there’s a good chance you’ve stumbled upon one of more than a dozen locations for my favorite al pastor. As the name implies, Angel’s Tijuana Tacos specializes in T.J.-style grilled and sheared meats topped with avocado salsa, cilantro and onions. While there’s cabeza, asada, chorizo and pollo, the al pastor — sliced thin with a flourish and a garnish of pineapple from the top of the trompo — is the signature item.
Angel’s manages to perfectly crisp the marinated pork almost to the point of singed, the flames licking the side of the eye-catching meat obelisk. The result is layers of spice-rubbed pork oscillating between fattiness and crunchiness, and when paired with cheese, that gooey addition pushes the al pastor toward decadent. The handmade corn tortillas get smashed almost paper-thin on a wooden press, then thrown on the comal until they bubble. Don’t let that thinness deceive you; somehow, these fresh tortillas always manage to withstand the onslaught of meat, salsa and as many grilled onions as you can heap on with tongs. Look for Angel’s across L.A. and the Inland Empire, including in Tujunga, Long Beach, Echo Park, Van Nuys, Eagle Rock, Chino and Woodland Hills.
Angel’s manages to perfectly crisp the marinated pork almost to the point of singed, the flames licking the side of the eye-catching meat obelisk. The result is layers of spice-rubbed pork oscillating between fattiness and crunchiness, and when paired with cheese, that gooey addition pushes the al pastor toward decadent. The handmade corn tortillas get smashed almost paper-thin on a wooden press, then thrown on the comal until they bubble. Don’t let that thinness deceive you; somehow, these fresh tortillas always manage to withstand the onslaught of meat, salsa and as many grilled onions as you can heap on with tongs. Look for Angel’s across L.A. and the Inland Empire, including in Tujunga, Long Beach, Echo Park, Van Nuys, Eagle Rock, Chino and Woodland Hills.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Mixto taco at Carnitas El Artista
Inglewood Carnitas Dine In $
Chef-owner Gustavo Chavez first launched in his Hawthorne backyard, and the third-generation carnitas specialist now operates out of a brick-red taqueria in Inglewood, where he offers Michoacán-style carnitas in tacos, burritos and by the pound. The shredded carnitas tacos are solid, but I’m a fan of the mixto that piles different cuts of meat into one hefty taco, so each bite bounces between succulent strands of pork, springy bites of buche, fatty lengua and crisp cuerito. They’re served on white corn tortillas with red onion, cilantro and wedges of lime, and you’ll want to eat these tacos immediately before the slow-cooked meat soaks through the tortilla and turns it fragile. Stop by the salsa bar, namely for the tomatillo salsa verde that’s so thick you’ll struggle to squeeze it out of the bottle. On Fridays and Saturdays, the house specialty — Guadalajara-style carne en su jugo — is a must order.
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(Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)
Migajas taco at Carnitas El Momo
Monterey Park Carnitas Dine In $
The Acosta family makes its carnitas in large copper cazos, cooking the buche, cueritos and bone-in pork butts in seasoned lard. Romulo “Momo” Acosta learned how to make carnitas from his father in Salamanca, Guanajuato. Fans followed his mobile operation around Los Angeles for more than a decade. Now there’s also a counter-service restaurant in Monterey Park. They make an “aporkalypse” taco with all the cuts of meat, but the burnt ends may be the most intense, purest celebration of pork. The migajas are their own sort of aporkalypse, consisting of the pieces that collect at the bottom of the pot. Caramelized bits mix with meat that goes slack and wobbly, succumbing to all the fat. It’s slick and sticky in the tortilla with a wallop of glorious pork flavor. I like to add slivers of pickled onion and some fresh cilantro. Some people like to drizzle on the juice from one of the provided pickled peppers. You do you.
