Guerrilla Tacos

Ok so let me be brief if your lucky enough to find this truck in the art district and my boy Wes is cooking your in for a real treat my friend! Wes Avilan, I think I spelled that right, anyway he’s a classically trained Chef from Pico Rivera who’s done allot of his cooking in France. Luckily for us he’s brought a very diversified menu to LA!
When you talk about thinking outside the box this is pretty much as outside the box as it gets my friends. So far I’ve tried his breakfast tacos, chicharron, and his calamari steak tacos all on point! Keep in mind his menu changes constantly. So if your in the mood for something new look no further than guerrilla taco!

On a recent trip to Los Angeles from Chicago, we built the better part of a day around our visit to the Guerrilla Tacos truck, and it was well worth it. The Baja fried cod taco was excellent, of course, but I can safely say I’ve never eaten anything close to their sweet potato taco. The combination of sweet potato, almond chile, fried corn, feta, and scallions was so complex and gourmet that it felt odd to be eating them on a paper plate outside Blue Bottle Coffee (but also amazing, because it was 72 degrees in December and I’m from Chicago). It’s worth a trip to this truck no matter where it happens to be parked.

What, we drove from San Diego to LA to visit a food truck? You’re damn right! Guerrilla Tacos is not a typical food truck dining experience. Here’s three key reasons you should consider Guerrilla Tacos (GT):
— LA Times food critic Jonathan Gold ranks GT #13 of his Top 101 LA restaurants. What’s amazing to note here is we have a food truck (with low prices) competing against and beating the most expensive and exclusive LA restaurants!
— PBS food series, «I’ll Have What Phil’s Having» visits restaurants around the world. In episode 6 host Phil Rosenthal visits the best of LA restaurants (link below). Watch Phil visit GT and then try not to be excited!
— GT chef Wes Avila trained with some of the most recognized chefs in the world. Where else do you get a food truck chef who trained in Paris with Alain Ducasse?!
Note GT operates Wednesday through Sunday, but rotates among four separate locations depending on day of the week. I recommend checking the GT website for schedule. GT also posts their daily menu online before opening.
My wife and I visited on a Sunday where they operate alongside Blue Bottle Coffee (separate review) in the DTLA Arts District. Wow, the food really lived up to the hype and expectations! Wife and I shared a Pork Tostada and Oyster Mushroom Quesadilla. Unbelievable to be eating this quality of food sitting on benches outside a coffee shop! The only area I see GT improving is attention to their website. Some days GT online menu is not posted until after opening. Hey, but that is minor and won’t slow my return visit to Guerrilla Tacos!

The yellowtail tostadas were so fresh and the sauces and lettuce were tasty. The daily dishes change every day, and sometimes new ones are added during the day — from 11 a.m. on… I will be back.

Was really looking forward to visiting this chef’s truck, after reading much of the hype. Definitely had to go out of my way to find these guys. (They park the truck in front of a different coffee business each day they operate around LA and Santa Monica) Been looking for an excuse for a while, and my LA taco crawl was just such motivation. I have to say the Chef was in the house, Wes Avila, and his food is pretty legit. Had a wild boar taco where the meat was ground up a little — had incredible flavor, mouthwateringly good, tortilla was exceptional, also tried the Dungeness Crab «flauta» was more like a crêpe, but very flavorful just the same, with some awesome chile spices/​salsa included that did not overwhelm the delicate crab meat. Looking forward to going back.

It pays to have avid Unilocalers as friends. They find good places to eat and I… I just reap the benefits.
I showed up for my favorite cold brew from Blue Bottle and left very impressed with Guerilla Taco’s meatless taco. Like whaaaaaaat?
Seriously, I love how they have vegetarian options. I thought 10 AM was too early for tacos so I chose what I assumed was their lightest meal. Sweet potato with feta cheese? Sounded off to not have the words carne asada, chicken or even shrimp anywhere on there but the gamble (on my part) paid off.
Be ready for a great burst of flavors. Slightly sweet yet hearty, one bite offers different surprises with the feta cheese and corn nuts buried in there. It was really good and I would have ordered more had we not made plans to go get brunch after.
Check out their schedule as they alternate parking by Blue Bottle and Blacktop. They’re worth following, these guys.

