Dallas, TX
Dallas is Texas’ worst city for tacos. Fair or unfair?
The good news is that Dallas is an above-average taco city, ranking No. 20 out of 50 cities in the United States, according to a study from real estate website Clever. The bad news is that Dallas was listed dead last among other major Texas cities.
Austin (No. 1), San Antonio (No. 4) and Houston (No. 10) all have better tacos than Dallas does, if this study is to be believed.
Dallas apparently has better tacos than Minneapolis (No. 21) and Washington, D.C. (No. 22), but that doesn’t make us feel much better, does it?
The last five cities on the list of 50 are New York, Hartford, Conn., Pittsburgh, Boston and Cleveland.
The study used a weighted scale to determine the best taco cities in America. The writer looked at how many taco residents existed per 100,000 residents and per square mile; the average Yelp ratings of these restaurants; the percentage of total restaurants in the area that are taquerias; the regional cost of ingredients; and something called “taco passion,” measured by taco-related terms on Google Trends.
If anybody would know where to find the best tacos in Texas, it’s José Ralat, the taco editor at Texas Monthly. He’s the author of American Tacos: A History and Guide and lives in Dallas.
“Dallas is not Texas’ worst taco city,” Ralat writes in an email. “Good tacos are within reach in all parts of Texas.”
Drilling into the numbers, the Best Taco Cities data came from the U.S. Census, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Yelp, Numbeo and Google Trends, the list states in its methodology.
Yelp? Yikes, Ralat notes.
“Lists like this one aren’t reliable indicators of anything, especially when Yelp is involved,” he writes. “User-generated websites like Yelp only reflect a small percentage of the on-the-ground bigger picture.”
He thinks one of the reasons Austin ranked so highly is because its residents are very online, as the kids say, perhaps more so than those in Brownsville or San Antonio.
Dallas’ “taco passion” is 83, significantly higher than the national average of 61.7. (That’s a made-up category built on data, but it’s still fun to track.) The ranking says San Antonio’s taco passion score is 100; Austin’s is 96. Houston’s dipped below Dallas, at 79. We all seem care about tacos, that is clear!
A few of the micro-segments in the study show that Dallas is No. 4 in the country for birria tacos and likewise No. 4 for breakfast tacos. All four Texas cities ranked in the top 5 in both of those categories.
Ralat adds some useful context: “As for why Dallas isn’t the worst taco city, I’d say this: Dallas is maligned by Texans from other cities. The reputation they attached to Dallas is outdated. Folks don’t spend enough time searching for great tacos here. They aren’t looking hard enough or long enough.”
Where does Ralat recommend for great tacos in Dallas?
- Maskaras Mexican Grill, an Oak Cliff restaurant featured on Taco Chronicles
- Revolver Taco Lounge in Deep Ellum, also on Taco Chronicles and one of Dallas’ most lauded restaurants: Its founder Regino Rojas has been up for a James Beard “best chef: Texas” award several times
- Resident Taqueria in Lake Highlands, a beloved neighborhood shop
- José near Love Field Airport in Dallas, another Taco Chronicles restaurant whose chef Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman is a Beard semifinalist
- Molino Oloyo, a pop-up concept making some of Texas’ best tortillas; its chefs, too, were Beard semifinalists
- Trompo, a nationally-recognized taqueria that makes Monterrey-style tacos in Oak Cliff
“Together,” Ralat writes of the list above, “they offer the gamut of taco possibilities in great tortillas — the foundation of every great taco — from classic to regionally specific to thoughtful and boundary-pushing.”
So there.