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(Danielle Dorsey / Los Angeles Times)
Costilla taco at Carnitas Los Gabrieles
Downtown L.A. Carnitas Puesto $
Bright red banners advertising “carnitas” welcome you to Carnitas los Gabrieles, a puesto next to Mercado Olympic in downtown. The street stand overflows onto the sidewalk with plastic red tables and stools, planchas and a row of aguas frescas in vitroleros. At the center of the action is taquera Guadalupe Baez, who churns pork in a massive cazo that bubbles golden-brown under the morning light. Colanders with handles sit on the perimeter of the deep-bottomed vat and hold different cuts of meat — buche, cueritos, lengua, nana (pig uterus), oreja (pig ear). Order them by the pound or in tacos with handmade corn tortillas that are cooked to order. If you’re torn between the options, Baez will gently guide you toward the most popular selections: carnitas, mixto and costilla. All are delicious and a stellar representation of Baez’s skills, which were honed in Huetamo, in Michoacán state, under the direction of her cousin, but my favorite is the costilla, luscious with fat and brightened with the full range of dressings available: chunky pico de gallo, pickled onions, cooling green and spicy red salsas and a squirt from a lime wedge. Open every day at 8:30 a.m., Carnitas los Gabrieles usually sells out by noon.
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(Sarah Mosqueda / Los Angeles Times)
Carnitas taco at Carnitas Uruapan
Santa Ana Carnitas Dine In $
Carnitas Uruapan in Santa Ana is a carniceria that has been specializing in pork carnitas since 1995. Prepared in the traditional Michoacán-style and served by the pound from steam trays behind a pork-fat-slicked window, these carnitas are not for the faint of heart. Most pieces are tender for shredding, but there are also delicious crunchy bits with concentrated flavor like chicharrón mixed into the mounds of meat that also include crispy skin, velvety fat and even some elastic tendon, made soft by hours of slow cooking. The boisterous staff makes burritos, tortas or tacos with your meat order and their size is determined by the amount of meat you request. A pound and a half is enough to make four of the tastiest and most generous carnitas tacos con todo, with curls of white onion, chopped cilantro and lime wedges.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Chicharrón taco at Chichén Itzá
Historic South-Central Chicharrón Dine In $
Fans of Gilberto Cetina Jr.’s Chichén Itzá — one of the original food stalls inside Mercado La Paloma — know his father’s cochinita pibil, a family recipe for the Yucatecan signature dish of pork marinated with sour oranges and achiote and cooked in banana leaves, served with the regional fillip of pickled red onions. But the taco menu is not to be slept on, celebrating several favorite pork preparations from the Yucatán peninsula. That includes the much-loved pibil, poc chuc, longaniza, chicharrón, tacos árabes on Thursdays and the juiciest lechón on Sundays. It’s hard to choose just one favorite. The longaniza tacos are filled with the sturdy, coarse, smoky sausage, made in-house in the Yucatán style — tinged red from a recado rojo of spices, chiles and achiote; the links are split open lengthwise, quickly charred and served on freshly griddled tortillas that always smell sweetly earthy. But the tacos de chicharrón (all tacos come two per order) with fried pork cracklings, pico de gallo and diced avocado are texturally astounding. The crumbly chicharrones are crunchy like a porcine version of Grape Nuts, exploding with flavor and accompanied by bursts of juicy tomato and chunks of creamy avocado. The chicharrones are excellent sprinkled with Chichén Itzá’s own bottled brand of habanero hot sauce.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Cochinita pibil at La Flor de Yucatán
Pico-Union Cochinita Pibil Dine In $
The small storefront of this long-running Yucatecan operation in Pico-Union belies the span on its menu. Its bakery case displays shelves crammed with sweet and savory breads, pastries and cakes. A mounted screen flashes a broader repertoire of dishes: tortas, tamales, burritos, starters like empanadas and mint-flecked kibbeh and specials that include morcia and relleno negro (turkey stew stacked with layers of spice). The children of Antonio Burgos, and his wife, Rosy, who founded the business in the 1970s, continue to prepare the family’s recipe for cochinita pibil: They steep the pork in a traditional marinade of achiote and sour orange juice, slowly roasting it in the oven, swaddled in banana leaves. Tufted on corn tortillas, the tender threads of meat taste especially rich and citrusy against the requisite garnish of sliced pickled onions. These are tacos to wolf down quickly and happily on one of the restaurant’s sidewalk tables.
