The taco guide to east Charlotte

If you want tacos in Charlotte, you go east. Central Avenue from Plaza Midwood out to Eastway, then Eastway itself, then the strip centers along East Independence Boulevard and W.T. Harris: that’s the corridor, and it’s where the city’s Mexican and Central American families have cooked for thirty years. This guide is a map of it. Where a business is in our directory we link to its listing; where it isn’t yet, we say what the local press has reported and link to the outlet, not the restaurant. Prices and hours change fast on this side of town, so check before you go.

Start at the grocery

Super G Mart carries what it calls the largest selection of international grocery in the Carolinas, fresh daily, from banana leaves to yucca root. It’s the anchor of the east side, and the food counters around the store are a lunch. Our read: if you’re new to the corridor, start here, because the produce aisle explains the menus at every taqueria within two miles.

The taquerias the local press keeps naming

Taqueria Number 1 is the counter-service standby. The city’s own East Charlotte Hispanic Heritage Month feature called it fast, affordable and delicious, and pointed readers past the tacos to huaraches, pambazos and sopes (City of Charlotte). The restaurant’s own site now lists a new location at 2801 Central Avenue, which is the address to trust over older listings; the city feature predates the move. Order the al pastor and a sope, and eat at the counter.

Taqueria Medina started as a truck in 2011 and moved into a six-table shop near Kilborne and Eastway in March 2022, according to Charlotte Magazine’s taco roundup, which singled out an 18-inch flat-top “machete” taco packed with carne asada and chorizo (Charlotte Magazine). Mostly to-go, mostly worth it. The same piece flagged Como en Mexico, in a small strip center near East Sugar Creek Road and The Plaza, for al pastor cooked the real way, on a vertical spit, which the magazine’s source called hard to find anywhere in the United States. If you’ve only had al pastor that was marinated and grilled, this is the one to correct that.

Tacos El Nevado at 4715 Central Avenue is the sit-down option out toward Eastway, with steak, pork, chicken and chorizo tacos and a guacamole with chapulines (grasshoppers) for the adventurous, per its public menu listings. It’s a full restaurant with a bar, which matters when the group wants margaritas.

None of the four above are in the directory yet; they’re listed here on the strength of the reporting linked above. If you own one, claim a listing and we’ll link straight to it.

The ones in the directory

The verified taco stops in our directory sit at the edges of the corridor and beyond it. Mexilove Tacos & Tequila on South Tryon does birria, fajitas and a full tequila bar, and it’s the one to send visitors to when they won’t drive to Eastway. Charros has two Concord locations open daily from 11 with a mi casa es su casa welcome. Carrburritos in Davidson is a family-run California-style taqueria making everything on site daily. Paco’s Tacos & Tequila serves Tex-Mex in Charlotte and Fort Mill with wood-fired fajitas. And Dank Burrito in Rock Hill does chef-driven tacos and bowls. Good tacos all, but they’re the polished version. The corridor is the source.

How to order on Central Avenue

A few things regulars know. Tacos come on two small corn tortillas with cilantro and onion, nothing else; lettuce and cheese are a request, not a default, and asking for them tells the counter something about you. Al pastor, carnitas, asada and lengua are the four to learn; barbacoa and cabeza on weekends. The salsa bar is self-serve and the green one is hotter than it looks. Most counters are cash-friendly and some are cash-preferred. Order in Spanish if you can and English if you can’t; nobody minds either, but “dos de pastor” gets you further than pointing.

Tortas, huaraches and sopes are the second menu, the one that turns a taco stop into a meal. A torta is a sandwich on a soft roll; a huarache is a long oval of masa with toppings; a sope is a thick little masa cup. Try one each visit. The pupusas you’ll see on half the menus are Salvadoran, not Mexican, and they’re the best three dollars on the corridor.

The trucks

The east side’s trucks and trailers park in gas-station lots and outside tire shops along Central, Eastway and North Tryon, and they’re where the best al pastor often is; Axios Charlotte has been writing about Charlotte’s gas-station tacos for a decade (Axios Charlotte). Trucks move, so we don’t list them here with addresses. The rule is simple: a trailer with a line of work trucks in front of it at noon is a trailer worth your money.

When to go

Weekday lunch is calm and cheap. Saturday afternoon is the corridor at full volume, with families, soccer on the TV and the weekend meats on the menu. Sunday morning is menudo and birria, if you know, you know. Most of the counter spots close by 10; the trucks run later. And the corridor extends: the same families have opened second locations in Monroe, Indian Trail and Concord in the last few years, so the restaurants directory sorted by town is where the newest ones show up.

This is the guide with the most missing from it, and we know it. If your family runs a taqueria on the east side, tell us. We’d rather link to you than to a magazine.