South Santa Maria/Orcutt: Angeles De Puebla. I can’t say “best in the county” because this is Santa Barbara County. But since Santa Barbara wants nothing to do with Santa Maria, we kind of claim them–since they’re right HERE. So: Best in the AREA. But seriously: on this page, in this list, THIS is my number one taco. I didn’t intend to start this list off with my #1, but I’m going south-to-north and it just happens to be the farthest south and if I reversed the whole thing, the list would build up to and END with the #1 Taco, so pick your poison.

North Santa Maria: El Tizon–who graced our lowly SLO environs for a few brief years and is a staple in The Poc–tucked away in a bad strip mall within sight of literally HUNDREDS of good-to-excellent tacos, is the best in this very very VERY brown part of town.

Guadalupe: I don’t feel comfortable crowning a winner here as there are 5 or 6 taquerias down there now and I have only been to maybe 3 of them. Main street doesn’t even look the same as it did a decade ago and I just haven’t had time to try them all. Romo’s for SURE is not #1 anymore, I can say that safely.

Nipomo: Market La Placita pretty easily since everything closed in old town. Things constantly open up in new nip also, but they are never any good.

Oceano: La Tapatia HWY 1. Still the queen. As bad as it has slipped it is still 10X a better love story than Efren’s or Chacho’s dreadfulness.

Arroyo Grande: In one city block there is La Parilla, El Guero’s truck, Hanna’s and Guerrero, but since the latter is in Grover Beach technically, I have to give the nod to Hanna’s, because I don’t do trucks and La Parilla consistently disappoints at both locations.

Grover Beach: Because of the craziness which is the border between AG and GB, we get TWO here La Tapatia 13th blindfolded absolutely the best in the county BUT! I love Taqueria Guerrero *almost* as much for its stylistic purism and consistency.

Pismo Beach: As much as I would love to crown the little family spot Morenos Taqueria, for overall quality all around the nod has to go to the big guy: El Guero across the street.

Avila Beach: Is that taqueria out there in the little mall still open? It was dreadful.

San Luis Obispo: With the demise of El Tizon (which was 35X better than any Taco SLO has ever had or ever WILL have), Santa Cruz Express FOOTHILL not the Monterey location, AGAIN stirring the conversation how one location can be so much better than another. There’s a lot of tacos in SLO, so I suppose a 2nd or 3rd would me nice? Number 2 has to go to Chicho’s in Laguna. I can’t really think of another but maybe Tonita’s, the one everyone always forgets about.

Los Osos: Hanna’s truck is there basically daily all day at the Shell station but since I don’t do trucks, the Mexican Market is far and away better than San Miguel Deli.

Morro Bay: Pretty sad right now with the Sinclair station gone. This is really hard. I suppose elimination from the bottom is the best way. Tacos de Mexico easily the worst. Tacos El Viejon slightly less dreadful, so I guess the top spot has to to to El Sabor de Guerrero by default. El Guerro opens soon and I will just go ahead and name them #1 automatically without even tasting it.

Atascadero:
1. Azteca
2. Papi’s (formerly #1)
3. The Taco Stand (formerly #2 and before that #1)
4. La Parrilla (formerly #3 and before that #2 and before that #1)
See how this works? Somebody will always come to town and bump you down a notch. Right now, it’s AZTECA (no longer a market–now strictly resty) edging out my long-held-dear Papi1 up by the miniature golf place.

(and yet again, we have Papi’s in Paso which sucks BALLS and Papi’s in Atascadero=AMAZING. Also do not confuse with Papi’s in Pismo, which is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT and not on this list)

Cayucos: Thursday thru Sunday the parking lot of the Supermarket the afore-mentioned Tacos El Viejon (horrible in Morro Bay/ridiculous good in Cayucos explain that to me!) but for daily delishiousness and regular hours there is no substitute for the The Gas Station. I’m sure it has a name, but everyone who knows just calls it the gas station and since there’s only one… well, you do the math.

Templeton: La Chata for probably–yeah I’m just going to go ahead and say it–THE NUMBER TWO Taco in the county after Tapatia 13th Street in Grover.

Paso Robles: Nowhere near as fluid as Atascadero’s scene… Sure, people come and go and get labelled by me as “really good” or “one of the best” but day-in-day-out “The Queen” La Reyna is absolutely the best–for purity of character if nothing else. I love Burrito Express and Taqueria Jalisco out on Creston… I love Birria One of a Kind in the old Foster Freeze… I love Tacos Dona Mari hidden in town, but La Reyna forever.

San Miguel: The market is back to making tacos and I love them WAAAAY more than the Taco Mafia in the North corner of town.

Cambria: This is tough. It’s not Boni’s, that’s for sure. I hear you screaming–I don’t care. It’s not Boni’s. Las Cambritas is not terrible for a full-on gringo sit-down rice & beans combination-plate blended-margaritas type resty. I’m going to have to go with Medusa though for the final pick, even though they wouldn’t even crack the top 20 of a county-wide list.

For those with sharp pencils keeping score:
1. Angeles De Puebla Santa Maria
2. La Tapatia 13th St. Grover Beach
3. La Chata Templeton
4. El Tizon Santa Maria
5. Guerrero (any of them)
6. Azteca Atascadero
7. La Reyna Paso Robles
8. El Viejon Cayucos
9. Papis1 Atascadero
10. Every single tiny zinc-topped taqueria bar or sticky table and a little kid with a My Little Pony in the corner staring at you like they’ve seen a ghost and no one can understand my spanglish and the limes are yellow and futbol is on and the music playing and you have to look for the bottle opener because none of the sodas are twist-off and when they call your food it sits there for a while because you can’t understand what they said within a 10-block square of Main/Broadway in Santa Maria.

PS: With the exception of La Parrilla and El Guero (and if you’ve been in either, it’s instantly obvious why) NONE of these places will EVER show up on a list penned by ANY “news source”, foodie (sic), blogger or influencer in the county. Guaranteed. This is a part of town they’ve never been to.