Los Angeles’s pantheon of crispy tacos comes down to a few crowned contenders, all of whom have avid fan bases ready to swing when someone says, for example, they prefer the Culver City crispy beef tacos joint over the East Los Angeles mariscos icon. My favorite crispy tacos in Los Angeles have stood the test of time and the test of chefs’ palates (they’re Mei Lin’s favorite crispy tacos in Los Angeles, too): Chuy’s Taco Dorados, a bustling shop in the Arts District, uses Betsy Leon’s family recipe that threads back to her Sinaloense heritage. The near–decade old taquería fills its crispy tacos with steaming potato, chorizo or soyrizo and beans, or carne deshebrada, as well as various combinations of the above.
The phone line actually functions as a text messaging service — if you’re having trouble ordering from the website or finding Chuy’s on delivery apps, you can shoot them a text and get a fairly quick response.
Tacos for a group, since the 10 pack remains one of the best shareable meals in Los Angeles, or tacos for one, when you want a pick-me-up because the work week has been punishing or you hop off the plane at LAX and need a taco recovery trove delivered to your doorstep.