El Tarasco Taco Truck

Most try el alpastor on the weekends it starts 9:00 pm. But they have all meat asada burritos all the time. Better then king tacos.

I still love the pork tacos here when I leave work to go home. They do the outdoor fire spit on Saturday and Sunday evenings and I wish they still did them on Fridays but having spoken to the owner, Gil (pronounce «Hill») he can’t do it all the time as it’s more costly to him. But Jesus you need to try them.

Good burritos, good quesadillas, terrible tacos. The prices are made up on the spot. Men charge less, women charge more. No diet sodas. Red sauce is ridiculously hot. Green sauce is really good. Overall, average experience for a taco truck.

It’s always a shame to ruin that special unknown quality of taco trucks by sharing them on Unilocal,but seeing as I have haven’t written a review in a while, this seemed to be a good place to start again.
And let me begin by saying the food here is worthy of 5 stars. Yes, in fact, this is a 5 star taco truck, but I’m giving it 4 stars. Maybe it was my own fault for not eating any full meals all day, until having 5 of their scrumptuous al pastor tacos (with everything) at 7pm. But either way, I had indigestion issues for the last 18 or so hours which just now went away. In fact, I had to take pepto-​bismol for the first time in my entire life, just so I could go to bed without feeling grosse.
But was it worth it? Hell yeah it was worth it. HELL YES. Those were the best al pastor tacos I have ever had in California… and believe me, I try al pastor almost everywhere it’s offered.
My buddy and I had been downtown all day visiting one of our friends. The entire time, my buddy was a dick to me and wouldn’t stop by anywhere for food (we munched on some mac’n’cheese his girlfriend made earlier, but I only got like 5 bites). So, thanks to traffic on the 110, we had to reroute our trip down 3^rd St. to head back to the westside. As we were driving down past Lucas Ave, I could see a glowing flame in the distance, on the other side of the road. As we got closer, I realized what I was looking at. A giant spit of al pastor being basted and grilled on the side of a taco truck, parked in front of a laundromat and liquor store. I demanded we stop, offering to pay for my buddy’s tacos.
But there was no parking anywhere to be found. We looped around the neighborhood multiple times, dodging kids running through the unlit streets and gangster-​looking people standing around in groups. But to our luck, we saw a car leaving only 1 block away on (the well patroled) 3^rd street. And after all the hard work, tasting the tacos was every bit as delicious as I could have hoped for.
The meat was well seasoned and slightly red in color. The two layers of corn tortilla were well-​oiled and slightly crispy. Chopped cilantro and onions are then sprinkled onto the meat, and finally topped off with a salsa roja as well as a green avocado based salsa. Heavenly… they were as close to baja al pastor tacos as I’ve ever had anywhere in California. Maybe twice as good as the al pastor from El Chato truck on Olympic and La Brea (and those are good too).
And they were only $ 1 each.
So if you’re ever in the neighborhood for any strange or shady reason, stop by here for the tacos. Just as a warning, the surrounding neighborhoods are NOT nice and are constantly patroled by LAPD for a reason. I’d recommend trying to park on 3^rd st or as close to it as possible. Or have the driver wait in the red curb while you run to go pick some up. As we were leaving in my buddy’s car, somebody threw a big white rock over the fence of a house/​store and it bounced off his hood. Thankfully, he has a piece of shit car, but it still left a big mark and it could have broken his windshield.
So yeah… al pastor is 5 star worthy, neighborhood blows… 1 star… and indigestion discomfort gets 2 stars. My buddy didn’t get indigestion, so I blame it on myself for not eating all day. So final rating… 4 stars.