Chorizo? Check. Avocado? Check. Shrimp? Oh heck yes. In fact, we have all your taco bases covered here—even vegan tacos! Because one of the great things about LA’s food scene is there is something for everyone. So no matter if you like your tacos traditional or totally fusion-ed up, this roundup of the best tacos in LA is right for you.

Actually, that’s one reason why tacos are so family-friendly: No matter your kid’s food preferences, you can usually find something they’ll happily eat. (If not, you can always get a quesadilla, which I remind my kids is just like a grilled cheese but in the shape of pizza slices.)

So pin this post for the next time you’re in Los Angeles and definitely read on for these bloggers’ favorite tacos in LA. But don’t blame me if your appetite demands you book a last-minute flight to California, on a Taco Tuesday—or any day.

I’m 99.9% certain it’s impossible to take a cute picture of someone eating a taco. Proof: Me, digging in at Mariscos Jalisco.

Bloggers’ 9 favorite tacos in LA—that will soon become your favorites, too

LA’s food scene is indisputably amazing. But with all that delicious food, it’s hard to decide where to go.

What’s more, LA has some of the most delicious tacos north of the border. Thankfully, these bloggers’ favorite tacos in LA are a sure bet for a delicious meal.

So forget the guesswork; you don’t have to spend hours scouring Yelp reviews. Check out these bloggers’ favorite tacos in LA. You won’t regret it.

Tacos Por Favor

One of my favorite taco spots is the no-frills Tacos Por Favor in Santa Monica on Olympic Blvd. It’s not a fancy place, but they pump out some amazing tacos. I always order the Chorizo Cheese Soft Taco and I also really like the Carne Asada Soft Taco—both on corn tortillas. I pair it with a Mexican Coke, along with a side of chips and salsa. Most of the tacos on the menu here will only run you about $3 and it’s loaded up.

The food is so delicious here and it’s a local spot right across from a playground and skate park. You’ll often see kids coming in to grab a taco with all of their skate stuff on, before heading back across the street.

-Lisa Ng, LA-based blogger of the lifestyle site This Beautiful Day

Salazar

Trying to decide on a favorite taco joint in LA would be like trying to pick a favorite child, it just ain’t that easy when you really do love them all! But factoring in quality tacos, great ambiance, great cocktails, AND excellent guac… it would have to be Salazar in Frogtown.

Salazar is unique in its own right because the space is entirely outdoors, and not only is it absolutely beautiful they make fresh tortillas in house that give their tacos that extra special touch. The tacos are small enough that you can order 3-5 and be perfectly happy—that way you can also try more! Salazar’s tacos are definitely not the classic LA tacos you might find at Guisados, Guerrilla Tacos, or Mariscos Jalisco, but in my opinion they are the best for the all-around dining experience that comes with it.

-Caroline Juen, of the LA lifestyle blog Love and Loathing Los Angeles

Cinco

We’ve been obsessed with Cinco ever since Brooke moved to Playa Del Rey. It’s technically in Westchester (corner of Lincoln / Manchester) & so good! You wouldn’t believe how hard it is to find good street-style tacos in LA for vegetarians. Most places offer all of the meat choices under the sun, but your only choice as a vegetarian is usually a bunch of chopped up random veggies or nothing. Not here!

Cinco offers soya (aka soyrizo) for their street tacos & burritos. For non-vegetarians, they have al pastor, barbacoa, chicken, or carnitas. The soft tacos are filled with your choice of protein topped with onions & cilantro, plus a side of delicious and refreshing salsa verde. Did I mention that they have happy hour Monday–Saturday from 3-7pm? So those delicious tacos are only $1 each and burritos (ingredients above + rice and pinto beans) are only $6. We’re suckers for places with weekend happy hours!

Brooke & Kelcy Christy, of the LA lifestyle blog written by twins, BKCsquared

Tacos Tu Madre

If you’re looking for a cute, low key place that’s Instagram picture-worthy and has unique yummy tacos, look no further then Tacos Tu Madre. With locations in Westwood, Los Feliz, Downtown, and Larchmont, you’re bound to find a location near you. I like the Larchmont location because I’m always able to find a spot at their “taco bar” and after I’m finished eating I can go shopping along Larchmont Blvd.

