Find Some of Manila's Best Tacos at This Semi-Hidden Pop-Up in Makati

Los Tacos MNL
Magallanes Bistro Café, 3/F Oakridge Plaza, Paseo De Magallanes, Makati City
Contact: 0917-500-9854
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lostacosmnl
Open from 6 to 11 p.m., Monday to Saturday

(SPOT.ph) Temperatures were soaring on the Wednesday afternoon of our shoot. But with cooks going around heating up tortillas and meats and the sound of their sizzle filling the air, the open kitchen of Magallanes Bistro Café in Makati was an even hotter place to be. It’s clearly a busy day for the Los Tacos MNL team led by Chef Keith Curitana, who towers over just about everybody in the room given his height—and amazingly stays calm amid the heat in the kitchen. It doesn’t take too long before the team brings out a plate of their famous birria tacos, burnt-orange in color with charred spots that glisten against the natural light, and stuffed to the brim with meat and cheese that peek out from the tortillas’ edges.

Once only open online (and best known for their serious birria game), the small taco shop’s been stationed in the bistro-café since March of this year, in the form of a long-term pop-up open in the evenings (note that they opened in the afternoon just for our shoot). It’s relatively hidden from outside Oakridge Plaza—Magallanes Bistro itself is on the third floor, and the signs pointing to them are rather easy to miss; meanwhile, it was only recently that a sign was put up outside the building to indicate Los Tacos’ presence. That they’ve steadily grown a following in the past months is telling, however, of how well they nail the fundamental premise of serving hearty, downright-satisfying tacos and other Mexican eats, taken the dauntless direction by Curitana and his team.

Also read: 
Fill Up on Los Tacos MNL's Killer Birria Tacos at This Al-Fresco Spot in Makati 
Let's Taco 'Bout It: Great-Tasting Tacos You Can Feast on at Home 
10 Best Shops in Manila for Birria Tacos

Local taqueria Los Tacos serves superb tacos, tostadas, and more in Makati:

Curitana is no stranger to the food scene, having previously worked for the likes of Black Sheep (under Chef Patrick Go); Dulo MNL (as Head Chef); and Hapag (as Chef de Partie). It was during his time at Hapag that the pandemic struck, and his mentors encouraged the team to try their hands at their own independent venture.

The young chef—who, fun fact, originally wanted to take up fine arts and music, but was encouraged to go the culinary route by his family—stumbled upon a video of California spot Teddy’s Red Tacos on Youtube, and was inspired to give tacos a go. “Actually, the first time I [tried my hands at the dish], I didn't have all these Mexican ingredients because I didn't know about Mexican,” Curitana admits. “I had no knowledge about Mexican cuisine.” He ended up using local ingredients, and was met with results that were nevertheless, well, delish. “[I saw that] the final product was okay, and I knew that this is something that the Filipino market would be into. And then, we dug deeper in research into it and made [a] standard formula. That's how Los Tacos started.”

Curitana initially zoned in on birria tacos, the taco style featuring meat cooked low and slow in a spiced consomme, then shredded and stuffed into tortillas that’s then dipped in the broth and seared, and served with more of that potent consomme for dunking into. (It’s a mouthful, we know—the TL;DR is, it’s damn sinful stuff.) Los Tacos was among the first few to offer the dish as it began picking up in popularity in Manila, to the point of becoming a trend. In the author’s unbiased opinion their take was some of the very best—a point others seemingly agree with as they gained a following in the months that followed.

Three months in, Curitana realized he wanted to go expand the menu to include other dishes—street tacos, followed by quesadillas. From their original moniker of Los Tacos Quesabirria, this evolution also brought about a new name: Los Tacos Manila. Soon came the opportunity to serve their specialties in a physical space for dine-in, and the rest is history.

The chef and “head honcho” of Los Tacos admits his approach to conceptualizing dishes is experimental, but ultimately relaxed and spontaneous. “Usually it's more of whatever comes up—kung ano’ng may maisipan, you try it out. [Sometimes] it's a hit or miss… [but] if it works, then [it works].” That isn’t to say he doesn’t take his taco game seriously, though, as he makes almost all the components from scratch—from the fillings, to the sauces, to, of course, the tortillas.

