Verdugo Taco Stand – Ave 33

Closed? No recent reviews… no signs of a stand in this area.
The rest of this information is just so Unilocal is happy with the review length and doesn’t consider this a tip.

Tasty tacos. One man operation when I was there. You put the money under his paper plates so he doesn’t contaminate his food hands. More meat and larger tortillas than the other guy a stones throw down the street by 31^st.

I received a call from his wife… They’re back !! They went MIA but they are back in business!

Basically its a freaking great taco stand. Mmmmhmmm. Pollo, Pastor, whatever. Delicious salsas too. Don’t hesitate to fill up on 5 or 6. They’re a buck each.

This is MY taco guy! I don’t go to anyone else!!! Since 2006, I’ve been coming to see this guy! He’s awesome. He used to do a few different styles of meats that he no longer offers but I can tell you, they all contributed to my rather portly figure. No matter! This is a good thing and don’t I know it. When there was a Unilocal-​UYE taco crawl through this neighborhood, I made sure to suggest that we start here. And, we did. Since then, we’ve had friends return to enjoy these delectable bites. Some of my favorites are his tacos de pastor, tripa, chorizo, pollo, and buche. I’ll try anything he cooks up for me. He remembers my by name, as well as my family. He’s only here on the weekends now and I can assure you, his supply runs out rather quickly. I have suggested that friends hire him for gigs as well. Some have and they have never been disappointed. He makes a mean guac but it isn’t always available. I love his marinated onions, salsas and other taco condiments. You can really spice things up that way. I’m SERIOUSLY TALKING TO YOU, yes you! This is a MUST TRY spot. My last meal on earth, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of the very first things that I’d mention. It’s that good. Even better, while other taco spots are hiking up their prices, Arturo has stayed at a solid $ 1 per item. I’m talking about tacos are each $ 1, and drinks as well. You can bring your own tupperware, like my wife does, and ask for so many dollars worth of chicken, asada, or whatever type of meat it is that you’re craving. You will NOT be surprised. Some folks even make a salad at home and come just for $ 2 of meat to add to their salad. Arturo will do what he can to accomodate you, and all his guests. Sometimes there is a line but believe me, it’s worth every moment. You will NOT be disappointed. I’m just glad to have been able to share my taco guy with so many others. And, although I am not the first to Unilocal this spot, I know that my review will help to fetch him a few more hungry souls.
And yes, if you can’t figure out which cart is his or where he is, he’s usually the one on the right side of the street, if you’re coming down the street from just having exited at verdugo off of the 2 freeway. He’s just after the church, next to a phone poll that has a cross on it.
Even better, talk to Arturo. Ask him about how his kids are doing, etc. He’s the most friendly guy.

I ran across this Unilocal looking for a taco place on our way home from Knotts Berry Farm, at 9PM on a Sunday I made the detour to check it out and it was AMAZING! Arturo is the nicest guy and went out of his way hook me up with the best tacos for my family. This is a small cart that is on Verdugo and normally I wouldnt give it a second look but glad I did! I will be driving the hour it takes to get more tacos at least once a month form now on! Make the trip, dont judge the book by its cover and ENJOY!!!

Amazing tacos!!! Not even for the drunk people walking from The Verdugo Bar! We live near by and get tacos every other week from this stand. He is very nice and quick in making the tacos. The homemade avocado spread is awesome and the salsas are good too.
Arturo sells carne asada, chorizo, and chicken tacos that I’m aware of. They also have a limited variety of sodas. He also caters!

Hands down, the best tacos on this side of the border!!! The only thing that rivals these tacos are the «quesotacos» in Ensenada. I go here at least every other week!
Perfect For: Grubbing on a budget!
Ambience: 4
Taste: 5
Bang for Buck: 5
Service: 5
Wow Factor: 5
Fatty Meter: 3
This stand is literally located in the middle of a neighborhood. The surrounding environment actually makes the tacos taste better… I don’t know what it is, but trust me… you’ll know what I’m talking about. As I mentioned before, taste is amazing! The tacos are $ 1 a piece, can’t get any better than that. Oh, and he has sodas in his cooler for you for a $ 1 a piece. My recommendations would be the carne asada and al pastor for starters and then make your way up to the carnitas, buche and the pollo. My personal favorite is the carnitas, but he seldomly has it these days. Arturo always has splendid service and this place is a hidden gem. It’s always sad to leave Arturo, but I always tell him «Hasta luego! Dios te bendiga!» until we meet again…