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(Calvin B. Alagot / Los Angeles Times)
Al pastor taco at Leo's Tacos
Mid-City Al Pastor Food Truck $
As soon as you see the spinning trompo with a massive hulk of crimson-red pork pastor glistening in the gas station parking lot next to Leo’s Tacos truck, you know in your heart it’s what you must order. The Oaxacan-owned taco truck first parked on La Brea Avenue and Venice Boulevard in 2010, and it’s been there ever since, though you can now find them at nine additional locations across L.A. and from Arleta to Wilmington. I favor the original location. It is dangerously close to my home, making it far too convenient to stop by spontaneously for lunch or after a night out. Not only is al pastor Leo’s specialty but it’s ready almost instantly no matter how long the line is (the truck is especially busy on weekend nights). A taquero elegantly slices thin strips of the juicy marinated meat and pineapple into tortillas and hands them to you directly. The open salsa bar was discontinued after the pandemic, but you can still request your preferred fixings at the window. Pickled veggies, radish, chopped cilantro and onion, crescents of lime and salsas ranging from earthy to cool avocado to extra spicy are available for dressing.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Suckling pig taco at Los Sabrosos Al Horno
Wilmington Suckling pig Puesto $
The sight of a whole roasted pig drew me immediately to David Delfín’s stand at the Taco Madness event hosted by L.A. Taco last year. His Nayarit-style taco is like nothing else I know in Southern California: He chops a combination of yielding meat and crackling skin and piles it on two small corn tortillas with sliced cabbage and a duo of thin salsas both twanging with mustard. Its flavor at first pounces like a squiggle of Bertman Original on a ballpark hot dog before mellowing on the palate and melding with the pork. My Southern roots compel me to mention the chance similarity between Delfín’s masterpiece and South Carolina whole-hog barbecue, also traditionally served with mustard-based sauce. Los Sabrosos Al Horno can be elusive to find: It’s most often a weekend pop-up that appears either in Cudahy or Wilmington. Follow its Instagram account, and also check its Facebook page, for information about locations and availability. These tacos are more than worthy of the hunt.
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(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)
Carnitas taco at Sergio’s Tacos
East Los Angeles Carnitas Dine In $
Sergio’s is not a destination-type place with a single specialty that attracts fans in droves. It’s a place where you can get a $10 burrito on Tortilleria La California tortillas that will keep you full for 12 hours. There’s menudo every day. And the carnitas tacos are the variety you can and should eat by the half dozen. The meat is slightly stringy and tender with crispy bits on all the edges. It’s a generously stuffed taco that I like to dress with diced raw onion, cilantro and enough of the red salsa to make my eyes water. There are three locations, though I prefer the dining room and the dinky television at the one on East Olympic Boulevard.
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(Bill Addison / Los Angeles Times)
Papa con chorizo at Tacos De Canasta El Abuelo
Boyle Heights Papa con chorizo Puesto $
Every morning at 7 a.m., next to the AutoZone in Boyle Heights, a stand is set up to sell one of L.A.’s best examples of a specific street food: tacos de canasta. The technique commonly involves layering small corn tortillas — stuffed with a modest amount of filling and folded into half-moons — in a basket. Ladling over hot, chile-infused oil and then covering the small tacos in kitchen towels helps keep them warm throughout the day. Tacos de Canasta el Abuelo has a short menu with three variations: softly textured chicharrón, stewed beans and, my favorite for its contrasts and porky oomph, papas con chorizo. In their cocoons, the steaming tortillas take on the smoothness of crepes. You’re encouraged to generously dress your order with crema, queso, salsas, chopped cabbage and pickled vegetables, all of which turn the flavors from simple to symphonic.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Adobada at Tacos Don Cuco
East Los Angeles Adobada Food Truck $
It can feel like dinner and a show: If you catch team members on a spirited night, they sling salsas into the air by the spoonful, catching them with tacos one after the next. But at Tacos Don Cuco, the showmanship from the eponymous taquero and his staff is only part of the draw. The Tijuana-style taco operation, with four locations across L.A. and Pomona, piles mesquite-grilled meats into thin, freshly made corn tortillas that spill textural guacamole and salsas out of their slightly conical-formed paper wrappers. It’s difficult to go wrong with any meat here — chorizo, carne asada, pollo asada, tripa and al pastor — always chopped fresh from the grill or sliced to order right off the trompo. Perhaps best of all is the adobada, which is thick with rubbed spices, caramelized and crispy at the edges, and garners even more smokiness off the mesquite grill.
