Project Taco

I wasn’t expecting much when I drove by, but I was pleasantly surprised upon entering. The staff were very friendly, helpful, and accommodating, especially while picking foods that wouldn’t be too spicy for my daughter. I ordered the barbecue chicken taco and it was amazing. Very flavorful and packed with different ingredients, which helped justify the $ 4 price tag. A group of us sat at a large table where a game of Jenga was set up. We started playing but within minutes our food had arrived so that ended that. Overall great service and great food. Oh, and great music too… New Order, The Pixies, The Cure, The Smiths…

Very few places take you to a level of enjoyment you didn’t know existed any more. Project Taco is like a rocket ship to space in that sense. The food is like a fine dining LA chef tossed some high end nightmare job and put skills to a personal dream of making great tacos.
In LA 30 hours and ate here twice. Even juiced at lunch so we could properly prep for a hungry return dinner.
Food is amazing. Beer selection is great. Prices are outstanding. And STAFF is the BEST. We were SO impressed with Angelinos on this trip, and none more so than those behind the counter at Project Taco. HOW do we get one open in San Diego?! Come on down!

3 min walk from my house, but I have to say it is nothing special. The meat sits in a crock pot type cooler and the tortillas are cold. The prices are not worth what you get. I tried to like the place. The staff is friendly and I can tell the owner really wants it to be a cool spot.

We stayed at Hotel Wilshire right next door to Project Taco and grabbed dinner here for the kids on NYE. It was so good we decided to return for lunch on Jan. 1 and were pleased they were open.
The tacos here are excellent. A delightful combination of flavors that work really well with the meats. The corn tortillas are the perfect thickness and taste great. The tacos tend to be very juicy and the tortillas kept in the juices and stayed together.
In addition to tacos I also ordered the burrito bowl, which they were happy to modify with kale greens instead of rice.
There are games here to encourage folks stay and have a good time.

A very small place with an interesting take on tacos. Great beer selection too!
I enjoyed everything I ordered even though tacos aren’t really my favorite food.
Don’t park on the street as it is notorious for tickets and towing.

$ 4 each taco which is almost the size of a street taco — pretty small. Not authentic Mexican food either it’s more «hipster-​like.» The tortillas are house made. Ordered the Wilshire taco which was delicious, especially with the habanero salsa.

I was waiting try this place out for a while. I can’t say forsure ill be back. Maybe ill give the other location a try.
BREAKDOWN
ordered right before the lunch rush around 1:00 on ⁸⁄₂₇
4 tacos
Blueberry BBQ pork: came out cold. Kind of sucked because this was the reason I was looking forward to visiting. Hugely disappointed in lack of depth.
Thai peanut chicken: not spicy and just a mess of thick peanut sauce. Chicken was shredded and dry.
Pot roroa: I liked the idea. I just feel it lacked execution. Again depth was absent.
Chicken avocado. According to my girlfriend it want bad and she doesn’t remember
Tortillas were cold also and uncooked.
Overall just not impressed.

I came here today and was greeted by a very friendly young man named Angel. He was super energetic, seemed to enjoy his job and was very friendly. I advised him that it was my 1^st time and he was so nice to offer suggestions to cater my needs. I saw a pic on Unilocal for nachos and he mentioned that its part of their secret menu. The nachos are charged as 2 tacos so it came out to 8 something. I also wanted to try their donuts they had blueberry and strawberry. I got 2 for $ 3.00. Anyhow i ended up getting the chicken club nachos. I’m not a bacon person but Angel suggested that I give it a try. He was kind enough and told me that they would put it on the side. The nachos were good but they had quite the kick to it. The aioli sauce was pretty spicy but the cilantro and the other salsas I had on the side really helped offset the spicyness. The ranch cilantro crema was to die for! If you love cilantro as much as me you would loveee this crema it was sooo good. The chips were nice and crispy too. All in all it was a good experience! They also offer Happy Hour too!
The pico de gallo and the ranch crema salsas were good. The aioli was a little spicy for me and the pineapple salsa ehh no bueno! Thats just my opinion!

I read positive reviews of project taco and decided to try it for lunch. This place is ridiculously bad and way overpriced.
I had a pulled pork taco –no substitutions– and I could not believe how bad it tasted
I also ordered the chips and salsa– the salsa was so bad and came in a tiny plastic cup. I requested a different salsa and they charged me 2 dollars for another tiny thimble of garbage.
The staff was friendly though .
It’s been a month since this meal happened and I STILL can’t get over how disappointing it was.

