Sydney, it’s taco time. Here’s where to find the best birria on a budget
$3 tacos, bottomless margs and 12-hour slow-cooked birria sandwich: the Mexican restaurants serving up specials every night of the week.
You’ve got to take your oversized hat off to whoever came up with the term Taco Tuesday. What started as a catchy bit of marketing, has become the perfect excuse to explore the local Mexican dining scene, which has steadily expanded since the birria boom of the early ’20s. While many of the best offers do land on a Tuesday, others run across the week or month. From taco specials to bottomless margs, here are the best deals in Sydney.
Vandal, Newtown
Tuesday special: $4 tacos and $15 margaritas
It’s not immediately obvious that Vandal is a vegan restaurant – particularly from the photos online, which show tacos filled with juicy birria (slow-cooked “meat”), plancha-grilled “chicken” and glistening “tuna” slices. The birria is, in fact, made from shiitake mushrooms, the chicken constructed from a house-made hemp mix, and the tuna is sliced watermelon, marinated with yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit). Vandal has been running one of Sydney’s best Taco Tuesday specials for the past six years, with $4 tacos and $15 margaritas from 5pm-late.
59 Enmore Road, Newtown, vandalsydney.com.au
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Sign upTaco Street, Beverly Hills and North Strathfield
Tuesday special: $3 tacos with any taco pack
When Annabelle and Andy Luu opened Taco Street in Beverly Hills in 2019, it sold just one item: birria tacos. It’s still the signature dish, made with beef, chicken or mushrooms, slow-cooked in a hot, brothy consomme built on five Mexican chillies: guajillo, ancho, arbol, chipotle and pasilla. The taco range has since expanded to include lamb al pastor with chargrilled pineapple and chilli con carne. On Tuesdays a pack of three costs $20, with additional tacos available for $3 each (seafood excluded).
314 King Georges Road, Beverly Hills and 165 Concord Road, North Strathfield, instagram.com/taco.street
Radio Taco, Redfern
Seasonal special: $20 torta meal deal
The torta – a Mexican sandwich served on a crusty “bolillo” baguette – is almost as popular as the taco in Mexico City, where Radio Taco co-owner Pablo Galindo grew up. It’s just been added to the menu as a seasonal special, where it’s made from Jalisco-style, 12-hour slow-cooked birria, melted Oaxacan cheese and shredded lettuce tucked into a white roll, topped with pickled onion. It’s offered as part of a $20 meal deal with fries and agua fresca (an alcohol-free fruit drink), available now until the end of June. “It’s rich, comforting and designed to be a proper value meal,” Galindo says.
67 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale, radiotaco.com.au
Chilangos Hermanos, Rozelle
Cinco de Mayo special: $5 tacos
You may have seen Jonatan Morales cooking pork carnitas on the current season of MasterChef Australia. The dish is now on the menu at his new Mexican restaurant, Chilangos Hermanos, which opened in Rozelle last month. There are also quesadillas, burritos and tacos, available topped with tinga (shredded chicken in tomato sauce) and picadillo (beef mince in chipotle spices). Chilangos is currently offering $6 tacos when you buy four, with additional specials to follow in the coming weeks.
576 Darling Street, Rozelle, chilangoshermanos.com.au
Tijuana’s, Manly
Weekdays and Sunday special: $15 for two tacos, $12 happy hour margaritas
Tijuana may be on the border of Mexico and the United States but this restaurant and bar in Manly is more interested in the intersection between Mexico and Peru. The whitewashed, coastal-themed venue, just minutes from the beach, serves dishes from both countries, ranging from ceviche and anticuchera (a smoky Peruvian marinade) chicken skewers to guacamole, tostadas and tacos. A serve of two tacos, filled with Baja-style battered barra or beef birria (cooked for 12 hours), is usually $19 but drops to $15 on weekdays and Sundays during happy hour (4-5.30pm), when margaritas are also $12, house wines are $10 and Mexican lagers are $8.
1a/4/8 Darley Road, Manly, tijuanasmanly.com.au
Little Birria, various locations
Tuesday special: $5 tacos or $14 for a taco and beer
With its brightly coloured interiors and festoon lighting, Little Birria channels the laid-back cantinas of Cozumel, the Mexican island where chef-owner Sunil Pundir lived and worked for seven years. In Mascot and Gladesville he hosts a weekly Taco Tuesday special, with selected tacos, including the adobo-marinated beef, roast pork belly and chipotle chicken, priced at $5 each from 5.30 to 9.30pm. On Thursdays the special includes $2 honey chipotle wings, and at the weekend you can share a Mexican feast over 90 minutes of bottomless margaritas for $89.
293 Coward Street, Mascot and 199 Victoria Road, Gladesville (also at 161 Perry Street, Matraville), littlebirria.com.au
Que Pasa Tacos, various locations
Monday to Thursday special: $6 tacos when you buy six, from 3-5pm
Alongside the street food staples this taqueria in Sydney’s south serves a Mexican spin on the HSP (Halal Snack Pack). Called an MSP, it features hot chips topped with pulled beef, cheese and spicy mayonnaise. Owner Bruno Gabriela Santos, originally from Brazil, opened his first Que Pasa Tacos at a Speedway petrol station in Liverpool in 2023. It has since grown to three shops and a small fleet of food trucks and trailers. Tacos are $8 each, served on corn tortillas with fillings like Jalisco-style birria de res (slow-cooked beef) or chicken with pico de gallo. You can also score six tacos for $36 between 3-5pm Monday-Thursday.
406 Macquarie Street, Liverpool; 479 Hume Highway, Yagoona; 21/23 Cumberland Road, Ingleburn; instagram.com/quepasatacos_aus
Maiz, Newtown
Tuesday lunchtime special: $8 tostadas
Authentic Mexican food can be hard to find in Sydney, but any search should start at Maiz. The one-hatted restaurant is the only venue in NSW to receive the Sello M (M Stamp) an official certification backed by the Mexican government, recognising traditional, authentic Mexican food. Maiz is best known for regional dishes like tamales and sopes – thick, crisp masa discs – but on Tuesdays, it’s all about the tostada. At lunchtime, the kitchen serves fried corn tortillas topped with pibil chicken, beef barbacoa, or pork carnitas for $8 each.
33 Enmore Rd, Newtown, maizmexicanfood.com
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Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.