Taco María

Just before the lockdown order came in March, I dined again at Taco María in Costa Mesa. I ate poppyseed tostadas topped with Dungeness crab. They were exquisite. I enjoyed lamb birria infused with star anise and coffee. Chef Carlos Salgado had

tortillas served with the family meals are Taco María’s signature heirloom blue-corn tortillas, which are quite unlike any other tortilla you’ve ever tasted. A beautiful, speckled blue gray, they are thick and heavy even as they measure only four inches

$25. 3321 Hyland Ave., Costa Mesa, 949-500-5561, arcrestaurant.com The grilled sliced sirloin tip, potatoes and crema at Arc in Costa Mesa (Photo by Leonard Ortiz, Orange County Register/SCNG) 4. Taco María (2018 ranking: 10) Six years into Carlos

Salgado’s rediscovery of Mexican cuisine, Taco María is approaching culinary parity with the likes of Pujol or Quintonil in Mexico City. Forget everything you think you know about Mexican food and come here for the four-course prix fixe dinner and splurge

Vine    A Restaurant    The Ranch Restaurant    Irenia    Water Grill    Broadway    Mastro's Steakhouse    Brick    Vaca    Arc    Taco María    Marché Moderne    Bourbon Steak    Hana re    Solita   

to local produce that it occasionally seems as if they have massive gardens of their own backing up to the kitchen. Yet no restaurant in years may have had quite the impact that Taco María and its chef Carlos Salgado have had on the Southern

in an almost anti-luxurious dining room in a Costa Mesa hipster mall, an hour’s drive from many of his fans and colleagues, is almost a miracle. Taco María has given not only Los Angeles but his native Orange County a sense of place — a place where

stint as sous chef at Carlos Salgado’s Taco María. But Rubalcava’s reputation was arguably set way before he started working under Salgado. His family owns La Reina markets, and up until he sold it to jumpstart his career as a chef, Rubalcava owned

two per order and garnished with a slice of avocado, some cilantro and pico de gallo—I questioned whether they were the right thing to order. I knew after having the food at Taco María that Rubalcava is capable of much more than this, and looking down

them first to Taco María or Knife Pleat, both in Costa Mesa. An alcove in the corner of Napa Rose’s immense dining room exhibits awards for its wine program over the years; it’s probably time to reinvest in the tenor of wine service if the accolades are

toughest tables in Orange County right now. Taco María After focusing exclusively on takeout for more than a year, chef Carlos Salgado has finally reopened his fine-dining Mexican restaurant Taco María for in-person dinners, albeit for outdoor dining only

from Taco María in Costa Mesa were no secret to me, but it wasn’t until the pandemic that I found myself with jars of these dark, spicy chile oils on the condiment shelf in my fridge: salsa morita, arbol and ancho. When Taco María pivoted from fine

more about getting food on the table for the entire family. No restaurant answered that call more heroically than Taco María, where trendsetting chef Carlos Salgado recast his destination dining room known for leisurely multi-course tasting menus as a

forget the brownie bark. 6460 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Long Beach, 562-431-0445, noblebirdrotisserie.com Rotisserie chickens from Noble Bird at 2nd and PCH in Long Beach (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) Taco María When this is all

Andrei's    Birrieria el Bandido    Buttermilk Fried Chicken    Clay Oven    Harley    The Kickin' Crab    Lola Gaspar    Noble Bird    Taco María    Vaca   

you eat this year. 211 W. 2nd St., Santa Ana, 714-972-1172, lolagaspar.com Scallop aguachile at Taco María in Costa Mesa (Photo by Brad A. Johnson, Orange County Register/SCNG) 2. Scallop aguachile at Taco María Served raw, these scallops from Ensenada

silky avocado-tomatillo salsa served alongside. Its excellence speaks to the restaurant’s investment in its masa program. Damian works with heirloom corn purveyor Masienda, an early partner with Carlos Salgado at his defining Taco María in Costa Mesa