My boyfriend and I were sitting next to some people eating tacos. They told us this was HANDS DOWN the best tacos in LA. We were kind of skeptical, because we’ve had some pretty great tacos, most of which are from the sketchiest places in town. This truck seemed kind of… fancy.
And that’s what we got. Fancy tacos… that didn’t taste awesome. It’s one of those foods that follows the trend «let’s combine exotic sounding foods together in a taco.» Even though we like foods of this trend, they didn’t taste uhhmeeezing to us :(.
Needless to say, we should have followed our gut. Sigh.

I’ve had Guerrilla bookmarked for some time now, so when I saw the Facebook notice today, I rounded up some coworkers and headed down to Blacktop Coffee for lunch. I ordered the dover sole taco with raw tomatillo chile, pickled radish, cilantro and the roasted asparagus and fried egg taco with red pepper escabeche, chile morita, chives, pecans. Both were $ 5 each, pretty pricey for a taco. I would say the dover sole was better than the roasted asaparagus, which, for all its exciting ingredients, was okay. The flavor was primarily in the chile sauce. I also wish the asparagus hadn’t been left as long spears, which is kind of awkward for a taco. I did like the crunchiness added by the pecans; I’ve never had a taco with nuts in it but the result was definitely good. The fish was well seasoned and I really loved the pickled radish with it. The corn tortillas, while better than standard ones you get at other taco spots, could have been even better if they were a little thicker.
A lot of my coworkers ordered the torta, which looked really good and had large chunks of queso fresco.
I really wanted the octopus but they couldn’t make the quesadilla without the chorizo. I’m pretty on the edge about Guerrilla; the combinations are creative and the ingredients fresh, but the end result wasn’t amazing. I also recently had a vegetarian taco from a different truck that I absolutely loved and that was $ 1 cheaper. It’s also pricey – for $ 10 I got the two small tacos and I definitely would have enjoyed a side, like beans, to go with my tacos, especially for that price. I think Guerrilla is between a 3.5 and 4 but I liked it enough to want to sample something else to be sure and I’m also being generous with the rating because of the creativity. I love trying new things.

Worth all the hype. x 800
PARKING: Plenty of free street parking nearby! I love the arts district :)
My boyfriend (who 99% of the time says that the food we are eating is «just ok») said this place was good! I was shocked to hear him say this as… it’s like a unicorn sighting.
I ordered their lamb taco, eggplant taco, and pork shoulder hash quesadilla and everything was just phenomenal!
I liked their meat based tacos/​quesadillas better than the eggplant one but mostly because the lamb and pork were just bursting with so many flavors!
Everything tasted so fresh and came out very quickly.
I’d come back here again in a heartbeat as I’ve never tasted such flavorful tacos in my life and all the food here is worth every penny!

I don’t remember the last time I was this blown away by food colors, flavors, and creativity. Eating here reminded me why I love food so much (not that I ever forgot); food is an art and Guerrilla Tacos is not afraid to experiment.
I came on Saturday, they are only open till 2 (breaks my heart because I would give anything to have access to them at dinner time — and every other time of the day, including midnight.) They park themselves in the arts district in front of Blue Bottle Coffee. It is perfect. Lots of free parking (rare near DTLA) and there are also benches in the shade for you to enjoy your sidewalk tacos.
I’ve been here twice now. The changing menu and simple 4 items keeps things exciting. I ate all four items each time. The first time I came I had a crispy beef taco and a sweet potato taco with corn salsa. Wow I am doing a disservice though not describing all the accompanying ingredients and with each taco. The salsas were insanely complex. The cheeses were fresher than anything I’ve ever tasted. The tortillas were perfectly crunchy and warm. I also ordered the quesadilla, which kind of looks like a tlayuda (Mexican flat pizza looking thing). It was excellent. I love the generous use of eggs here. My second visit I had an egg chorizo feta taco. Gah!!!
Best of all was my ceviche. Pictured below. No words can do it justice. The fish was as fresh as Sugarfish. It was accompanied with peaches and grape. Sounds insane, but worked so well. It was absolute food artistry at its finest.
I cannot wait to come back!

