Torchy's Tacos Most Popular Menu Items, Ranked Worst To Best

The bacon, egg, and cheese strays a bit from the typically elaborate tacos at Torchy's, but I wanted to try it as a baseline — it's a popular order at taquerias all over Texas, so it seemed like it should be easy for Torchy's to nail this simple classic. Sadly, it was the weakest item I sampled during this taste test.

The main problem (which was an issue for all the breakfast tacos at Torchy's) was that there were far too many eggs. If you absolutely love scrambled eggs, this might not be a problem for you, but I prefer the egg to play a supporting role in breakfast tacos. At least they were cooked properly (fluffy and set but not overdone and dry) but they overwhelmed the other toppings. The amount of bacon in the taco, while not exactly skimpy, felt inadequate in comparison to the big pile of eggs. Also, the bacon was finely chopped into bacon bits. I find it's better when left in strips because then it provides more textural contrast to the soft eggs and tortilla. The shredded cheese in the taco didn't add much to the flavor other than being salty.

This taco was served with salsa roja, Torchy's least interesting salsa. It tasted mostly like ground-up tomatoes without much seasoning, spice, or tang. Overall, this taco certainly wasn't bad, but many other places serve more delicious renditions of the bacon, egg, and cheese.

Vegetarians can get in on the fun at Torchy's with the fried avocado taco, which consists of generous chunks of breaded avocado on a bed of refried beans, topped with shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, and cheese. The avocado pieces were very satisfying; the breading seemed to be panko-based, and it had a light crispiness that contrasted well with the creamy fruit.

Besides the fried avocado, however, the other components of this taco weren't all that special. The refried beans were a bit bland, as was the pico. The poblano sauce got lost in the sea of other toppings and the lettuce tasted like water. Since all the toppings were wet, the avocado lost its crispiness quickly. Unlike most of the other menu items I tried, which were intensely salty, this taco could have used more seasoning. Unless you don't eat animal products, I'd recommend ordering something meatier at Torchy's, though the quality of the fried avocado itself and the fact that the taco was easy to eat made it better than the bottom two entries on this list.

Even more basic than the bacon, egg, and cheese taco is the bean and cheese, which is just refried pinto beans and cheddar jack on a flour tortilla. This was the only thing I ordered off the kids menu, and sure enough, it looked like kid food. Aesthetically, it was a beige mush, perfect for those who can't handle eating vegetables or salsa yet. Tastewise, it was surprisingly satisfying.

With such simple toppings, I could really appreciate the quality of Torchy's flour tortilla, which was soft, fluffy, and fresh-tasting — worlds better than the store-bought tortillas available in most of the U.S. (We've ranked some of these tortillas, from worst to best so you know which to avoid!) The beans were nice and creamy, and they tasted like they were made from scratch; the earthy flavor of the pinto beans came to the forefront in this dish. Again, the cheese was bland, but at least it was melty and stretchy, which added a nice textural component to the taco.

While this taco was pleasant, it wasn't very exciting, which is why it's ranked relatively low on the list. I also docked a few points because the beans, though tasty, could have used more seasoning — a bit more onion, garlic, cumin, and chile would've taken them to the next level (see this easy recipe for refried beans here). 

The Ranch Hand is quite similar to the Wrangler, except the brisket is swapped out with marinated grilled beef and garnished with diablo sauce instead of tomatillo salsa. Thankfully, they didn't forget the potatoes on this one. The diced potatoes were tossed in a tasty seasoning mixture that was rich with cumin, chile powder, and black pepper (you can try a similar chili seasoning recipe here). These were delicious but unevenly cooked — some pieces were perfect, while others were a bit too al dente in the middle. I preferred the grilled beef over the brisket because it was more tender and lacked the hint of gaminess I detected in the Wrangler. With both the potatoes and meat offering a variety of textures and flavors, this was the most balanced breakfast taco I tried; I didn't feel like I was struggling with an excessive amount of scrambled eggs.

I really appreciated the flavors in this taco, and it would rank higher if not for the undercooked potatoes. Those were a serious bummer, unfortunately, so the Ranch Hand sits at the middle of the ranking, despite how delicious it was.

The Trailer Park is Torchy's fried chicken taco, which is topped with green chiles, pico, shredded cheese, poblano sauce, and lettuce. You can order it three ways: Regular, Trashy, or Hillbilly Style. I ordered it Trashy, which means the lettuce is replaced with queso. The chicken was expertly fried; even with all the wet toppings, it remained perfectly crunchy. It was dusted with a cumin-heavy seasoning mix that helped the fried chicken make sense inside a taco and overall taste vaguely Tex-Mex. The roasted green chiles were the next most prominent flavor component, adding even more savoriness. The cheese and queso sauce brought a luxurious creaminess to the dish — altogether, this was the most decadent taco I tried.

This has historically been my favorite taco at Torchy's, so I fully expected it to win this ranking. The reason it got demoted to fourth place is because the one I received was just a little too salty. It wasn't as much of a salt lick as the Ace of Spades, but the sodium content was still excessive, to the point where it dominated the other flavors in the dish.

The Brushfire is Torchy's take on Jamaican jerk. It's stuffed with jerk chicken, diced mango, and jalapeños. The jerk chicken tasted surprisingly legit — it was infused with the potent aromas of allspice and cloves. Even better, it was cooked perfectly: It's easy to dry out boneless, skinless chicken, but the chicken pieces were juicy and tender (try out these game-changer chicken hacks the next time you cook). As you might guess by the name, this taco was seriously spicy too. The grilled jalapeños packed a punch, and it was served with a side of spicy diablo sauce. The diablo sauce was interesting, as when I first tasted it, I thought it was a sweet red pepper sauce without much kick. After a couple of seconds, though, it revealed itself to be pretty intensely hot. Jerk should be super spicy, so I loved that the Brushfire didn't pull any punches. The sweet mango helped tame the flame a bit and balance out the taco.

I loved this taco, but it lost out on the very first ranking because it was a little too sweet. Between the mango, sweet spices in the chicken rub, and bell pepper flavor of the diablo sauce, sweetness overpowered some of the savory elements of the dish.

Since Torchy's doesn't publish a list of its most popular items anywhere, I had to do some detective work to decide what to choose for this taste test. I scoured posts from Torchy's fans on Reddit and read some professional reviews to get a sense of what people enjoyed from the chain. I also informally surveyed friends who live in central Texas and asked them what their Torchy's faves were.

I tasted every taco on this list in one sitting and ordered each one exactly as it appeared on the menu, with no modifications. Primarily, I evaluated the flavor of each taco, but I also factored in considerations like presentation and originality. I purchased the tacos independently; they were not provided to me for free by Torchy's Tacos.