Taco Madness 2016

It's that time of year again, when L.A.'s taco fanatics get to vote for their favorite tacos and crown a new winner in the most important competition in town... TACO MADNESS!!

Update: 4/8

Congratulations to our winner, Revolutionario!!!

This first-time competitor steam-rolled the competition until the last round, when it met former champion Mariscos Jalisco, and pulled out a slim victory in the wee hours of the night.

Chef Zadi's unique North African "Tacos Sin Fronteras" proved themselves to be the people's choice. If you haven't tried their tacos yet, go check them out today!!!

1436 West Jefferson Blvd, Los Angeles 90007

Update: 4/1
Second Round Voting is now complete! We have our regional winners...
Northwest: Ricky's Fish Taco
Southwest: Revolutionario
Northeast: Carnitas El Momo
Southeast: Mariscos Jalisco

It's an incredibly strong field, including one former champion (Mariscos Jalisco), a repeat Final Four competitor (Carnitas El Momo), and a total newcomer (Revolutionario) who just knocked off returning champ Guerrilla Tacos in the upset of the decade.

This year is a special new geographical format, with our city cut into four quadrants, basically following the ugly, if true boundaries of Los Angeles-- freeways. We divided the city by 10 and 110 Freeways, although we had to make a few adjustments to get everything to fit. For some locations we needed to use one of their multiple locations; for Guerrilla Tacos we used their Culver City spot, and for Kogi BBQ we chose the location of yet-to-open brick and mortar location. Coincidentally, those two will face off in an epic first round battle of L.A. taco pioneers.

Which region will reign supreme? All four corners of our taco universe have strong competitors, with each region having at least one returning champion. This year's competition has four returning champions in total (Guerrilla Tacos, Two-time winners Mexicali Taco & Co., Mariscos Jalisco, and Yuca's) and three first timers (BS Taqueria, Tacos La Güera, Revolutionario).

Here is the complete list of the top 16 places which qualified, due to votes by our seeding committee, along with our internal research, grouped by geography:

Northwest
Tacos Leo
Yuca's
Tacos Punta Cabras
Ricky's Fish Tacos

Southwest
Guerrilla Tacos
Kogi BBQ
Revolutionario North African Tacos
Coni Seafood

Northeast
Carnitas El Momo
Tacos Cuernavaca
BS Taqueria
Mexicali Taco & Co.

Southeast
Mariscos Jalisco
Tacos La Güera
Los Originales Tacos Arabes de Puebla
"Tire Shop Taqueria"

This is the 8th annual Taco Madness. Here's the history of our winners...

2009: Yuca's
2010: La Estrella
2011: Mexicali Taco & Co.
2012: Guisados & Mariscos Jalisco
2013: Mexicali Taco & Co.
2014: El Coraloense
2015: Guerrilla Tacos