It’s 10 a.m. on a Sunday and there’s already a line around the corner, deep within LA’s Arts District. You’d be wise to wait it out sans a pourover in hand because you’ll need to kill time between ordering and waiting anxiously for your food to arrive.
Recovering from Saturday shenanigans, it becomes apparent that you’ll need to order every item on the menu. Ingredients like foie gras, pork cracklins, fresh ahi, and the occasional obscure root vegetable make for an elevated taco experience.
Coupled with weekend specials like waffles with blueberries, yellow flame peaches, mascarpone, and Plugra butter or Dungeness crab, fresh caught ahi, and Santa Barbara uni tostada with white miso, avocado and furikake, you’re in for a real treat.
Creations at Chef Wes Avila’s truck are one off. Limited edition. Highly allocated. Never to be recreated in the exact fashion they were served previously. Inspired by the ingredients at hand, he is more artist than chef.
The pork shoulder with shishito pepper taco dressed with arbol chile, chives, pickled radish, and cilantro delivers a sobering, flavor-​packed punch to your mouth. This is a Mexican palette, on the next level.
Tender beef brisket and a sunny-​side egg make the perfect bed for chile morita, aged cheddar and parsley on two slightly crisped tortillas. The smokiness of the chile morita and brisket permeates the entire corn vessel held together with a broken yolk and melted cheese. It’s the pinnacle of my LA taco experience.
Filling the void that Alvin Cailan’s Eggslut carved out in front of the Handsome-​turned-​Blue Bottle Coffee, Guerrilla Tacos completes the microcosm of LA’s food scene; street side gourmet tacos and boutique coffee. I find nothing more harmonious on a Sunday morning in DTLA.

I’ve been eyeing this place for quite a while now. The item that I’ve been itching to try was their Uni Tostada but I either had plans on the day they had it or it was sold out. Finally, last weekend I checked their Menu and they offered the Uni Tostada and other intriguing offerings!
So I went to Blue Bottle before at 940am (they stated opening time was at 10am) and got me some coffee and waited for them to open. The truck was already parked in front of Blue Bottle before 940am but they didnt even open until 1020am which was a let down. Why don’t you open at your stated time?! Anyway…
Sweet Potato: It was actually pretty good. The potato was slightly sweet but the other ingredients had a nice kick to it. $ 4
Chorizo and Egg: Sunny side up egg was perfect. Chorizo was tasty and flavorful. $ 5.
Uni Tostada: What a let down. 1 sad piece of Uni with badly cut Yellowtail on a fried tortilla. No flavors… it was so bland! $ 10
Shrimp Quesadilla: Never had I had a Quesadilla so wet before. Literally, the plate was soaked in some sauce and liquid that ruined the whole dish. Also, for $ 11, I expect more than 3 tiny pieces of shrimp on a shrimp quesadilla.
Overall, I spent $ 30 on 2 good Tacos (but overpriced), a wet Quesadilla and a very very sad Uni Tostada. I understand the price due to the «fancy» ingredients, but I would expect the flavor to be there. I also cant get over the fact that they opened 20min after their stated time. Also, it took another 10min for our food so don’t expect this place to be fast. Prob not gonna come back.

The rumors are true, these are some amazing, fancy, gourmet tacos.
The elusive schedule and locations, the changing menu and the unique ingredients all add up to delicious and creative offerings.
By the time I finally made it out to the truck, the menu was all about potatoes. I admit, I was disappointed. Who cares about sweet and purple potatoes? I now stand corrected because those potato tacos were so full of flavor, I audibly moaned. They even threw in an off the menu item using calamari — not my favorite ingredient — it was the best taco of the bunch.
Basically, if you are around, and you want to try something really creative is taco form, check these guys out.

Dear Chef Avila,
You are the most amazing thing that has happened to me since I discovered huitlacoche. Your food is inspiring, fresh, eloquent, classy, smutty, and surprising. Today the menu revolved around potatoes, which, if you knew that I was from Bolivia, the land of 10,000 varieties of potatoes, you would get how I felt like it was fate for me to eat there for the first time today. The shishito pepper and squash blossom quesadilla with arugula and baby zucchini on it was something I wish I could make with my farmer’s market loot but obviously can’t since I do not have a culinary background like you nor the imagination/​restraint so I will just keep coming back to see what else you cook up. I’m sad I miss your chubbs taco but next time I will be there waiting.
Plus your food is great with my hipster iced almond milk (from The Springs) latte from Black Top Coffee.

