A food trailer parked in a gravel lot on Queen City Avenue has earned a spot among the best taco spots in the entire country. Tacos El Joven, the fixture known for serving up barbacoa, al pastor and even beef brains out of a red-and-white trailer on Cincinnati's West Side, was named one of the best taco spots in America by USA Today, putting a humble neighborhood operation on a national stage.
The honor came through a local nomination. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, food and dining writer Keith Pandolfi put Tacos El Joven forward as a Cincinnati nominee after USA Today solicited nominations from cities across the country. Pandolfi, who regularly covers Midwestern and Northern Kentucky dining culture and has spotlighted regional taco spots before, listed his 10 favorite taco joints in Greater Cincinnati this month, with Tacos El Joven among them, as noted on his Bluesky account.
The trailer itself has held down its spot in a gravel parking lot at 2157 Queen City Ave. for years, according to the Enquirer. What makes the location distinctive is who it shares that lot with: Merkato Market, an East African grocery store serving Cincinnati's Ethiopian and Eritrean communities with fresh meats, spices and injera flatbread, per Cincinnati Magazine. The address brings together a taco trailer and a grocery serving Cincinnati's Ethiopian and Eritrean communities.
A Menu That Goes Well Beyond Chicken and Pork
Tacos El Joven's menu doesn't play it safe. Alongside juicy, well-seasoned chicken tacos, the trailer serves barbacoa tacos with a rich consommé and al pastor tacos the Enquirer describes as citrusy and complex, all built on corn tortillas. Each serving comes with enough meat to make two or three tacos into a full meal.
For the more adventurous, the trailer also serves tacos filled with tripe, tongue and huitlacoche, an edible fungus that grows on corn and is often described as tasting like smoky, earthy mushrooms. CityBeat reported as far back as 2019 that the stand's lineup of beef tongue, tripe and beef brains set it apart from typical Tex-Mex fare. Pandolfi singled out the barbacoa, al pastor and chicken tacos for praise in his write-up for the Enquirer.
That authenticity has made the trailer a magnet for both construction workers and dedicated taco enthusiasts, according to the Enquirer's reporting. It wasn't always a hard sell, either: CityBeat noted in 2018 that Tacos El Joven built its early customer base selling street-style tacos priced between $2.00 and $2.50 each, a value proposition that helped it become a neighborhood staple long before any national recognition arrived.
Westwood, South Fairmount, or Both?
Local coverage has long associated the trailer with Westwood, Cincinnati's largest neighborhood by both land area and population, spanning six square miles and home to 33,774 residents as of the 2020 Census, according to planning firm Lord Aeck Sargent. Hoodline previously examined Westwood's community dynamics as the city's largest residential area.
But Cincinnati Magazine identifies the 2157 Queen City Avenue property as being in South Fairmount. The trailer has been associated with both South Fairmount and Westwood over the years, even as food guides default to the more prominent Westwood name.
A Long Track Record of Local Acclaim
The national nod builds on years of local buzz. A 2019 Hoodline analysis of Yelp customer reviews ranked Tacos El Joven third overall among Cincinnati's top taco destinations, with an average 4.5-star rating. More recently, Cincinnati Magazine included the trailer among its 15 premier mobile Mexican food spots across the metro area back in May.
The timing also lines up neatly with Cincinnati Taco Week, the ninth annual citywide promotion running from Monday through Sunday that features $3 taco deals at more than 30 local restaurants, according to the Warren County Post. Hoodline covered the citywide $3 taco promotion after it began, and the week's run gives the national honor an especially fitting local backdrop as diners head out looking for deals across Hamilton County.
