El Ruso #1
Taco restaurant · Silver Lake
3700 W Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/3800476/street-food-vendor-park.0.JPG "El Ruso #1 by Farley Elliott")
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/66885938/2017_07_02_bonnie_brae_008.0.jpg "El Ruso #1 by Wonho Frank Lee")
Highlights
Handmade flour tortillas with mesquite-grilled meats, birria
Handmade flour tortillas with mesquite-grilled meats, birria
"This truck in front of the Walgreens on Sunset Blvd. serves Sonoran-style tacos that deserve a spot in any conversation about the best versions in LA. Each warm, handmade flour tortilla is topped with things like beef birria, smoky, spicy chicharron en salsa roja, and smoky, chopped carne asada. El Ruso’s tacos range from $3.75 to $5 depending on what you order, and we’re usually sufficiently full after three tacos (especially after adding guacamole, cabbage, and diced onion). Eat these right on the curb or wrap your styrofoam plate in foil and bring it with you into the stadium." - sylvio martins, nikko duren
"This Tijuana-style taqueria parks its trailer directly in front of Lassen’s on Sunset and Echo Park Avenue. Owner Walter Soto serves carne asada, chile colorado, chicharrón, and mole in tacos, burritos (called sobaquera here for their wide, paper-thin tortillas), and more." - Matthew Kang, Mona Holmes
"At El Ruso, a Sonoran-style taco truck in Echo Park, the tortilla is king. Made with flour that the truck's owner sources from his hometown of Tijuana, these are the kind of chewy discs that make each bite a euphoric experience. As far as El Ruso’s excellent mesquite-grilled meats go, the muñeco combo remains our top choice. Smoky chopped carne asada and spicy chicharron en salsa roja pile into one of those golden tortillas, plus you have the option of adding stewed pintos, cabbage, and diced onion to create a hearty beast of a taco. And if they happen to have them on the menu that day, don't leave without a burrito wrapped around one of their sobaqueras, a stretchy hubcap-sized Sonoran flour tortilla that's the only one of its kind in town. " - sylvio martins, garrett snyder, brant cox, nikko duren
"Set up right in front of the Walgreens on Sunset Blvd, El Ruso serves some of the best Sonoran-style tacos in LA. Each is served on a warm, handmade flour tortilla and topped with options like smoky chopped carne asada, braised chile colorado, and spicy chicharron en salsa roja. El Ruso’s tacos hover around $5 each, and we usually get full with an order of two or three (especially after adding stewed pintos, cabbage, and diced onion to create a hearty beast of a taco). They also serve a one-of-a-kind burrito wrapped in a giant, stretchy hubcap-sized Sonoran flour tortilla that’s bursting at the seams and will sustain you for several hours. " - brant cox, sylvio martins
"It would be easy for a customer from one of Los Angeles’s Mexican communities to see wayfaring taquero Walter Soto, a Tijuana native with culichi roots who has worked in Sinaloa, Sonora, and LA, and his wife Julia Silva’s truck as curators of LA taco hits, but there’s more than meets the eye. El Ruso is the most meta taqueria in town, with a menu of tacos about LA taco and tortilla trends. Here Mazatlán-style chorreadas, Tijuanense birria de res, Sonora-influenced carne asada with Sinaloan condiments, and Sonoran burritos wrapped in sobaqueras — made by Silva from Baja Californian wheat filled with chile colorado — reflect a menu that could only happen in LA." - Bill Esparza