Los Tacos’ tortillas are made fresh right in the bistro, from scratch, every single day. Curitana explains the tortilla-making procedure, beginning with sourcing yellow corn kernels which they cook in an alkaline solution called a cal (that’s calcium hydroxide for ya)—a traditional process called nixtamalisation, which gives the resulting masa that distinctive corn-tortilla taste. After an hour of simmering the kernels, these are allowed to sit overnight and are then ground into a masa (dough) the morning.

To the masa, Curitana adds salt for flavor and a “bit of” flour for gluten (to keep the dough “more manageable”); from there it’s shaped into tortillas and heated or cooked as needed. These tortillas deliver the best of the worlds of both corn- and flour-based versions of the traditional flatbread: the distinctive taste and nutty taste of corn, but also a flexible, pliable texture that retains its integrity even when topped or filled with soupy components—and it works beautifully across their range of tacos and taco-adjacent signatures.

The Quesabirria (P570/three pieces), of course, is a Los Tacos must that’s as chef's-kiss worthy as ever. With meat that’s as tender in consistency as it is brawny and complex in flavor (being cooked for a whopping eight hours) plus gooey ol’ mozzarella, chipotle hot sauce, crema, jalapeños, onions, and cilantro in folded, seared tortillas, these tacos offer no shortage of flavor—and a dunk into their spiced and complex consomme amps up the heat in, and the impact of, each bite.

The regular tacos are no wallflowers, either. The Suadero (P230)—a street taco of beef brisket confited in lard plus chorizo Mexicano—reads as an obscenely meaty number, and is rich alright, but is also surprisingly balanced thanks to a piquant smattering of chopped onions, cilantro, chipotle hot sauce, and shredded lettuce on top. Meanwhile, the shellfish comes generous in the Shrimp (P230) taco—which features plump beer-battered shrimp hugged by smoked sour cream and brightened by pickled cabbage and a jalapeño salsa.

Sometimes you’ve just gotta get a crispy bite in—for which occasion the tostadas are especially fitting. There’s the lighter Camaron (P210) with grilled shrimp that’s kept juicy, paired with a chipotle aioli and salsa fresca. The Tuna (P260) on the other hand delivers an intriguing East Asian-esque bite, being topped with salsa macha (a Veracruz, Mexico specialty of a jalapeno salsa—not unlike Chinese chili oil) apart from salsa fresca and chipotle.

Name aside, Los Tacos isn’t just about tacos—heck, some of their best gems can be found in the botanas (appetizer) section of their menu. Curitana gives subtle upgrades to Latin-American classics, without having them lose their soul. The Elote (P375) has the grilled corn cobs served in easier-to-share quarters, with a lighter, brighter tandem of whipped feta and grated manchego in place of the classic mayo-queso fresco combo; their Ceviche (P520) stars succulent cubes of tanigue in a distinctly balanced-tasting leche de tigre, with avocado cubes adding richness and grilled edamame lending nuttiness and sweetness to the mix. Whatever you do, don’t miss the Cabbage (P300). Nondescript as the name reads, this plate is as feisty as it gets as it pits together smoky wedges of roasted cabbage with spicy peanut butter on the bottom, slices of buttery avocado on top, and more of that salsa macha to bring everything to fiery, feisty heights.

Curitana’s brazen spirit in the kitchen is mirrored by his ability to aim high, and he shares one of his dreams for Los Tacos and the local taco world: to help pioneer “third-world masa,” or masa dough using local corn—thus entailing working with local farmers. "[It would involve] having the [farmers] grow our own [local] breed of corn that's more flavorful, [one that's] mas corn yung lasa compared to the ones that currently we have. Because really, Philippines is abundant in land and corn—it just so happens that the dried corn [here today] is mostly not for human consumption. It's used for feeds. There's no demand for it,” he laments. “Hopefully, in the future, it becomes something that we do here in the Philippines.” In the meantime, we say drop by the Los Tacos pop-up—said to be up until an "indefinite" date in the meantime—when you can.

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