If you’re selling $ 5 tacos and $ 10 tostadas, they’d better be something special.
The taco — chorizo and potato — was not. I could have gotten these flavors or better from any roadside chorizo burrito stand.
The tostada — uni and yellowfin — was! Juicy, slick, thick-​cut pieces of extremely fresh yellowfin coated the whole bottom of the crispy tortilla without making it soggy, somehow. And then on top lay a tongue of fresh uni, sprinkled all over with a green tomatillo (?)-based sauce. It wasn’t complex, but it was an enlightened combo.

Pretty unique and creative food.
Came here Sunday at the LA Blue bottle coffee in LA near the art district around 11ish. Line was not bad.
Tried everything on the menu that day:
1) scallops taco $ 6: tasty and enough acid. They used small scallops. Kinda hope and would have pay extra for the large scallops.
2) sweet potato taco $ 4: very creative. Nice sweet flavor but not too much.
3) torta $ 10: pretty good portion. Nice touch with the cottage cheese. I wouldn’t say this is one of a kind but it was not a bad sandwich.
4) waffle $ 10: very nicely flavored with sweet butter cream, and fruit.
Definitely would come back for other creative options. Heard there was a uni brisket taco. really wanna try that eventually.

I’ve never had tshacos like these before. Someone said their tacos are more like fancy ingredients wrapped in a tortilla… that’s kind of true. But I dig it.
This place is very vegetarian-​friendly! We ordered three of the daily specials: yellowfin tuna tostada, sweet potato and feta taco, and a shishito pepper and fried egg taco. Put a fried egg on anything and I’ll love it. The yellowfin tuna tostada was the winner, though. The sauce had a strong almost soy flavor – very unexpected and refreshing!
They also offered a burrito, so it seems the daily menus are a mix of tacos, burritos, and tostadas.
WARNING: We got to the truck at 10:30am to start our taco crawl, and they weren’t open. I don’t think they opened up until 11:20ish, so be prepared to wait a bit if you get there in the morning. Worth it, I’d say!

Growing up in LA, one eats a ton of tacos. But no amount of taco eating can prepare you for Guerrilla tacos. Everybody and their mother does an Asian taco now, but not like the Char Siu taco here which had the best char siu I’ve ever tasted. The pork was tender, juicy, and so tasty. In my opinion, that char siu taco rivals any of the ones at Kogi, Guisados, or Taco Maria.
The calamari steak taco was also good. It was hearty with thick chunks of tender calamari, but it seemed like it could’ve benefitted from a sauce.
At $ 5 each, these tacos need to be eaten more like tostadas so hefty are their fillings. Quality fresh ingredients, prepared by a master chef. It’s a bargain.
The truck is in front of Blacktop coffee from 9am to 2ish on Thursdays and Fridays. I asked the barista in Blacktop, «Who eats tacos at 10 am?» He spoke with such respect for Chef Wes, that I was compelled to try them. Thanks to Blacktop both for an excellent cappuccino and for the recommendation. Follow Guerrilla on Facebook and get a daily menu. In front of Cognoscenti in Culver City on Wed, Blacktop on Thursdays and Fridays, and Blue Bottle DTLA on the weekend.

Hours and locations are different now in case you didn’t notice. Here’s the latest:
Cognoscenti Coffee in Culver City:
Wed (10 am — 2 pm)
Blacktop Coffee in Arts District DTLA:
Thu & Fri (9 am — 2 pm)
Blue Bottle Coffee in Arts District DTLA:
Sat & Sun (10 am — 2 pm)

I was in the Arts District for work and had limited time to grab lunch. There aren’t too many places close to Santa Fe Ave. Walking along 2^nd Street I ran into Guerrilla Tacos in front of Blacktop Coffee. It was close and convenient so I decided to give it a try.
I’m been steering away from trying Guerrilla Tacos for some time. Carne asada and carnitas in it’s purity is how I like my tacos. Simple tacos are great enough for me. Most of the items were vegetarian with the exception of a few. I had the octopus chorizo taco and pork tamale with fried egg on top. The octopus chorizo taco was okay. For a $ 5 taco, it better be great. Octopus wasn’t anything special though the chorizo gave good flavor. Honestly, I was expecting more ingredients for what it was. The pork tamale was a bit dry. Seemed like it was microwaved and not served steamed. The pork and masa was on the dry side. The egg and tomatillo sauce gave it added flavor but not for $ 6.I also had kiwi lime agua fresca ($ 3) which was a total fail.
Probably worth trying once if you want to fork out for overpriced overhyped food. At least I made it back to my meeting in time.