Tacos La Rueda

🇲🇽 SONORA, MÉXICO / QUICK FIX: Traditional Sonoran asadas have gone fast casual at this almost year old Bellflower restaurant.

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Sonora)
📍 16900 Lakewood Blvd.,
Bellflower, Southeast Los Angeles.
🅿️ Ample parking in plaza
🥤 No Alcohol

📸 All photos by Jared Cohee
for Eat the World Los Angeles

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It took ten months to return for the Sonoran delights of Tacos La Rueda, but this was of course no fault of the talented kitchen. On that occasion only two tacos were enjoyed and despite working out some opening hiccups, you could tell that the bones of a great place were being born. Thankfully after quite a bit of local love and spilled ink they seem to only be getting better with each day that passes.

It was only a few years ago that folks from Arizona would complain non-stop about the lack of quality Sonoran food in Los Angeles, but those times now have the feeling of being decades in the rear-view mirror. Tacos La Rueda is one of many new spots that have opened in the last couple years focusing on the delicious flour tortillas, perfectly grilled meats, and unique antojitos of the Northern Mexican state.

The menu is pretty compact, everything is displayed above the counter at the fast casual spot. A sheet of paper here or there advertises newer items like tacos de cabeza, and down all the way at the end is the weekend treat of menudo blanco estilo Sonora, surely a reason to return on Saturdays and Sundays.

If you have ever been out to Moreno Valley’s wonderful Sonora Grill, you learned quickly not to underestimate the chicken. Sonoran pollo asado is thoroughly leaps and bounds above most chicken options for tacos in the city, just as good or even sometimes better than the carne asada.

A great taco de pollo asado ($3.50, above) at Tacos La Rueda is no let down. Like all tacos here, an order “con todo” comes with crunchy chopped cabbage, a very mild but tasty salsa roja, and a dollop of guacamole. Head over to their salsa bar for spicy green and red salsas, pico de gallo, and all the usual fixin’s.

You may be asked whether you prefer a flour or corn tortilla, but at least when ordering the grilled meats the flour should be a given. As a counterpoint, one dish that always uses blazed corn tortillas is the uniquely Sonoran lorenza ($6, below), here with a heaping pile of carne asada between a crispy charred top and bottom.

A lorenza also has a thin layer of pinto beans and melted Monterey jack cheese in addition to cabbage, salsa, and guacamole, a cousin of the more familiar (to Los Angeles) mulita. But eating this is an experience unlike Baja-style stands, you can create two tostadas with plenty of toppings with the amount of meat they give you.

The other Sonoran specialty not to be missed is the caramelo ($8.75, below), almost like their taco but on steiroids. The same ingredients of the lorenza and the meat of your choice are put on a big frisbee-sized flour tortilla which is folded over everything.

While it is unseen in the photo, this caramelo is a good vehicle for more carne asada, which is the best meat to pair with their beans. Sonorans as always are very serious about their asada, and the finely chopped up grilled steak here would satisfy most families. Grab a seared Anaheim chile from the salsa bar or throw on one of the salsas to round out the filling antojito

If you order a dish with tripe like this taco de tripa ($4, below), you will be rewarded with large chunks of the intestine that are fried almost into dust. The flavors are all still packed in each bite, so much so that these are the ones you might experience later in the day with a burp.

But much like their spinning spit of al pastor meat, and the tacos de cabeza, these should be seen as variety rather than focal points. Keep your focus on the Sonoran grilled meats. The next follow-up visit will probably be timed for the regional menudo, but for now Tacos La Rueda is a firm recommendation for carne asada and pollo asado on or in flour tortillas.

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