My favorite tacos are the Fried Chicken, Crispy Shrimp, and Grilled Fish Tacos but don’t worry they also have classic street tacos if you’re wanting something a bit more authentic. And if you have a sweet tooth, don’t forget to try their red velvet churros—they are SOO yummy! Can’t wait for you to try and have this place become your new favorite taco spot, too!

-Kelli Wheeler, Los Angeles-based inspiration-giver and lifestyle blogger at The Single Girl Life

Tocaya Organica

We all know tacos are part of Los Angeles’s culture and there is no shortage of Mexican restaurants. However, in a sea of taco trucks and Mexican restaurants, it is hard to find an organic Mexican restaurant with vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free options. Tocaya Organica is one of few healthy Mexican restaurants with a trendy feel that serves vegan and vegetarian tacos that are locally sourced. It’s my favorite place for Taco Tuesday. The tacos are not only delicious but Insta-worthy too! I love getting the Combo: 2 petite tacos, 2 sides, and a drink. My favorite taco is the Baja Chipotle with sea bass & vegan mozzarella. Order it and you wouldn’t be disappointed.

-Liz Shamooni, of the LA lifestyle and fashion blog Liz in Los Angeles

Guisados

If you’re looking for something a bit different from your traditional LA taco shop, you must check out Guisados. They have become somewhat of an LA institution since opening their first location in Boyle Heights in 2010. Guisados is famous for their homestyle braises (similar to a stew) served on handmade corn tortillas. They use fresh, quality ingredients and you can really taste the care that goes into their cooking. The menu features over a dozen types of braises you can choose from such as steak picado, tinga de pollo and chicharron.

If making your first visit to Guisados you absolutely have to get the taco sampler. This is fun to order and gives you the opportunity to try up to six different tacos. My favorites are the chicken mole and steak picado. The steak is so tender it melts in your mouth while the mole sauce is dark, rich and delicious. Don’t forget to order an agua fresca as well. The melon one tastes just like a juicy cantaloupe and the sweetness will balance out your savory tacos perfectly.

-Eden Fite, blogger and Los Angeles-based traveler who writes at Rock a Little Travel

Mariscos Jalisco

You haven’t truly eaten in LA until you eat at a food truck. Extra points if it’s a taco truck. You get an A+ if you eat at Mariscos Jalisco, a seafood taco truck permanently parked at 3040 E Olympic Blvd. The shrimp tacos served here (tacos de camarón) are hands-down the best tacos I’ve ever eaten. The shrimp are fried and served hot enough to burn your mouth, which you can cool down with a Mexican Coke or Fanta.

Do like everyone else and sit on a ledge along the sidewalk, or if eating al fresco isn’t your thing, there’s an indoor seating area right behind the truck. Word to the wise: There are other taco trucks serving similar menu items, but take a close look at the truck’s name before you order so you make sure to eat these delicious tacos in LA.

-me! Catherine Ryan Gregory at the family travel blog To & Fro Fam

Petty Cash Taqueria

Photo courtesy Petty Cash Taqueria

Petty Cash is an awesome, veg friendly taqueria with a tequila friendly margarita on happy hour. Need I say more? This is a favorite amongst my L.A. friends, who are always on the search for fresh, locally sourced produce. The grilled maitake mushroom taco and crispy zucchini taco really spice up the vegetarian options! As does the dorados taco because anything with potatoes and avocado crema is something I will be coming back for.

I love having more than one option when heading out for tacos—sometimes beans and rice just doesn’t cut it! Petty Cash is super flavorful with a vibrant atmosphere and definitely on my recommendation list.

-Hannah Lee, blogger at the low-impact cooking blog Closed Loop Cooking

Sky’s Gourmet Tacos 

Photo courtesy of Sky’s Gourmet Tacos – they also cater!

Many would consider Sky’s Gourmet Tacos an LA institution. These tacos are so yummy! I promise you won’t be able to eat just one. The Authentic Mini Steak tacos are some of my favorites: just carne asada, grilled onion, cilantro and citrus juice served on two small corn tortillas. You can put additional salsas on it, but it doesn’t need it. My other favorite is the beef taco, which is ground beef with Sky’s only special blend of spices and seasonings. You’ll be licking your fingers after eating this one. You can’t go wrong with any tacos here. I’ve had just about every taco on the menu, and I’ve never been disappointed.

