AUSTIN, Texas — It’s the battle of the tacos! California and Texas go head-to-head in a war over taco superiority in America. With the most cities in the top 15 of Real Estate Witch’s survey is California, at five. But rising to the top of the best taco city survey is Austin, Texas, at No. 1.

America’s love for tacos is beyond words. And fast-food Mexican-inspired dishes aren’t what’s being discussed here. It’s the authenticity in preparing tacos you won’t get at an Americanized Mexican restaurant that people crave.

Folks that want the taste of real tacos often bank on local Mexican food trucks and family-owned shops to deliver the goods. What’s better than the original?

The Lone Star State held its own in the survey, with Austin as America’s best taco city. San Antonio slid in at the fourth spot, and Houston made it in at 10. Dallas ranked No. 20. 

Now, overall, the survey considered California to be the best state for tacos since five of its cities ranked in the top 15 — San Jose, No. 2; San Diego, No. 5; Los Angeles, No. 6; Riverside, No. 8 and Sacramento, No. 13.

 

Here’s how the survey results were determined:

  • 6x: Taco restaurants per 100,000 residents
  • 4x: Average Yelp star rating of taco places
  • 3x: Cost of taco supplies — prices for 1 pound each of cheese, chicken, lettuce, tomato, and onion
  • 3x: Affordability of weekly taco supplies as a percentage of average income
  • 2x: Taco passion — Google Trends scores for 23 taco-related terms, such as “tacos,” “tacos near me,” “taco recipe,” “taco truck,” “Taco Tuesday,” etc.
  • 2x: Taco restaurants per square mile
  • 1x: Percentage of restaurants that are taco places

According to the survey, Austin had the highest percentage of taco-centric restaurants with 7.4%. Google search trends showed San Antonio “has the most taco passion,” and it’s the top city for birria tacos.

Other No. 1 rankings for California include Los Angeles for its carnitas tacos and San Diego for its fish tacos, based on Google trends Real Estate Witch found.

Cleveland was the lowest out of all the rankings.

The results of the survey is certainly up for debate. Which cities do you think should have made it to the top of the list?