I’m just gonna go ahead and say it: This is my new favorite lunch spot in LA (especially on Thursdays). Tacos and craft beer are my bread & butter, and Project Taco hits the jackpot. Listen up, and listen good.
What I Ordered:
1 Blueberry BBQ Taco
1 Chicken Bacon Club Taco
1 Green Chile Pork Taco
1 Chips & Salsa (Tomatillo)
1 Great Divide Rumble IPA Beer
1) Atmosphere: A
I know I may not be the majority when I say this, but I’m a sucker for small, cozy, independent restaurants. Project Taco is definitely small in size, but it packs a punch. Atmosphere, for me, is awesome. It’s all I need. It has a good reggaeish/90’s/summer playlist always happening, has plenty of bright sunshine coming in through its many windows, provides board games, and also has a small patio. I’m loving it.
2) Cleanliness: B+
I had to wipe off my booth table against the window a little bit, but no real issues with cleanliness here. Honestly at a place like this, I’d be surprised if I didn’t have to wipe off my table a little bit. Maybe it’s just me, but I love the laid-​back vibe in a little restaurant like this. I work in the industry, so I really don’t mind having to wipe down a table a little bit when the food is this good.
3) Service: A
Great service. In a place where you order from a line and then sit down to wait for your food (fast-​casual), the service here is phenomenal. As soon as I got to the cash register to order, I was greeted and informed of what was going on that day. In this case, it was Thursday, which meant that it is their «Steal The Glass» event. I would have had no idea if they hadn’t have told me, so I’m thankful they did! I was able to order a Great Divide Brewing Rumble IPA, and keep the glass which is pretty great. I collect craft brewery glasses, so I was super stoked about this event.
4) Food: A+
By the tone of the rest of this review so far, you probably already know what I’m going to say about the food… It’s bomb. The Blueberry BBQ taco is insane — it has pulled pork and a blueberry Sriracha BBQ sauce and I don’t even know what else to say. Just trust me, and try it. Please. Now to add to that, they have a stupid good lunch deal! Everyone who says their tacos are overpriced, obviously isn’t aware of this lunch deal. $ 10 for two tacos, a drink, and a side. Plus it’s only a few bucks extra to substitute your drink for a beer. AND THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT IF YOU DO THE LUNCH DEAL ON THURSDAY, you get two tacos, a side, a beer, AND craft brewery beer glass (today it was Great Divide) for a total of something like $ 13. Find me a better deal than that in Beverly Hills. I dare you. (P.S. I work for a luxury hotel restaurant in Beverly Hills, and $ 13 there will barely get you a glass of orange juice)
5) Creativity: A+
I touched on creativity in the above section, but this lunch deal they have is genius, and so is their «Steal The Glass» event that happens every Thursday. I’ll be living in LA for the next year for work, so if you ever need to get a hold of me just come to Project Taco on Thursdays and I guarantee you’ll find me.

Don’t bother. There are far better tacos in LA. Where $ 4 tacos aren’t unheard of, the going rate for a non-​gourmet taco is about $ 1.25 from a truck. For any taco that costs $ 4, Angelinos have come to expect something gourmet, interesting, or better yet, mind-​blowingly flavorful. Project taco has none of this. The $ 5, large guacamole was a tiny 2 oz. container and wasn’t salted or properly seasoned at all. The pico de gallo didn’t have enough cilantro. The tacos were decently bland at best, and had no great balance of flavor or fat/​acid balance. There was nothing fusion-​y about these, and the best thing the entire table had was the lime crème, which really shouldn’t have been labeled a salsa but was delicious nonetheless.
Kogi it is not. Even something like Komodo on Pico has far better, tastier, and more original options (and drinks for that matter), if the pricing is similar. My estimation is that Project Taco exists solely for those who work in the office buildings in the area who have short lunch breaks, all of whom would be better served at Rocco’s or dare I say, Wahoo’s, or any other joint in the mini-​mall across the street.

Love the big burst of flavors here. The Blueberry BBQ sauce is a must if you like it tangy and flavorful! Ironically, I saw a contestant making a chicken with a the same sauce! Also the Pineapple Habanero is quite good. As for the tacos, yes I do like the Wilshire pot roast tacos but if you are Paleo and want to try the meat alternative, I believe the meat is from Beyond Meat and it does taste quite good.
Craft beers they have a a plenty here. 8 taps in all. They have steal the pint night every Thur. Yes the tacos seems a bit on the higher side but do come on Taco Tuesday for your 3 for $ 9 tacos here.
Parking is kind of a pain, I’d be honest. I had to drive out in the residential area and do look at the signs because on one side of the street is no parking until 6pm unless with a sticker and the other side of the street is 2 hour parking (just look for the green sign instead of the red)
You can kill some time with Jenga and some other games they have there. Overall, great concept for gourmet tacos.

I had the Blueberry BBQ and the beef & bacon. It was amazing! I love the Cilantro Lime Crema and Pico de Gallo salsa.
We came in at 1 so we got the $ 10 deal. It has 2 tacos, a side & regular drink. BEST $ 10 dollars I ever spent!

Super friendly staff… The taco combos are very interest and delicious. They have many vegan and veg options, you can substitute any taco with Beyond Meat fake beef or chicken. The Thai chicken taco with vegan meat is great!
The only thing is the place is a bit unorganized and having an open kitchen it should be spotless and it’s very messy… The management just needs to fix that because the tacos are solid!