-Moni Boyce, international traveler at She Wanders the Globe

There you have it, friends: 9 amazing tacos in LA that you will simply have to try the next time you travel to Los Angeles. Let me know if you have any you’d add to this list!

PS – If you’re in LA with kids, definitely don’t miss my favorite place in the city when you’re traveling with littles: the LA Natural History Museum. Click on over to read my full post on dinosaur bones, outdoor splash fountains, urban garden walks and a hands-on paleontologist activity!

The post Bloggers’ favorite tacos in LA: Never eat disappointing Mexican food again appeared first on To & Fro Fam.

Yes, it includes family favorites like plenty of dinosaur bones (including a baby T. rex!!!) and dioramas displaying preserved animals. Beyond the slam-dunks, though, is a museum curated and crafted with every age in mind. Families will find hands-on activities to bring natural history to life, interactive displays, friendly museum staff and outdoor spaces that incorporate nature into the learning experience.

LA’s Natural History Museum with kids

My kids weren’t with me on this trip, but now I want to plan a trip to California  just so we can visit LA’s Natural History Museum with my kids. You guys, I just can’t stop raving about this kid-friendly museum, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Here are the highlights for when you visit LA’s Natural History Museum with kids.

Dinosaurs: The star attractions

Dinos are the A-list celebrities of the Natural History Museum, and for good reason: It is absolutely awe-inspiring to stand beneath the fossilized skeletons of these behemoths.

You’ll see two right off the bat in the central foyer of LA’s Natural History Museum. Here, curators recreated a fight between a Tyrannosaurus rex and a Triceratops. (Who do you think would have won? Definitely not me—that T. rex is about to nom my head!)

Continue on to the Dinosaur Hall and you’ll see two rooms on two floors—after all, these dinosaurs are so big they need the room.

Level 10 travel tip: Look for the wall of fossilized bones—it has a touch screen display in front of it where kids can “filter” the pictures (e.g. by meat-eaters or species). You can play I Spy or a scavenger hunt: Let your kids challenge you to find a predator’s tooth or vertebrae!

Make sure to scope out the area where you can watch scientists working on actual fossils. When I visited, one was using a tiny drill to clean a 24.8 million year old bone from an Ichthyosaur. Watching these experts at work is even better than career day at your kids’ school!

Animals here and animals gone: Halls of diversity

LA’s Natural History Museum has several enormous rooms filled with scenes depicting animal life in the wild. Your family will see preserved animals that live among us today (for example the hawks in the Bird Room) and those that are, sadly, extinct.

Your kids may recognize some of the animals from the zoo, but chances are they’ve never seen them this close. Of course the animals at this kid-friendly museum aren’t alive, but your kids will notice details—how feathers lay flat on top of one another, the unique patterns on an antelope’s stripes—they’d never spot from afar.

Level 10 travel tip: Read the informational displays at every animal to yourself: Many of them have remarkable trivia about the animals depicted. (Did you know, for example, that the ostrich has the largest eyes of any land animal, and that a group of hippos is called a bloat? Neither did I, until I visited the Natural History Museum!)

Even more exhibits!

If I’m honest, to me, everything besides dinosaur bones is secondary in a natural history museum. But LA’s Natural History Museum made me rethink my dino-focused zeal.

The reason for my epiphany? The Gem and Mineral Hall.

I never thought this section of LA’s Natural History Museum would be so fascinating, but I marveled at the colors, textures and shapes of minerals found deep underground and inside rocks. And the bling contained inside the gems room made my eyes pop (and the security guard keep his eyes on everyone inside).

In addition, you’ll find permanent exhibits on shells, ancient Latin American art and fetish carvings.

Make sure to look for rotating exhibits, too. When I visited the Natural History Museum, they hosted an exhibit on tattoos throughout time (though entry costs an additional $8, unless you’re a member).

