As with so many of the world’s great cuisines, Mexican cooking makes the most of every part of the animal, and for many of us culinary adventurers, beef cabeza, or head, is the source of some of the tastiest meat you can find in a tortilla. We’d been on the lookout for the best tacos de cabeza in the city, and we think we’ve finally found them.

Like most of the greatest taco places in Mexico, these tacos are slung from a small stand. Located in Roma Norte, Tacos Lolita offers a menu you’d expect to find at any establishment selling beef head tacos. Our favorite head taco for a long time had been lengua, or tongue, and we ordered a couple of these, thinly sliced, with cilantro and onion. The taqueros select the desired cuts from a large, steaming rectangular pan covered with a thick plastic sheet. We dressed our lengua tacos with some of the hot sauce set out on the counter, as well as a touch of lime juice – the perfect combination.

We were impressed by the tongue tacos, but those were just the beginning. Our next round consisted of cachete (cheek), ojo (eye), surtido (mixed meats) and one that our taquero called especial. Although the cheek, eye and surtido tacos were very tasty, the especial one blew our minds. When we inquired what part of the head this meat came from, all they would tell us was that you can only get six tacos of this kind of meat for every beef head. We’re okay with not knowing what cut this is; the important thing is that it’s become our favorite taco de cabeza in the city.

Tacos Lolita has been in business for 15 years, and it has gained no small amount of fame over that time, having been featured in many local food magazines, newspapers and TV shows. It was also featured in La Tacopedia, a taco encyclopedia that exhaustively lists all the tacos found in all the different regions of Mexico. This establishment also goes by the name Tacos de Abogado, or Lawyer’s Tacos. When we asked why, our taquero, with a big smile on his face, said that just like lawyers, they had just a bit of brain and lots of tongue.

By 
, photos by 
PJ Rountree

Published on May 20, 2015

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