Battle of the North Seattle Taco Trucks
This is the 2nd installment of our Seattle Food Wars series. We’re huge fans of taco trucks. They’re typically cheap, no waiting, fast preparation and more authentic than you would get at a normal Mexican Seattle sit down restaurant. But which is the best? The four taco trucks we tried were:
El Naranjo - 7215 Wet Green Lake Dr N
El Camion –11728 Aurora Ave N
Anita’s –12245 Aurora Ave N
Taqueria La Pasadita - 2137 N Northgate Way
To keep things consistent, we ordered a pollo(chicken) burrito at each truck. The first thing you’ll notice is that they are all in low profile locations which surely leads to cheaper parking rent. El Naranjo is in a parking lot next to a Shell gas station, El Camion is in a parking lot next to Home Dept, Anita’s is in a parking lot next to Les Schwab and Taqueria La Pasdra is in the back of a Starbucks parking lot. We ordered one burrito from each location and hurried home so we can fairly compare the size and taste of each side by side.
El Naranjo-$6. Was tied for cheapest but was the most plain/basic w/refired beans, rice and chicken. They also give a free side of pickled carrots, radish, jalapeno peppers and lime along with a red and green sauce. Of the four burritos, this had the least amount of chicken. Parking is limited and there are two small benches in a covered outdoor area right next to the truck.
El Camion-$8.77. Came in the most expensive, but had the most chicken by far of the four burritos. They grill the tortilla and you can also really taste the char on the chicken. Burrito has cheese, rice, black beans, pico de gallo and sour cream. One of the things I love most about El Camion is their self serve sauce area and pickled peppers. They have a dedicated parking lot and a big tented area right next to the truck. Of the four trucks, this one tends to be the most crowded.
Anita’s-$8.66. Anita’s has a huge parking lot, so no issues parking there. It was the 2nd biggest burrito of the four and had cheese, rice, black beans, pico de gallo, sour cream. It came with a red and green sauce. There’s a covered area with about 3 or 4 benches right next to the truck.
Taqueria La Pasdra(TLP)-$6. This burrito was the most flavorful. The amount of chicken was low compared to the others, but it was really seasoned well. The tortilla was perfectly toasted and included refried beans, rice, onion, cilantro. It came with red and green sauce. There are two small benches in a tented seating area. One bad thing-it’s a bitch to get out of the lot on to Northgate Way due to all the traffic near the freeway entrance.
The results:
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| Scale 1-10 | Size | Bang for the buck | Taste | Other | Total |
| El Naranjo | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 31 |
| El Camion | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 38 |
| Anita’s | 9 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 32 |
| TLP | 7 | 9 | 10 | 7 | 33 |
Other=sauces, extras, ease of location, parking
The winner is El Camion!
Next we’ll try tacos.
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- Ezell’s vs Heaven Sent – Battle of Seattle’s Best Fried Chicken