I literally live about a 3 minute drive from this taco stand and I haven’t tried it until today. Damn have I been missing out. Tacos are only a dollar and packed with flavorful juicy meat (choice of: asada, pastor, pollo, cabeza, lengua, and intestines). It’s all freshly cooked and straight off the grill. I believe it’s a husband and wife duo manning the grill and they certainly don’t mess around. Tortillas are warm off the grill and the meat is cooked just right. There’s even a makeshift salsa bar off to the side. Cilantro, verde, and lime wedges are the only toppings I need to make these tacos just right.
I know you probably think this area is a bit on the sketchy side (–1 star), but don’t sweat it. stop by around 6-​ish when the suns still out. :)

THEY STILL ROCK THE BEST TACOS ON EARTH!
we’ve tried many times over the summer to go back to verdugo’s but every time we’ve gone he wasn’t there. since the wife was hungry after our langers lunch fiasco we stopped by at verdugo’s just to see if he was still around since it was on the way to the eagle rock festival. sure enough after i made the right turn there he was, all i could see was the smoke as if it was being used as a signal-(im here, i’m over here).
as soon as i opened my car door all my senses was on maximum overload. when i got to the stand there was a good amount of people standing and waiting. so i waited until he asked what i wanted since there was three other people ahead of me. first lady, catorce carne y diez pollo y doce tripas, wth. second guy, diez carne y cinco pollo y cinco buche, omg. the third person also had a big order but it didn’t matter because i wasn’t leaving until i got my three tacos and i was next. he leaned over to ask what i wanted 20 minutes later and i almost forgot how to speak cause it took 2 seconds for the words to come out, «carne, polle, tripa» and he smiled.
after i got my plate and added some cilantro, onions, salsa, i walked to the car and gave it to my hungry wife and it was quiet except for the sounds of chewing and moaning. i had only the tripas and wanted to go back for more but we were going to eat dinner later in the evening after eagle rock so verdugo’s tripas tacos has to hold me over until the next visit.
we were so glad he was back because it is the best tacos on earth! its a must drive to if you live anywhere in socal, its so very worth the drive…

Thanks to Wes S. I finally tried these tacos. I mean this cat lives in Camarillo!!! my first attempt to find this stand was unsuccessful i ended up trying the imposter on avenue 31 and verdugo, tacos are just okay, nothing to rave about… anyways, so this small stand/​grill powered by a small gas tank and generator is not quite small when it comes to selection and taste. Not only do they serve the tacos in 2 regular sized tortillas but they fill them up too. FOR A DOLLAR AND NO TAX!!! Make sure to give the boy arturo a tip too!
Tripas
Buche
Chorizo
Asada
Al Pastor
Chicken
Cabeza
I think I’m missing a few but already a wide selection. The guacamole sauce with chunks of avocado… oh man! fresh too!!!
I gave it a 4 because the pastor was good, not the best i’ve had but overall good, better than most of the places in los angeles… The carne asada is really good, compared to el taquito in pasadena, this place is a diamond mine.
if you want the best pastor go to beto’s truck in west la area (jefferson and redondo) between la cienega and la brea on jefferson.

One of the reasons why I love taco tables/​stands is because you know you’re only going to pay a solid buck for your taco. While the typical 30 – 50 cent extra for getting it from a truck comes into play and isn’t that much, it still eats into the pocket that could have gone towards the freshly made horchata or mexican coke.
Add in that taco tables typically have a better lay out of the fixings and sauces. Trucks give you them in these little containers that really can’t fill the need. At least not for me. So having the ability to put as much onion and celantro on it just is icing on the cake for me.
At this stand, I really enjoyed the carne asada. They’re the fall back middle ground to taco meat. You really can’t do it harm unless you burn it or cook it to a charcoal.
And in rare form, I had the chicken. I never have the chicken. It just looked very appealing here. It was pretty good. One of the reasons why I don’t normally eat chicken is that it’s a more fragile meat and if anything can mess you up in street food, it’s improperly cooked chicken.
But since I’ve had great luck with street food, I’m taking it that it’s because of these precautions. This verdugo spot is a must for you taco crawlers and folks trying to toughen up your street food cred.

An adventure to find but worth it especially for $ 1 carne asada tacos! Note to self… next time bring more dollah dollah bills to try the chicken tacos :)
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. so good and so affordable.
«What, $ 1 tacos? Give me five for $ 5!!» — hungry friend who joined me and was satisfied

It was so easy to find this place the second time.
I had the best chicken tacos! The meat was very flavorful like their carne asada and it was all freshly made right in front of my eyes. I then topped the tacos with green salsa and marinated onions. It was too good.
Thanks Arturo for another tasty meal!
FYI, still a $ 1 per taco!

