Taste Test: Who Makes The Best Tacos In South Slope
It’s no secret that we at South Slope News love our tacos, and with so many terrific options in the area, we decided to find out who makes the best neighborhood taco.
To help answer that question, we brought together five members of our Corner News Media team (plus one husband, and some of the customers and bartenders at Mary’s Bar, 708 5th Avenue, which graciously allowed us to descend on their wonderful watering hole with containers and containers of tacos) for the ultimate South Slope/Greenwood Heights taco taste test.
From each of the six restaurants we selected, we ordered chicken, beef, and chorizo tacos. Our results are primarily based on the taste of the tacos (this was, after all, a taco taste test), but we also took note of the restaurant’s salsa selections, and how long it took to receive our orders.
#6 Reyes Deli and Grocery
532 4th Avenue, between 14th and 15th Streets, 718-369-3211
Hours: Monday-Thursday & Sunday 6:30am-1am; Friday 6:30am-2am; Saturday 6:30am-3am
Price: $13.50 for 6 tacos
Delivery Time: 26 minutes
We’re no strangers to the tacos at Reyes Deli, but the ones delivered on the night of our tasting were shockingly subpar. Tasters found the chicken bland, and while the steak was the best of the bunch, both it and the chorizo were a bit too salty and lacked any standout flavor.
The red salsa had some spice at the back, but our tasters found it to be a bit too much like tomato sauce. The salsa verde had no spice at all, and the tortillas tasted store-bought.
Overall, it was just a bad night for one of our neighborhood favorites. It definitely did not taste like the Reyes we’ve had before.
#5 Country Boys
568 4th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, 718-452-6079
Hours: Daily 7am-9m
Price: $14 for 6 tacos
Delivery Time: 29 minutes
Country Boys started off on the wrong foot when they failed to send us our beef tacos (which, in the past, did not disappoint). Unfortunately, the chicken tacos didn’t help their cause, as testers across the board thought the shredded chicken was dry and flavorless. The chorizo wasn’t bad, though. Somewhat bland, but better than the chorizo tacos from Reyes.
Where Country Boys really shined was their salsa. The smokey red salsa had lots of ground chilies, and one tester noted that “all of the Country Boys tacos taste better with the red salsa on them.” The herbaceous salsa verde was also quite tasty, with lots of cilantro overtones.
#4 Tacos Nuevo Mexico
489 5th Avenue, between 11th and 12th Streets, 718-832-0050
Hours: Daily 11am-10pm
Price: $19.50 for 6 tacos
Delivery Time: 48 minutes
Our tasters were already suffering obvious signs of taco overload when it came time to try the samplings from Nuevo Mexico. “This is looking pretty grim,” groaned one of our testers. “I feel bad for the last ones,” said another participant. “We’re so tired, it doesn’t stand a good chance.” But we bravely pushed on and were greeted with the most portable of all the taco presentations (they were quite pretty, too). Translation: if you’re looking for street food, you could totally nosh on a taco from Neuvo Mexico while walking down the sidewalk .
Thankfully, the majority of their tacos tasted good, too, and they were large and packed full of meat. We enjoyed the beef, and the chicken was juicy. The chorizo, though, was too greasy.
There was a lot of guacamole piled on the tacos, and it was a bit soupy. One tester felt it didn’t taste particularly fresh. If you’re not a big fan of the green stuff, you might want to request that they send you a serving guac on the side, so it doesn’t overwhelm the taco. Neither of the salsas from Neuvo Mexico were memorable. The verde was okay, and spicier than some others, but the red tasted overly tomatoey.
#3 El Tenampa
706 4th Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets, 718-369-7508
Hours: Daily 11:30am-10pm
Price: $18 for 6 tacos
Delivery Time: 38 minutes
The only restaurant to include grilled green onions with their tacos (which tasters found sweet, smokey, and delicious), El Tenampa impressed our tasters with their beef tacos, which were juicy and full of flavor. “I would so go back for their beef,” declared one fan. The chicken, on the other hand, was a bit dry, and tasters felt the chorizo was overly salty and greasy.
El Tenampa’s red and green salsas were unanimously voted best out of all the contenders by our testers. If you like the salsa at Country Boys, you’ll love the chili-infused offerings from El Tenampa. Another bonus is that the order included a side of guacamole (really good guacamole, at that).
#2 Fatty Daddy Taco
310 9th Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues, 718-499-TACO
Hours: Sunday-Thursday 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday 11am-midnight
Price: $21.50 for 6 tacos
Delivery Time: 35 minutes
“Oh, wow,” were the first words out of taster number one’s mouth after a bite of Fatty Daddy’s chicken taco. The neighborhood newcomer offers up a very flavorful chicken taco, filled with chunks of meat. If you’re a fan of toppings, though, you might walk away disappointed, because there wasn’t much else on the tacos. That said, they did come with radishes (yum). Tasters felt the steak was merely okay, and while the chorizo had a bit more flavor than some of its predecessors, most thought it was too greasy.
Fatty Daddy also scored big with their tortillas (the smell of fresh corn filled the air when we opened the box), but unfortunately, there was no salsa sent with the order, which definitely disappointed our testers.
#1 Girasol Bakery
690 5th Avenue at 21st Street, 718-369-0251 (take-out or dine-in only)
Hours: 24/7
Price: $17.50 for 7 tacos
“Succulent isn’t a good enough word to describe this,” declared one of our testers after taking a bite of their chicken taco. The meat was sweet, juicy, and marinated to the core — definitely the favorite from this restaurant. Girasol’s chorizo was also the best of the bunch, with a pleasant kick and not overly greasy. The beef, however, was a bit underwhelming — not bad, just not as good as the rest.
The fresh corn tortillas were absolute perfection, but take heed, dear neighbors, the red salsa at Girasol is fierce. It has a very quick heat that almost knocked your trusty editor out early in the tasting. I like spice, but I don’t like pain, and there was definite pain. Even our most heat-loving taster admitted that a little went a long way. The salsa verde, on the other hand, was not nearly as intense as the red salsa, and our tasters enjoyed it.
Girasol is the only one in our taste test that doesn’t deliver, but don’t let that deter you. If you live closer to the north side of the Slope, those chicken tacos are well worth a trek to 21st Street. And the fact that it’s open 24 hours, and is within close proximity of several bars, makes this perhaps the best late-night destination in the area.
The results: Girasol rocked our world. Don’t be deceived by their bakery front — these guys make a mean taco. Fatty Daddy’s chicken taco put them over the edge for second place, but El Tenampa was a very close third for their beef and salsa offerings. Tacos Nuevo Mexico fell into the middle of the pack with a solid chicken taco, followed by Country Boys (who might have scored higher had we received the beef tacos). Bringing up the rear was Reyes Deli and Grocery, but we wonder if it was just an off night.
Of course, taco opinions are going to vary from person to person. What we like may not be what you like, and on their own (when you haven’t eaten 12 pounds of tacos in under an hour) all of our restaurants have something that will satisfy your Mexican food cravings. Overall, though our testers found some minor differences between them when tasting their tacos against one another, these are all really solid taco joints.
But what do you think?
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