Exploring actual nature at LA’s Natural History Museum with kids

LA’s Natural History Museum is the only one of its kind that does a remarkable job incorporating, well, the outside natural world (at least that I’ve ever seen).

Step outside the museum and you’ll find a half-dozen different habitats and many more opportunities to learn. Keep an eye out for LA’s wildlife that visits the museum not to stare goggle-eyed at dinosaur bones but to take a bath in the pond, sip nectar from blooms or nest in a tree.

Level 10 travel tip: Bring a change of clothes for your kids. On a hot day, your kids will want to splash and play in the water feature. They’ll be amazed that they can splash around at a museum!

Visiting LA’s Natural History Museum with kids

LA’s Natural History Museum has kid-friendly activities and features throughout the museum. They do an exceptional job getting kids interested—and excited!—about science and the natural world. If you’re visiting the Natural History Museum with kids, don’t miss these highlights.

Nature walks

Every day at 3:30, Natural History Museum staff lead a group of kids throughout the outdoor section of the museum. Kids might have a chance to spot finches or mourning doves on the bird viewing platform, harvest snap peas from the edible garden or look for wildlife in the pond. The museum’s nature walks are free with admission.

Critter Club

This monthly meet-up introduces kids 3 to 5 years old to different kinds of animals through art, song, stories and other hands-on activities throughout the museum. The sessions are on a break now but will begin again in Summer 2018.

The Discovery Center: Hands-on central

In the Natural History Museum’s Insect Zoo and Discovery Center, kids can play and explore to their hearts’ content. They can dig for casts of dinosaur bones, pretend to camp out and peek across the museum grounds in a spyglass.

Then get close and personal with creepy crawlies. You’ll find cockroaches, pill bugs, gigantic spiders, millipedes and more in the habitats at the center of the room.

“Ask me” buttons

If your kids are anything like mine, they don’t have the patience to read (or listen to) many of the plaques that explain the displays. But when given the chance to learn from a real-live expert, they’ll surprise you at how much information they soak in. The Natural History Museum in Los Angeles offers plenty of opportunities for kids to express their curiosity and get details from experts. 

Level 10 travel tip: Challenge your kids to find a staff member with a yellow “Ask me” button—it’ll be like a scavenger hunt. Then listen to your kids’ questions. They’re so open-minded that they ask about things you’d never consider. (“Do baby Triceratops have teeth?”)

Find the rats

Rats—in a museum?! You bet, if it’s the LA Natural History Museum! Downstairs on the ground level families will find an interactive Nature Lab, where kids are invited to ask questions about how humans interact with the natural world. Part of our coexistence with animals and plants is living alongside rats.

There is a structure with see-through walls where kids can try to spot rats scurrying here and there—and even overhead!

The nitty gritty: Visiting LA’s Natural History Museum with kids

Here are the details you need when planning a visit to LA’s Natural History Museum.

• Admission is $15 for adults, $12 for youth 13-17, $7 for children 3-12 and free for kids under 3. If you go more than twice a the year, it’s actually more economical to buy a membership.

Level 10 travel tip: If you do buy a membership, make sure to use it to get free admission at the La Brea Tar Pits and The William S Hart Museum (which has a herd of bison on the property!). They have reciprocal memberships, which means even more natural history fun!

• Family restrooms and nursing rooms are located throughout the museum.
• A cafe offers kid-friendly food downstairs. There’s plentiful seating outdoors and, if it’s raining (or too blazing hot), in a solarium. You can also bring your own food for a picnic.
• This kid-friendly museum is right next to the Exposition Park Rose Garden and is a short walk from several aircraft on display outdoors. If your kids are antsy after being relatively quiet and contained in the museum, let them run their yayas out in the Rose Garden or challenge them to find the planes.

I can’t wait to return to LA’s Natural History museum with my kids. If you’re looking for kid-friendly activities in LA, make sure to put this museum on your itinerary!

And if you’re looking for even more ideas, check out my friend Melissa’s guide to fun things to do with kids in LA over on her Thrifty Family Travels blog.

What is your favorite part of visiting a natural history museum?

The post LA’s Natural History Museum with kids: Learn, explore + play (seriously!)  appeared first on To & Fro Fam.