The taco stand journey has come to an end here in Glassell Park and a bit of a journey it was. It took several trips up and down this deserted street corner to find this small taco stand which was, as previously described, on Verdugo south of the intersection. Note to self: read more reviews. I almost gave up and glad I didn’t.
The carne asada and chicken tacos were excellent. A little burned, but that good charred taste if you know what a mean. Mmmm. They do have a selection of salsa and other things to add. Even a guacamole sauce. The amazing thing about these tacos is the size. For $ 1, yes $ 1, you get a normal sized taco. I’ve been to some other taco stands and trucks and the majority of them are smaller. (Super Tacos in N. Hollywood used to be so good 10 some odd years ago when they were a taco stand). Hopefully this place will always hold its present charm.
Here is the only dilemna now. The first time I went, the al pastor was so-​so, almost to the point I wouldn’t recommend it. Then the next time I went, which was 2 days later, they had fresh al pastor. I was salivating as the gentleman sliced the meat off that huge rotating skewer of meat. So much better than what was sitting there before.
The hours posted are probably right on. I tried going there late on a Friday night. Major disappointment., no stand.
They do put out a few seats along the sidewalk for customers to sit, but I think most of the people take it home. Gotta love that fact that they didn’t serve diet coke when I was there.

I love taco stands. This was are 2^nd attempt in finding this place as the first time we went on a Wednesday and apparently they’re only there from Thurs to Sunday from 5:30 to around 9:30. It’s on Verdugo just South of 33^rd and is a bit difficult to see ’cause the street is pretty much pitch black besides the lights illuminating this tiny little stand. So, this being my 2^nd experience with taco stands I was ready with my order. We got some beef, we got some pork and we got some tripe. The gentleman at the stand took great care in toastin’ up the tortillas and meats and wrapped them separately in tin foil. I noticed right away that the tripe actually looked like tripe and wasn’t chopped down into indistinguishable pieces. I like this, I like to know what I’m eating especially when it comes to meat so check one for Verdugo.
And the condiments are great. They offered a thinned sort of guacamole sauce, fiery green salsa which looked sort of home made and a milder red salsa. There were chopped onion, pickled jalepeno/​onions, lemon wedges, lettuce and radishes. I sort of missed the cilantro… maybe they ran out… but luckily we had some from our previous taco stand mission.
The meat was definitely better seasoned than our previous experience and the real difference was the tripe taco. SO GOOD! SO SO GOOD! and the guacamole sauce made it even better! If I wasn’t so afraid of the dark I would stand out there and with a bottle of Corona and eat these tacos while annoyingly chatting up the locals. Check it out before it’s raided.

Taco Stands? How do you find them? Unilocalers are obsessed with them but I still cannot ever seem to find one on my own. Why should I even try though right? I have my own TSF (Taco Stand Finder) aka my kuya aka my big bro aka Wes S.
Wes took me to my first taco stand and this was it! MmmMMM. So friggin good. Even though I couldn’t eat much of it, the few bites I did have were awesome! $ 1 for a taco right? I stick with the stuff I know. Carne Asada. I guess I haven’t become an adventurous foodie like many Unilocalers, but oh well. I like to stick to the classics.
If you ever want to hit up a good taco stand, in any city, and any time, hit up my TSF. Actually nevermind. Don’t! He’s mine! :)

Taco stands! Taco stands! Taco stands!
What can I say about Taco stands? This has to be one of my favorite stands to go to for tacos. Arturo is the owner of the taco stand and he is a sweetheart. I have to say that he always ask about your day… how you are doing? Making small conversation… to make you feel important… great guy =)
The tacos are each $ 1 and you tell him what you want: chicken, carne asada, pork, etc. Once the tacos are made, you take it to the counter for your condiments like chilly, onions, pickles, etc. After eating the tacos, you tell Arturo how many tacos you ate. pay him and call it a day =) «Honors policy»!
Love the tacos here =) Have to at least try it once =)

Still my all time favorite spot. It was nice to see Arturo again. He even asked about my friend who introduced me to this cart on the street.
Tacos are still $ 1 each. Don’t get this stand confused with the «imposter» stand right on the corner of Ave 33 and Verdugo (which sells tacos $ 0.10 cheaper, but why even bother?)
THIS one is just south of Ave 33 and Verdugo. The «landmark» would be the telephone pole with the cross on it.

I’ve had a fascination with this place since the first time I ever went to Frank’s house and drove by it. There’s always a crowd around it, but by the time we come back from our drunken festivities, the cart is always gone.
This was one time when my mental build-​up was on the money — for $ 1 a piece, these were some damn good tacos. I had one carne asada and one chorizo. (I was actually misheard by Arturo at first and given a cabeza taco. I took a nibble of the meat, but surprisingly, I wasn’t in the mood for head.) Minty was kind enough to give me a buck in exchange for my cabeza taco so I could get what I really wanted.
My favorite aspects of this stand are:
* the utter charm of the husband and wife team running it
* the tacos come naked and you get to add your own toppings
* dude, they had chorizo tacos!!!
From now on, I’ll be volunteering to chauffeur Frank just to have these tacos lining my tummy before we start drinking.