The best street food in Los Angeles

A longstanding hero among the old-school taco trucks—and one of the city’s best restaurants, period—Mariscos Jalisco is known for its deep-fried shrimp tacos, but the fleet of loncheras (Boyle Heights, Downtown, Pomona, La Cienega) also serves fresh-to-death ceviches, tostadas and oysters on the half shell. In essence, everything is good. Their signature tacos dorado de camaron live up to the hype, with flavorful and fresh shrimp folded into a corn tortilla that’s then fried to a golden brown and topped with thick slices of avocado and a vibrant and complex salsa roja. You’ll also want to save room for their legendary tostadas such as the Poseidon, which comes topped with shrimp ceviche, octopus and a fiery red aguachile of shrimp. Note: Cash only, so come prepared.

This fleet of seven cash-only taco trucks across L.A. serves some of the best al pastor tacos in the city. Though they also offer burritos, mulitas, huaraches and other Mexican street food specialties, your eyes will likely be drawn to the trompo—a rotating spit of tender, marinated al pastor topped with a shaved, juicy hunk of pineapple. Although Leo’s draws its largest crowds late on weekend nights, this isn’t just your average drunchie. Operating like a well-oiled machine, the staff at each Leo’s location deftly serves each customer’s tacos, calling out numbers in both Spanish and English. Upon receiving your order, you can ask them for pre-packaged little plastic baggies of onions, cilantro and salsa—a pandemic-era safety and hygiene upgrade. Whether eaten in open air or taken home, the thin slices of al pastor, topped with a bit of pineapple, are a beautiful sight to behold—and consume.

For the Northeast L.A. nightlife crowd, the Corn Man (also known as Timoteo Flor de Nopal) is the stuff of after hours legend. Each evening, he and often his son show up around 11pm and stay well past last call to serve the best elote in town to the masses, who often line up on weekends well before the pair have even set up shop at 2338 Workman Street. Slathered in butter, mayo, crumbly cotija cheese, lime and chili, each cob or piled-on plate of husked kernels is fresh and delicious. The mix of salt, fat, acid, heat and sweet might be available in other parts of L.A, but the beloved Lincoln Heights elotero’s three-plus decades of experience and devoted fanbase make set the Corn Man apart from the rest.

Thai Town is already home to plenty of excellent late night restaurants, but this family-run sidewalk operation outside Silom Supermarket is changing the game with budget-friendly rice and noodle dishes served fresh off the wok until midnight. Now also available at Smorgasburg on Sundays, Radna Silom specializes in radna, a flat rice noodle dish covered in a mild pork gravy—but the pad thai with crispy shrimp, peanuts and fresh bean sprouts is a must-order as well. On weekend evenings, the plastic chairs and red-and-white tablecloths fill up early in the evening with diners chowing down on the modestly sized menu items, transforming this already popular stretch of Hollywood Boulevard into a scene straight out of a Bangkok night market.

On weekend evenings, L.A.'s very first Thai night market lights up a Hollywood parking lot with a few dozen stalls hawking everything from made-to-order pad thai to freshly grilled octopus topped with a ladle of tasty, bright green nam jim sauce. Popular vendors include PangAeng (sweet buns topped with flavored custard), Kamoo (soy-braised pork rice plates) and Yum Slut, an excellent Laotian pop-up that previously served out of Chinatown's Lokels only. On our visit, we also enjoyed tacos from South L.A.'s Tire Shop Taqueria—though not all vendors show up every weekend. Picnic tables line the back of the market, making it easy to enjoy your food, and entry is free, though parking on site will set you back $20. 

The granddaddy of the modern food truck bonanza, Roy Choi’s Kogi empire still regularly offers a delectable mash-up of Korean and Mexican flavors off Overland Avenue in Palms. (You can check the schedule of their three other trucks here, which span from Sherman Oaks to Whittier.) The signature short rib taco delivers big with double-caramelized Korean BBQ depth that’s balanced with a bright spike of salsa roja, a chile-soy slaw, cilantro and onions on two grilled-and-charred house tortillas. The now-classic kimchi quesadilla is still a winner, but the blackjack quesadilla with spicy pork, caramelized onions and salsa verde is also a solid choice. And if you’re looking to skip the meat, you can always swap in tofu as a filling.

Teddy’s Red may have made birria popular citywide, but this cash-only taco truck in Boyle Heights and Mid-City showcases a cleaner-tasting, less greasy side of the ubiquitous stew originally from the Mexican state of Jalisco. Available in both goat and beef varieties, taquero Yasmany Mendoza serves fall-off-the-bone tender birria tacos with a rich, salty consommé. While both are delicious, we prefer the mildly funky-tasting goat, which perfectly complements the vinegary adobo sauce. For even more flavor, order the deep-fried quesatacos, which come with melted soft white cheese. Beyond birria, Tacos Y Birria La Unica also serves a few cuts of tender beef offal: cabeza (head), lengua (tongue) and hard-to-find labio (lips).

Head to this grocery store in Historic Filipinotown for $1 DIY Filipino street food-style meats skewers, which you then take to cook yourself on grills set up in the parking lot. Those who prefer to stick to traditional meats will find plenty of pork and chicken, but where Dollar Hits truly shines is in its offal selection, from intestines to glistening hunks of pork blood. Fish balls, longanisa sausage, quail eggs and potato fritters round out the rest of the skewer selection, but the hot food counter itself is also worth a second look, especially for turon (deep-fried banana rolls) and balut (fertilized duck eggs), when available. Tip: Skip the small strip mall parking lot and look for a spot around the corner instead.

From 9 to 5 on weekends, Mae Ting slings delicious Bangkok-style street food outside LAX-C, an Asian supermarket on the edges of Chinatown that’s often called Thai Costco. Along with kanom krok—her signature sweet coconut cakes—“Mama Mae,” as Ting calls herself, sells green papaya salad, chicken and pork skewers and spicy Thai sausage links. Each order of coconut cakes are poured fresh into a hot cast-iron mold, which gives rise to saucer-shaped cakes with crunchy crusts and soft, sweet centers. Add-ons like green onions, candied egg yolk shavings and sweet corn add flavor and texture, but the coconut cakes are already good as is.

A South L.A. institution, Tire Shop slings $2.50 Tijuana-style tacos absolutely dripping with avocado salsa. Mesquite-grilled meats provide flavor and texture from the smoky char, especially the carne asada. The kicker? Tortillas here are made to order, then folded into little paper-wrapped cones that ooze the green salsa out of one end. Of course we're also partial to the freshly grilled chorizo and the complimentary charred peppers and, well, everything. Just be sure to bring cash. 

One offshoot of the now-closed Avenue 26 Night Market (the other being Ave 26 on Imperial), this family-friendly event in Whittier runs Saturday and Sunday in both the afternoon and evening. Similar to its predecessor, Avenue 26 Family Night Market’s array of Mexican street food offerings are dizzying in their scope: tacos, mulitas, tamales menudo, taquitos, micheladas and more. BBQ plates, dessert crepes, burgers and even freshly stir-fried noodles round out the market’s offerings, making it one of the most robust street food destinations across all of L.A.