La Pena

Can’t beat this breakfast for the price. Tasty breakfast tacos, good coffee, and nice people. What more do you want?

Great, perfect delicious breakfast burritos. Yum. Odd little unassuming place but just what we were looking for in the burrito department!

My tTwo favorites were the chorizo with egg and chorizo with potato. They are small but delicious, and at $ 1.40 each it’s easy to adjust quantity to match appetite. I had four and I’m stuffed. Best $ 6 breakfast so far!

I don’t get ANY of the negative reviews here.
I popped in to this unassuming spot to get exactly what I found; a super affordable, quick, warm, authentic meal to start my day.
They pre make their burritos and tacos but each is fresh and labeled clearly for diet and allergy aware humans.
I get some people who are staying at the nearby swanky hotels could turn their nose up at this local charmer, but I got a full, happy tummy for 3 bucks.
I’m sure you could go around the corner and pay $ 20 to have the same thing on a pretty plate, but who needs that noise?
I’ve got shit to do.
In fact, I’ll take one for the road.
Thanks, La Pena.
Sincerely,
A Hungry Traveler.

Awesome quick, tasty, affordable taco joint. The tacos are pre made just FYI. But authentic Mexican style. 2 tacos and a cola for under $ 5 and no food coma. Great lunch spot, excited to check out the breakfast tacos tomorrow

It’s amazing there is still a place to grab cheap, tasty breakfast tacos in the middle of Touristville. A lot of their customers seem to be construction workers, but they have veggie chorizo and egg tacos, and the potato and egg are also quite good if you’re not a carnivore. I grab them on the way to work and my walk is long enough that I have to reheat them, but they’re still good.

What a find! Amazing catered fajitas. Love the art. I’m only sorry I wasn’t here in the morning for the the breakfast tacos.
Streak fajita, chicken fajita, bean & bacon and a 34oz Smartwater.. . under $ 8.. . JACKPOT!!!

Had a couple tasty and decent sized tacos for $ 4 including leaving a modest tip for the dude at the counter. Bacon egg cheese and chorizo and egg were my choices. Good salsa with good flavor and a little kick to it.
Gotta level-​set your expectations a bit: this is a small corner grocery and Latin activist art gallery, not a full service kitchen. Hence, the tacos are pre-​made, but still pretty good. It’s a walk for me past Jo’s and Austin Java, but I resist plunking down $ 7 or 8 for a couple smallish tacos at those places.

Great tacos !!! And so many choices ! Good place if you want a bite to eat :) I recommend the chicken or vegetarian. Haven’t had the steak one to be honest. Also great because they usually have an art exhibit going on from different pets of the community.

Hmm… came here to try the breakfast tacos because of the great reviews. At first we thought we might be in the wrong place because when you walk in all you see is a tiny area and what looks like a to-​go counter.
The tacos are pre-​made and kept in a heated cabinet. I tried the potato egg and the chorizo egg. They weren’t bad either but nothing special… definitely not worthy of the 4 star average they had on Unilocal.
Even though there was only one other person in the restaurant and the guy at the counter looked bored before we got there, the tables were dirty — which was a big turnoff.
The one cool thing was the art on the walls — it looked like the place has potential to be a cool little hangout but they need to improve the tacos and train the staff to keep up w the cleanliness of the place.
IMHO, I’d pass on this place if I were you… lots of other good options for breakfast tacos in Austin. :-\

Would have been nice to know that the breakfast tacos are the ONLY thing this place serves, before I walked the six blocks to get here. That said, they are tasty, if not what I’d planned on having for lunch.

Cheap, delicious tacos!!! Only $ 1.40 each! it was perfect :) The lady working there was really nice too!

During SXSW, it got late one day, and I had not had lunch. I spied La Pena — I had never been inside before — and there I purchased two soft tacos. They were fresh and truly wonderful. I’ll definitely be back. Most people know La Pena for its art and cultural presentations, smiles — but don’t forget the tacos. Website:
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We went here for breakfast tacos, which were okay. The bacon and potato choice was better; the chorizo and potato wasn’t as tasty — the sausage was ground quite fine and was surprisingly bland. Both were enlivened with squirts of Valentina hot sauce.
There is also a little attached art gallery, catering to local and folk art: one section was kids’ art from a school project.
This is convenient to downtown but not the greatest choice, I feel.

Cool little place serving catered breakfast tacos. They have tables where you can eat in-​house if need be. Really inexpensive! I just ate 3 and paid less than $ 5. I go there a couple times/​week as my office is across the street…

DroppEd by for a quick bite and found good, cheap & authentic tacos. Salsa was exemplary (and hot!). What a deal. Plus, it’s a community arts space. What’s not to love?!

Excellent authentic tacos! Chicken Fajita, bean and cheese, chorizo and egg… All very tasty. The pico was perfect and the salsa was fantastic. Don’t waste money in a fancy Mexican restaurant. Get your taco’s here!

Let me start on a positive note: tasty and vegetarian friendly. Great art inside. SUPER cheap. All good things.
But.
Are these typical breakfast tacos? They’re my first and they’re pretty… underwhelming. I mean, they’re tasty for sure, but it’s literally just the ingredients listed in a flour tortilla. I make these at home all the time so my socks aren’t knocked off. I guess since Austin is known for breakfast tacos, I was just expecting more. Maybe I picked the wrong spot for my first day in Austin, first breakfast taco experience.
Also, they don’t make the tacos here. They’re done by a catering company and delivered.

Love this place! Great breakfast tacos and they are always displaying unique and beautiful art. These are the owners of the classic, but now closed, Las Manitas restaurant. Cynthia and Libby are the authentic, activist Hispanic women of Austin’s past. Worth a visit if only for a slice of old Austin.

Breakfast tacos shared with Spanish-​speaking-​only patrons for $ 3.
Best breakfast in town.
And they have soy chorizo! Which, by the way, if you have never tried, tastes precisely like the real stuff, except you have the knowledge that you have not eaten animal parts that are best not spoken of.
Absolutely recommend.