Having lived in the Bay Area our whole lives, we have grown up visiting and eating at the numerous taco trucks scattered throughout our community. As taco lovers, we often find ourselves at our nearest taco truck on Friday nights when we’re craving a quick bite to eat. 

For the following reviews, we chose Al Pastor and Carne Asada as our choices of meat to make our comparisons more straightforward and also because these two meats are most familiar to us. We visited three trucks — Frontera Grill Taco Truck, Cato’s Taco Food Truck and Taquera Patzucaro. Read our reviews below.

Frontera Grill Taco Truck — $

Cupertino, CA

The first thing we noticed about our plate of two tacos was the presentation, especially with the Al Pastor taco. The meat was visibly juicy and fresh, and the plate itself had garnishes (chopped onions, cilantro, grilled onions, a lemon slice and jalapeño) that complemented the presentation. Although the Al Pastor did look visually appealing, we noticed that the flavor was one-dimensional and lacked seasoning. When we bit into the Carne Asada taco, we noticed that the meat was dry — particularly in contrast to the Al Pastor — and the corn tortilla was harder than our liking. 

Tacos al Pastor: 5/10

Carne Asada Tacos: 6/10

Cato’s Taco Food Truck — $

Sunnyvale, CA

For this truck, the first thing we noticed when we opened our bag was the absence of salsa, but admittedly, this may have been entirely our fault for not actively asking for any. We definitely thought that salsa would have improved the dish, but nonetheless, we still really enjoyed these tacos. We enjoyed the Carne Asada meat on one of the tacos: while we thought a lot of taco trucks we had visited in the past made their Carne Asada a little dry, this meat was juicy and well seasoned. Both the Carne Asada and Al Pastor had the perfect amount of sear to their meat, which really complemented the juicy texture and allowed for a mix of crunch and tenderness. 

Tacos al Pastor: 6/10

Carne Asada Tacos: 7/10

Taqueria Patzucaro  — $

Sunnyvale, CA

These were hands-down our favorite tacos — both of us raved about how these might be one of the best taco places we have ever eaten at. With the amount of meat we received on the tacos combined with the price of $2.25 per taco, we were, needless to say, extremely delighted to devour these. In addition, unlike the other trucks, which gave us two, we were given three salsas: Salsa de Aguacate, Salsa Verde and Salsa Roja, which we felt like was necessary to really give the tacos their peak flavor. But even without the salsas, the tacos looked juicier than the other ones we had seen, so we knew they would have tasted amazing either way. The meat itself was flavorful and well-seasoned, and we both agreed that we would soon be back here for more.

Tacos al Pastor: 9/10

Carne Asada Tacos: 9/10

OVERALL:

All three taco trucks we visited for this story were well priced and great places to grab a quick bite to eat! Their menus offered a variety of options, from enchiladas to quesadillas, so if you’re ever craving any type of Mexican food, these places are great options to visit.

Gallery • 6 Photos

Three of the tacos we ordered at Taqueria Patzucaro in Sunnyvale, CA: two Carne Asada tacos and one Taco al Pastor