Los Chingones

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• Top 6 Tacos in Denver

  Currently #3 · score 0

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• El Taco de Mexico

  El Taco de Mexico opened in November 1985, when Maria Luisa Zanabria — who'd emigrated from Mexico City — and Felipe Juarez began serving food from a trailer parked on Denver's Santa Fe Drive, in what's now the city's Art District. Four decades later, the family-owned restaurant is still operating on that same stretch of Santa Fe, one of the longest continuous runs of any taquería in the city. The menu covers a broad range of Mexico City-style cooking — tacos, enchiladas, chile rellenos, burritos, tamales, and gorditas — but it's the green chile that's become the restaurant's defining dish, a slow-built, well-balanced preparation that regulars order over nearly everything on the menu, tacos included. That green chile is as much a reason to visit as any single taco filling, a rare case of a side condiment becoming a restaurant's actual signature. The recognition that's followed has been serious and specific: in 2020, El Taco de Mexico received the James Beard Foundation's America's Classics Award, the first time a Colorado restaurant had received that honor. That's a meaningfully different level of validation than most neighborhood taquerías ever get, awarded specifically for restaurants that have become community fixtures over decades rather than won recent critical buzz. For a Denver taco list, El Taco de Mexico is the essential "40 years, one family, national recognition" entry — a Mexico City-style taquería that started out of a trailer on Santa Fe Drive in 1985 and has since become the only Colorado restaurant to win a James Beard America's Classics Award, still run by the same family that founded it.

• Taqueria Patzcuaro

  Taqueria Patzcuaro opened on Mother's Day in 1978, founded by Francisco Almanza — known locally as Francisco "Patzcuaro" Almanza — as what he's described as essentially a place to hang out with friends rather than a calculated restaurant launch. Almost half a century later, it's widely regarded as Colorado's oldest taquería, still family-owned and still operating out of the same Lower Highland storefront. The restaurant is named for Lake Pátzcuaro, a secluded lake in the founder's home state of Michoacán, and the menu leans specifically into that region's traditional cooking — carnitas estilo Michoacán, carne adovada, tacos albañil, and shrimp in garlic sauce among the dishes regulars order most. The menu has stayed deliberately small over the decades rather than expanding to cover every regional Mexican style, a commitment to a specific culinary identity that's rare for a restaurant that's been open this long. For much of its history, Taqueria Patzcuaro operated almost like a neighborhood secret — one writer described it as staying hidden from all but a lucky few for years before the surrounding Highland neighborhood began its more recent wave of development and the restaurant's reputation spread well beyond the people who already knew about it. For a Denver taco list, Taqueria Patzcuaro is the essential "the city's oldest taquería, still doing it the same way" entry — a Michoacán-rooted menu that's been served out of the same Lower Highland storefront since a 1978 Mother's Day opening, run by the same family for nearly half a century.

• Adelitas Cocina y Cantina

  Adelitas Cocina y Cantina opened on April 29, 2013, in Denver's Platt Park neighborhood, built as a dual family-owned operation — Victor Ayala connected his mother, Silvia Andaya, with restaurateur Brian Rossi as he was planning the concept, and the resulting partnership has run the restaurant together ever since. That two-family structure has given the kitchen a genuine home-cooking backbone rather than a single chef's individual vision. The menu centers on traditional Mexican cooking specifically from the state of Michoacán, served across brunch, lunch, dinner, and a late-night menu that runs seven days a week — a broader daily footprint than most of the traditional taquerías elsewhere on this list, which tend to keep more limited hours. Tacos and tequila cocktails sit at the center of that menu, with a bar program built to match the food rather than function as an afterthought. That Michoacán focus places Adelitas in direct company with a small number of other well-regarded Denver kitchens working the same regional tradition, but its South Broadway location and extended service hours have carved out a distinct role — a place regulars can count on for a proper sit-down meal well outside standard taquería hours, rather than a counter-service stop. For a Denver taco list, Adelitas Cocina y Cantina is the essential "traditional Michoacán cooking, extended hours" entry — a family-partnership restaurant built around regional Mexican tradition and a serious tequila program, open across brunch, lunch, dinner, and late night on South Broadway since 2013.

• Tacos Tequila Whiskey

  Tacos Tequila Whiskey grew out of Pinche Tacos, a food truck Kevin Morrison founded in Arizona in 2011 before bringing the concept to Denver and transitioning it into a full sit-down restaurant under its current name in 2016. That food-truck-to-brick-and-mortar arc gives the menu a genuine street-food backbone even as the current restaurant operates as a proper sit-down space rather than a truck or counter. The kitchen describes its approach as a modern twist on "comida de la calle" — Mexican street food — built around authentic regional recipes while working in local Colorado ingredients where it makes sense, and the restaurant has picked up award recognition for both its tacos and its cocktail program, a harder combination to pull off well than either piece alone. The name itself sets expectations directly: tacos built to pair specifically with a serious tequila and whiskey list rather than a generic bar pour. The Denver location, in the City Park West area near Colfax and York, has grown into a small local group with additional metro-area locations, extending Morrison's original food-truck concept well beyond its Arizona roots into a genuine Denver dining brand. For a Denver taco list, Tacos Tequila Whiskey is the essential "street food grown into a proper restaurant" entry — a food-truck-born taco menu paired with an award-recognized tequila and whiskey program, now running as a sit-down destination in City Park West.

• Torchy's Tacos

  Torchy's Tacos started as a single food truck on South First Street in Austin, Texas, in August 2006, founded by chef Mike Rypka around the idea that tacos could carry real chef-driven technique — hand-battered proteins, made-from-scratch tortillas, and premium ingredients — rather than sticking to standard fast-casual Tex-Mex. The truck grew into brick-and-mortar locations starting in 2010, and the chain has since expanded to well over a hundred restaurants. Denver holds a specific place in that expansion story: when Torchy's opened its Broadway location in February 2016, it marked the chain's first restaurant outside Texas, a genuine bet that the concept could travel rather than staying a regional Austin favorite. Local reaction was immediate and intense enough that lines out the door became part of the opening's own local coverage. The menu leans on bold, sometimes unconventional taco builds — the "Trailer Park" and other named specialty tacos have become the chain's signature format, built around flour tortillas and generous, chef-composed fillings rather than a strict regional style. That's a meaningfully different experience than the traditional, family-run taquerías that make up most of the rest of Denver's taco scene, closer to a fast-casual chain applying real culinary ambition to a familiar format at scale. For a Denver taco list, Torchy's Tacos is the essential "the chain that picked Denver first" entry — an Austin-born, chef-driven taco chain that chose this city for its first expansion beyond Texas in 2016, still serving out of the same Broadway location where that expansion started.