Five To Try: Melbourne’s Best New Taco Spots

Is it too early to crown 2026 as the year of the taco? Melbourne is making a strong case for it. There’s never been a shortage of taco spots in the city, but fanfare around the popular Mexican discs has reached new levels this year. Tex-Mex styles remain a staple, but a group of newcomers are pushing for authenticity in ways that Melbourne hasn’t seen before.

At the crest of the wave was Hot Listed Taqueria Sin Nombre. The enigmatic bricks-and-mortar restaurant from the Dingo Ate My Taco crew made a splash, opening to lines around the corner in its Chinatown laneway. One year on, the crowds are as large as ever. In its pursuit of authenticity, the kitchen team uses a small tortilla machine imported from Mexico to roll out warm discs of masa for its tacos.

These new spots are also riding the wave.

Santito, Collingwood

Earlier this year, Santito opened in the former Hotel Jesus site on Smith Street. Here, corn is sourced from a Gippsland farm and tortillas are made from scratch. The traditional Mexican process of nixtamalization, where corn is soaked in an alkaline solution to enhance texture and nutrition, is the key here. The kitchen team then grinds it using an imported volcanic-stone grinder and presses the resulting masa into tortillas.

Why go to all that effort? For authentic tasting tacos, inspired by those co-owner Jenna Davies ate in Mexico City. Premade corn tortillas are useful for convenience, but “you’re not tasting the actual corn flavour as much compared to fresh”, she told Broadsheet when Santito opened. Suadero tacos feature heavily here – a Mexico City speciality.

Super Taco, CBD

Tiny taco spots in city laneways are Melbourne’s latest fling. And in keeping with the authentic taco trend, Super Taco’s focus is singular: the tortillas. After leaving her job in 2025 to spend more time with her kids, owner Georgie Larkins found herself with more time to cook. She became obsessed with re-creating the fresh corn tortillas she’d loved on multiple trips to Mexico City, but struggled to find in Melbourne.

Now at Super Taco, each tortilla is pressed in-house using only water and imported Mexican white corn masa. They’re the foundation of a menu built around four tacos: pork al pastor, grilled cauliflower, crispy fish and grilled skirt steak. The signature al pastor is cooked traditionally on a trompo – the vertical spit synonymous with Mexico City’s streetside taquerias – and they’re eaten shoulder-to-shoulder, much like you would there too.

Dingo, Abbotsford

Buying into the taco trend is Dingo, a casual Abbotsford restaurant from the Taqueria Sin Nombre crew. Funnily enough, the Tex-Mex menu here swims against the current of authenticity that Taqueria Sin Nombre helped create. But it certainly buys into Melbourne’s obsession with tacos.

Dingo’s return to the team’s Lone Star roots is qualified by its breakfast tacos. Signatures include brisket, egg and cheese on house-pressed flour tortillas, while a bean, spinach and bacon number comes on blue corn tortillas, also pressed in-house. There’s also a house-made chorizo taco with egg and a mild, stringy cheese from Oaxaca.

Chabela, Thornbury

Karla Martinez grew up in Coyoacán, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Mexico City. She and her husband Harry Lawrence met in Mexico and lived in Mexico City together for five years. When they moved to Melbourne in 2014, they struggled to find dishes they were accustomed to in CDMX. So they decided to cook it themselves and opened Chabela on High Street, Thornbury, with “the idea to try and make something as authentic as we possibly could”, Lawrence told Broadsheet.

At Chabela, tortillas are made with blue corn masa, which has a nuttier flavour than the white and yellow varieties. They’re served as cochinita pibil tacos, grilled mushroom discs and suadero versions, as well as a grilled cactus number.

Mercadito, Brunswick

At Mercadito, barbacoa and cochinita tacos, made with slow-roasted pork, feature. But rather than come ready-to-eat, they’re served like they are at the taquerias in Mexico City: hot tortillas, salsa and fillings arrive on the table, and diners assemble their own.

There’s a cocktail bar in the venue, vinyl plays through the speakers and punters spill out onto Sydney Road, hibiscus Margaritas in hand. It’s another step in the direction of authentic Mexican tacos, with a Melburnian twist.

Additional reporting by Sebastian Pasinetti, Quincy Malesovas and Claire Adey.