Tacos where ok, but the combos were a bit strange. The Peanut chkn thai was ok…
The ambiance was decent, and friendly. It did not give me the «taco experience» that I was lookn for. I’d rather a mexican taco truck to be honest lol

I’d seen this place pop up several months ago on Wilshire and I’ve been wanting to stop in. After reading the reviews, it seemed as though most people thought that the place was very overpriced. But, I wanted to make an independent assessment of both the food and the value.
After looking over the menu, what appealed most to me were the blueberry bbq and the Wilshire pot roast tacos. I was actually very excited about the barbecue one. After I ordered, my food was wrapped and ready to go in only a few minutes.
The meat was pre-​cooked and pulled from a warmer, which was fine with me. Actually, the meat ended up being very tender and juicy in both tacos. Unfortunately, however, neither meat was very well seasoned. Both relied on the other components of the taco to give them flavor. If the pork had been seasoned or marinaded in that barbecue sauce, that would’ve been amazing! The sauce was sweet and with a strong blueberry flavor. It was really a unique and tasty sauce that should’ve at least been put directly on the meat rather than drizzled on the top of the apple-​kale coleslaw.
Both tacos had very interesting and bold flavor profiles that worked very well. I was impressed with the creativity and with the execution, aside from the lack of flavoring in the meat. And the tortillas held up well after being stuffed with a generous amount of filling.
While this place is leaps and bounds ahead of Mondo Taco, it is definitely overpriced! Probably a price point around $ 3-​$ 3.50 would be fair.
4 stars for the food, 3 stars for the price, and 4 stars for the ambiance — it’s a clean, well-​thought out space with games, a large TV, and an open kitchen/​assembly area

Absolutely DEEEELICIOUS tacos! Being a taco loving Mexican, I was skeptical. They’re unconventional tacos with a kick.
I will definitely be coming back for more.

Heard good things about Project Taco on Unilocal so I stopped in for their taco Tuesday one day. To be honest, I’m not sure what the fuss is about. The tacos are very pricey, especially considering that it is not a sit down place. Fortunately on Tuesday, you get 3 for $ 9. Still not a great deal, but better than $ 4 per. The combinations in the tacos are kind of strange and personally I just didn’t think they worked together all that well. The Wilshire Pot Roast was probably my favorite that I tried. On top of that, the tacos took forever to come out. I waited over 15 minutes despite the fact that there were only a few people in the place. On the plus side, the tacos were filling and I almost didn’t finish the third (though I did have a big lunch). Don’t get me wrong, they were edible and adequate enough to consume, but nothing special. Stick with the cheap trucks at this price.
*It’s probably between 2 and 3 stars, but no half stars in the Unilocal game, and the slow service gets the downgrade.

Bottom Line: Taco Tuesday — gourmet style
There are hundreds of Mexican places to eat in this town and I have had more than one go at fancy tacos, and sadly it usually doesn’t end well.
…and I don’t mean it didn’t end well in a «I just woke up next to a hooker in Tijuana» bad or «DO NOT enter a hot sauce drinking contest even if first place is 100 pounds of sour cream which you will promptly need» kind of way. I mean that tacos kind of arent supposed to be fancy.
They are supposed to be bought from a lady on the street in Baja, with a shopping cart that’s got a fire going underneath the cookie sheet she’s using to cook the Carnitas from the dead pig lying next to her on the road.
Ive had a couple bad experiences with $ 5 tacos and it was because they didn’t taste good — even for $ 5 — and you can screw around with feeding people bad tacos. Period.
So i came here with a little skepticism and ordered the taco Tuesday special of three tacos for $ 9 — which in the realm of tacos is expensive. I think if you order $ 9 from taco bell, I think they actually require you to have a van or a flatbed.
I ate three of their fancy tacos and was pleased with what they brought me. The guy at the register was very respectful and nice, the girl the brought out the food was super nice.
Plus there were some hipsters filing in which sadly gives this place legitimacy. Shorts, a beanie and massive horn rimmed glasses with no lenses have become a sign of success… and how sad is that.

Hot & New indeed! Cruising around the nearly deserted mid-​Wilshire area on a random Saturday afternoon… I was hungry and decided to Unilocal a «hot & new» place. Scored with Project Taco! Not much for ambiance, but the ladies were nice, the music was pumping and the tacos were jumping!
I had the chicken with avocado — quite spicy and delish, but then came da bomb with BBQ blueberry Sriracha and kale. Visually, the most beautiful taco I’ve ever seen. I mean look at my photo of the gorgeous, juicy meat off-​set by BBQ, berry sauce and bright green kale. Yum and double yum.
Since it was happy hour (on a Saturday!) they gave me a complimentary prickly pear lemonade. This took the heat off the spicy goodness I had consumed.
Man, I wish Project Taco had been around when I worked full-​time in this area. Cool little place, great vibes and even better foodie-​worthy tacos!