Credit: Photo by Abrahán Garza

On Saturday, October 21,  hundreds and hundreds of taco lovers turned out for the Houston Press 3rd Annual Tacolandia, sampling numerous sinful creations from two dozen of Houston’s top taco powerhouses. Pork seemed to be the protein of the day, and boy, were there some good ones. 

While Salsas’ succulent beef and bacon-laced Barbed Wire taco took home top overall honors from the judges — who included Press writers Cuc Lam, Jennifer Fuller, former Press food editor and author Robb Walsh, Guns And Tacos founder Jay Roscoe and yours truly — there were numerous tasty tacos to be had, including creative options such as the vegan tempeh and calabacita squash taco from Freebirds and Evo Taco’s crowd-pleasing banh mi taco. There were definitely some pleasant surprises among the competition.

It’s hard work making tacos at Tacolandia, but at the end of the day, Salsas stole the show. Credit: Photo by Abrahán Garza

Congrats are in order for the following winners. If you’re searching for a great taco to have this coming weekend, these are the Houston-area restaurants to seek out, folks.

Best Overall: Barbed Wire Taco from Salsas
Most Interesting: Vegan tempeh and squash taco from Freebird’s World Burrito
Best Traditional: Carnitas taco from La Calle
Best Pork: The spicy pork taco from Caliente
Best Garnish: Carnitas with cranberry relish from Alma Latina
People’s Choice: Banh mi taco from Evo Taco
Tabasco Flavor Your World Award: Tabasco carne guisada taco from Luna Y Sol

Caliente celebrates its win for best pork. Credit: Chec

Check out more photos of this year’s Tacolandia right here.

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This article appears in Oct 19-25, 2017.

Gwendolyn Knapp is the food editor at the Houston Press. A sixth-generation Floridian, she is still torn as to whether she likes smoked fish dip or queso better.