Are you looking for the best tacos in San Jose del Cabo? I can help! In this post, I’ll share our 8 favourite spots for tacos around San Jose.
This article may contain affiliate / compensated links, that may earn me a small commission, at no extra cost to you. For full information, please see our disclaimer here. While all efforts have been taken to ensure the information included in this post is correct and current, travel information such as opening hours, business operations and prices change frequently. If you find anything in this post that is incorrect or outdated please let me know in the comments so I can update it for other readers.
Restaurants in San Jose del Cabo
Sitting at the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula, San Jose del Cabo is one of two major cities making up the ‘Los Cabos’ resort area.
Whilst San Jose is a far more sophisticated and authentic option than its rowdy sibling Cabo San Lucas, it has still become a very popular tourist destination.
As a result, a fantastic dining scene has evolved in San Jose del Cabo. From aesthetic cafes, organic farm-to-table options and high-end resort eateries, there are plenty of great restaurants in San Jose del Cabo.
But amidst all these trendy options, most visitors overlook all the authentic local restaurants in San Jose, serving up my personal favourite Mexican dish – TACOS!
Let’s be real, if you’re travelling to Mexico, you should be eating tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not only are they delicious, but they are always affordable, so if these fancy tourist-centric restaurants aren’t in your budget, don’t worry – there are always tacos!
So let’s find out where the locals eat in San Jose del Cabo, and dive into our list of the 8 best tacos in San Jose del Cabo.
🌈 Heading to San Jose del Cabo? Check out the best things to do
8 Best tacos in San Jose del Cabo
1. Taqueria El Fogon
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: breakfast, lunch or dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 8:00 am – 12:00 am daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 35 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: steak tacos (asada and arrachera)
Simply the best tacos in San Jose del Cabo. Enough said.
You’ll smell Taqueria El Fogon before you see it, and you enter the restaurant through a smoky haze from the grill.
The meat tacos here are absolutely mind-blowing. The carne asada and arrachera were melt-in-your-mouth, so tender and flavoursome. So good we came back twice in one day!
If you want to branch out from tacos, you can choose to have their delicious meat wrapped inside a burrito, or, my personal favourite, on top of a papa rellena (baked potato).
Taqueria El Fogon is located just outside the main centro area of San Jose, near Highway 1. It’s about a 15-minute walk from the plaza.
2. Tacos El Memo
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: lunch
- ⏰ Opening hours: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Monday – Saturday (closed Sunday)
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 35 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: seafood tacos (fish and shrimp)
If you’re looking for fish tacos in San Jose del Cabo, Tacos El Memo is the place!
Serving up the classic range of pescado (fish) and camaron (prawn) tacos, as well as marlin ahumado (smoked marlin), which is a nice change from the battered fish option. They also offer chile relleno (stuffed chilli) tacos which is a local speciality, and ceviche.
As with most taco spots, your tacos come bare bones, with just the tortilla and your choice of protein. You get a rainbow of all kinds of salads, creamy sauces and salsas delivered to your table, with some really unique flavours! We loved trying all of them, from mild to very spicy.
Eating at Tacos El Memo is easiest if you have a car, but it’s still possible to walk from downtown. It’s around 20 minutes walk from the plaza, just off Highway 1.
3. Taqueria Rossy
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: breakfast, lunch or dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 8:30 am – 9:00 pm daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 40 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: seafood tacos
Taqueria Rossy is a very popular place for tacos in San Jose del Cabo. With almost 2,000 reviews on Google and a rating of 4.4 stars, you know these tacos are going to be good!
They specialise in seafood, with the classic fish and shrimp options, as well as some different things like scallops and octopus. They’ve got a few meat and vegetable options too if you’re not into seafood.
Tacos come plain as is standard, but you can go and load up at the salad bar!
It’s located just outside the downtown area off Highway 1 (where most of the good taco spots are!). It’s around 15 minutes from the plaza.
4. Taqueria Al Paisa
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: lunch, dinner or late night
- ⏰ Opening hours: 1:00 pm – 1:00 am daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 45 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: al pastor tacos
Although it doesn’t look like the usual fast food chain we might be used to, Taqueria Al Paisa is actually a Mexican chain restaurant. They’ve got multiple restaurants around Baja, including up the road in Cabo San Lucas and also in La Paz.
Al Paisa is known for one thing – al pastor. Pork cooked on a spit in delicious spices sliced off into a taco with pineapple, onion and cilantro. Honestly, there isn’t much in the world better than an al pastor taco.
You’ll see the huge trompo (spit) spinning and smoking outside before you sit down. In addition to actually eating these circles of delicious-ness, the best part of Al Paisa is watching the staff prepare the tacos. They slice the pork and pineapple directly off the trompo with very sharp knives, and catch it on the tortilla every time! Very skilled and entertaining.
The restaurant is tucked right on the edge of downtown, so it’s an easy walk from anywhere in this area.
5. Claro Fish Jr.
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: lunch or dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 10:30 am – 9:00 pm daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 40 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: fish and seafood tacos
Another chain restaurant, but don’t be put off! Claro Fish Jr. is an amazing place for seafood tacos.
With restaurants in Cabo San Lucas, La Paz and San Jose del Cabo we loved that we had the chance to eat here multiple times throughout our Baja road trip!