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(Daniel Hernandez / Los Angeles Times)
Al pastor taco at Tacos Lionydas
Long Beach Al Pastor Puesto $
Since popping up for the first time in early summer 2022 near Long Beach’s Los Alamitos traffic circle, Lionydas became an instant locals favorite for sizzling al pastor that seemed to raise the bar for this taco category in the Harbor area. Lionydas, initially named Tacos Lionel, is powered by Mixe taqueros. These Oaxacan cooks have carved out a formidable reputation in taquero circles for their masterful skills at the trompo. At Lionydas, that oaxaqueño touch emphasizing spice and sweetness in the pastor adobo plays gloriously against other options like cabeza and mesquite-grilled asada. Focus on the al pastor, yes, but if pressed, my personal go-to here would be the chorizo taco. Fragrant, crumbly almost like cake, the chorizo is Mixe-style to the max.
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(Andrea D’Agosto / For The Times)
Al pastor taco at Tacos Los Güichos
Florence Al Pastor Food Truck $
In a city where corner street vendors carving pork from fire-kissed trompos help define our urban landscape, the al pastor tacos at Los Güichos are a vital and arguably underrated part of the conversation. Mariano Zenteno has been operating since 1992, currently serving from a trailer in the parking lot of an auto shop on West Slauson Avenue. His pastoreros wield their saber-like knives with mesmerizing skill, shaving slivers of meat along the spice-stained stack’s contours with a butcher’s practiced precision. Notably, Zenteno skips the pineapple in his al pastor recipe, which leans on lime juice for its brightness. The tacos are small and go down fast; I can easily scarf three or four, though that means forgoing room for other near-equal options, including the crackly edged suadero and the juicy, compelling pollo splashed with salsa verde.
Two important notes: Los Güichos serves tacos all day but only sets up the trompo for al pastor after 5 p.m. Also, the taqueria has lent its name to an outpost in the wonderful new Mercado González in Costa Mesa. The tacos are solid — and include pineapple in the seasonings — but they don’t achieve the greatness of the original location.
Two important notes: Los Güichos serves tacos all day but only sets up the trompo for al pastor after 5 p.m. Also, the taqueria has lent its name to an outpost in the wonderful new Mercado González in Costa Mesa. The tacos are solid — and include pineapple in the seasonings — but they don’t achieve the greatness of the original location.
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(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Al pastor taco at Tacos Por Vida
Eagle Rock Al Pastor Puesto $
Chef Roy Choi flipped our definition of what constitutes an L.A. taco when he introduced Kogi BBQ in 2008. But his newest taqueria, Tacos Por Vida, is a celebration of the city’s street taco culture with a tight menu featuring meats cooked over a charcoal- and wood-burning grill and recipes honed alongside staff who have been with the chef upward of a decade. Carne asada is usually my go-to, and Tacos Por Vida makes a worthy rendition that blends an array of styles, yet the al pastor is the taco that best demonstrates the celebrity chef’s skill. Korean influence makes its way into a marinade that features more than 30 spices and seasonings, including gochujang, garlic, orange, harissa, sesame oil, achiote, green onion and pineapple. And even though there’s no trompo in sight, the flavors sing through just as bright — the sweetness of the tropical fruit is so apparent that I found myself searching for bits of singed pineapple among crumbles of caramelized pork. The tacos are served on fresh handmade tortillas that are chewy and dense thanks to a corn-flour blend. They come dressed with finishing salts and a generous scoop of cilantro-studded green sauce, with radishes and limes served on the side. After getting its start next door to Roi’s Kogi truck in Palms, Tacos Por Vida has gone mobile, popping up in Eagle Rock, San Pedro and beyond. Stay up to date on the taqueria’s whereabouts on Instagram.
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