Taco Restaurants in Los Angeles for Bachelorette Parties

Gracias Madre

A plant-based Mexican restaurant on Melrose that most bachelorette groups pick for the patio rather than the vegan menu: olive trees, heaters, and an outdoor bar, in a converted antique emporium. The bar pours agave spirits only, so expect mezcal and tequila cocktails rather than a vodka soda, and the happy hour runs 3-6pm weekdays. There are five bookable spaces from a 16-seat bar lounge up to a 100-seat full patio buyout, which is the widest range on this list. It is also the most photographed room here, which cuts both ways: it books out well ahead on weekends.

Madre Oaxacan Restaurant and Mezcaleria

Ivan Vasquez's West Hollywood Oaxacan restaurant, and the reason to come is the mezcal: the house claims the largest selection in the country, somewhere north of 400 bottles, with custom flights you can build at the table. The food is Oaxacan rather than taqueria, so the tacos sit beside mole negro, memelas and lamb barbacoa from the wood-fired oven. The room is the airiest of the group's four locations, with outdoor seating and free parking in the building, which matters more in this stretch of Fairfax than it sounds. Group handling here is catering and preset large-party packages rather than a dedicated private room.

Casa Vega

The Valley's dark, red-boothed Mexican institution, run by the Vega family since 1956 and still the default for a Sherman Oaks celebration. The draw for a party is the newly renovated Ray Vega Patio with a retractable roof, heaters and an 18-seat outdoor bar, so an evening outside stays comfortable year round. Groups are handled in tiers: 11 to 15 guests get a semi-private prix fixe, 16 or more moves to a private event or a buyout with family-style service. Worth knowing that patio events have to wrap by 11pm under the local noise ordinance, though they will often move you indoors after.

El Coyote Mexican Cafe

Open since 1931 and effectively unchanged, El Coyote is the neon-and-vinyl Mexican-American room that Angelenos book when the point is the group rather than the food. The scale is the selling point: 375 seats, so a party of fifteen is not an imposition, and the margarita list runs from a house version to a Cadillac. Staff ask that parties of eight or more inquire ahead through the party form. Nobody claims this is the best Mexican food in Los Angeles, and that is not really why anyone goes.

El Compadre

The flaming margarita is the whole pitch: poured with aged gold tequila, set alight at the table, and offered in more than fifteen flavours, a Sunset Boulevard routine since 1975. Around it is a dim, red-booth Hollywood room with a hand-carved redwood bar open every night and live mariachi most evenings. The kitchen is straightforward Mexican-American, and the crispy tacos and combination plates are the safe orders. Reservations are recommended; large parties are handled ad hoc rather than through a private room, so call rather than assuming.

Mercado Hollywood

Jesse Gomez and chef Jose Acevedo's Mexican restaurant tucked into the Cahuenga Pass, built around a long tequila and mezcal list and a margarita program that runs to nineteen dollars a glass. It is a good middle option: nicer than a taqueria, less of a scene than the West Hollywood rooms, and the mural room and communal tables suit a group that wants to talk. The group rules are unusually explicit, and worth reading before you book: parties of thirteen or more need a set menu, and Friday and Saturday reservations cap at eight. Buyouts are arranged by email.

Ka'teen

Wes Avila's Yucatan restaurant behind the Hollywood VOLUME hotel, and the closest thing on this list to a Tulum set piece: five thousand square feet of planted, firepit-lit garden with almost the whole room outdoors. The cooking is Yucatecan rather than generic Mexican, so alongside the tacos you get cochinita, xtabentun in the cocktails and a serious mezcal list. Friday nights are billed as Jungle Disco with guest DJs, which makes it the most party-shaped option here. It is a hotel restaurant at hotel prices, and reviewers are split on whether the food matches the setting.

Mírate

The most design-forward room on this list, and the one to pick if the group cares about the drinks: Max Reis built the agave and cocktail list, chef Alan Sanz cooks a market-driven menu where the tacos run to octopus, ribeye and mushrooms. There is a rooftop as well as the main dining room, and the building runs to about 7,400 square feet with a private dining room, so it absorbs a large party better than its Los Feliz address suggests. Reservations are suggested but the bar, lounge and communal tables stay first come first served, which is a workable plan B. Note that parties of nine or more may be put on a prix fixe.

Casita del Campo

Opened in 1962 by a West Side Story dancer and still run by the del Campo family, this is the Silver Lake option with the most actual party infrastructure: four bookable spaces from a 25-guest patio deck to the 40-guest Red Lounge next to the bar, plus a sports lounge with live entertainment and a full bar. Two outdoor patios and a dining room built around a giant rubber tree give a group somewhere to spill out to. The margaritas are made with fresh lime and come in apple, peach, melon, strawberry and banana. The basement cabaret theatre downstairs is a genuine bachelorette add-on that no other restaurant here offers.

El Cholo Downtown Los Angeles

The downtown branch of the Los Angeles Mexican restaurant that has been family-run since 1923, sitting across from the arena and LA Live, which makes it the easy pick if the night carries on to a show or a game. Its claim on tacos is specific: the filet mignon tacos introduced at this location were awarded Best Taco. The margarita pedigree is real too, since El Cholo became the world's largest user of Cuervo 1800 and one of the first places to put premium spirits in a margarita. Onsite parties are a standing offer, planned by a full-service events team rather than left to the floor manager.

Guisados Echo Park

The cheap, excellent daytime option: braised guisado fillings on handmade corn tortillas, most tacos at $4.50, with a sampler that lets a group try six at once. Echo Park has indoor and outdoor seating and stays open to 11pm on Friday and Saturday, so it works as a first stop before drinks elsewhere rather than as the dinner itself. Ordering is at the counter and there are no reservations, which is the trade for the price. For a party held somewhere else, they sell platters of 12, 24 or 48 tacos that stay hot for around two and a half hours.

Sonoratown

A tiny downtown counter serving tacos in the style of San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora: mesquite-grilled carne asada on flour tortillas made by hand every day. It has been on essentially every best-tacos-in-LA list since it opened in 2016, and at $3.50 a taco it is the cheapest thing on this page by some distance. There is no dining room to speak of and no cocktails, just a rotating beer list, so treat it as a stop rather than a venue. For a party elsewhere, the Taquiza taco kit feeds 20 to 30 guests for $260.

Villa's Tacos

Victor Villa started this as a pop-up in his grandmother's Highland Park front yard in 2018 and it is now a three-time LA Taco Madness champion, which is about as close as the city gets to a popular vote on tacos. The signature is the queso taco on a nixtamalized blue corn tortilla pressed to order, topped with cotija and crema. Drinks are aguas frescas rather than a bar, and there is no table service or booking, so this is a stop on the way to somewhere with cocktails. Expect a line, especially on weekend evenings.