They’ve got classic fish tacos, but also a range of other seafood options you can’t find everywhere. Like multiple flavours of shrimp (coco camaron yes please), octopus, scallops and special types of fish like tuna and marlin. These options can get quite pricey (80+ MXN), but the standard choices are still really affordable.
They’re located just outside of the centre of San Jose del Cabo, near the estuary. We would highly recommend going for a stroll around the estuary, and then grabbing a meal here!
They also have a second branch down near Playa Hotelera, which is an easily accessible option if you’re staying in a beachfront resort.
6. La Lupita Taco & Mezcal
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: lunch or dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 12:00 pm – 10:30 pm daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 60 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: fusion-style tacos
La Lupita Taco & Mezcal is by far the most upscale taco restaurant on this list. It’s more like a fancy restaurant, and less like a Mexican-style taco joint, but it is really popular so I wanted to include it.
Their restaurant space is funky, with attentive service, great cocktails and often live music. La Lupita is located in the heart of downtown San Jose del Cabo, making it great for a meal while you explore the Art District.
They also have a branch in Cabo San Lucas which is just as popular.
We tried La Lupita and enjoyed their tacos, but the prices were very high. Like 60 pesos minimum for a taco, all the way up to 120 pesos for just one taco. Granted, they have some really unique flavours and are definitely serving up high-end, quality food.
But if you just want good authentic Mexican tacos without the price tag in San Jose del Cabo, I would recommend some of the other places on this list above La Lupita.
7. San Jose del Cabo Food Truck Park
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 5:00 pm – 11:00 pm daily
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: from 30 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: birria tacos
If you want to go where the locals eat in San Jose del Cabo, you have to try the San Jose del Cabo Food Truck Park.
Granted, it’s not exclusively tacos, but this was one of our favourite spots in San Jose.
It’s about 15 minutes north of town, heading towards the airport, so you’d probably need your own car to visit. But it was such a lovely local vibe, that we thought it was worth the trip.
Set in a colourful outdoor space, strung with lights, there is a variety of different food trucks serving up things like tacos, pizza, fried chicken, drinks and desserts.
If you want to stick with the taco trend, head to the Cuatro Marias stall. We had some delicious birria tacos here, and they also offer a lot of other alternatives to tacos, like gorditas, flautas and tacos dorados.
8. Tamales Doña Nina
- 📍 Location: on Google Maps here
- 🍴 Eat here for: dinner
- ⏰ Opening hours: 5:00 pm – 11:30 pm daily (inconsistent hours)
- 💰 Approximate cost per taco: tamales from 30 MXN
- 🌮 Speciality tacos: tamales
Okay, I know tamales are not tacos, but I really wanted to sneak this in as these tamales are so delicious. They’re a great alternative to tacos if you’re taco-ed out (if this is possible) but still chasing some cheap eats in San Jose del Cabo.
A San Jose institution, Doña Nina serves up delicious and affordable tamales from her food cart in Plaza Mijares each evening.
Prepare for a line if you turn up at dinner time, but it is well worth the wait! We loved the pollo en salsa verde (chicken with green sauce).
It’s typical street food, so take your tamales and find a seat somewhere around the plaza. This was one of our favourite things to do in San Jose del Cabo. Enjoy the people-watching, there’s so much activity in the plaza in the evenings.
If you don’t want to venture to the outskirts of town for some of the taco places mentioned on this list, this is an easy and accessible option.
Dessert in San Jose del Cabo
If you have a sweet tooth like me, you’ll need dessert too! You can wash down your tacos with a sweet treat.
Head to Plaza Mijares and you can take your pick of ice cream, paletas (popsicles), churros and even crepes!
Most of these goodies are available from carts around the plaza, but we also highly recommend Almazen for crepes and Las Delicias for churros and ice creams.
Other restaurants in San Jose del Cabo
I’ve kept this list brief and (mostly) to tacos and cheap eats in San Jose del Cabo.
But there are SO many other fantastic places to eat in downtown San Jose del Cabo, and the areas surrounding it. Especially if you have a bit more budget to spend on dining experiences.
A few honourable mentions to consider for your San Jose eating itinerary:
- Coffee LAB
- Pezgallo
- Baja Brewing Co.
- Mi Casa
- El Ahorcado (The Hangman)
- El Marinero Borracho
- ACRE
- Los Tamarindos
- Flora Farms
Best tacos in San Jose del Cabo: Final thoughts
I’m drooling just thinking about all the delicious tacos we ate in San Jose del Cabo!
If you take the time to get outside of the popular restaurants, you can find some great cheap eats and authentic local restaurants in San Jose del Cabo!
I hope this post helps you on your hunt for the best tacos in San Jose del Cabo. Let me know in the comments which were your favourites.
If you’re visiting Cabo San Lucas too, get more foodie tips in our guide to the best local restaurants in Cabo San Lucas.
PLANNING A TRIP TO CABO? CHECK OUT THESE POSTS 👇🏼
– 17 Best Things to Do in San Jose del Cabo Travel Guide
– Mt Solmar – Hike a Mountain with Dogs in Cabo San Lucas
– Humpback Whale Watching in Cabo
– 12 Amazing Cabo Day Trips
– 10 Unique and Boutique Hotels in Los Cabos
