The best tacos in Newport Beach.

The blocks around Newport Pier are the spiritual home of the Newport fish taco, grilled or battered, cabbage and crema, eaten within smelling distance of the ocean it came from. The dory fishing fleet has worked this exact spot for generations, which tells you how long seafood and this corner of the Peninsula have gone together.

Best for

The definitive post-beach fish taco, as close to the water as it gets.

Parking

Peninsula parking is brutal in summer. Lunch on a weekday or an early evening off-season is the comfortable window.

Local tip

If a spot offers the day's local catch as a taco, that's the order. This corner of town has the shortest boat-to-tortilla distance in Orange County.

For the full taqueria experience, carne asada, al pastor, tripas if you're serious, the corridor where Newport blends into Costa Mesa around 17th Street is the deepest bench in the area. This is where the salsa bars are real and the tortillas get treated with respect. Five minutes inland, and locals have never minded the drive.

Best for

The broadest menus and the best pure taqueria quality near Newport.

Parking

Strip-center lots along the corridor, easy by any coastal standard.

Local tip

Taco night moves inland. When the coast is gridlocked on a summer evening, this corridor feeds you faster and better for less.

Balboa Village's counters feed the pier, ferry, and Fun Zone traffic, and tacos are the right-sized order for a day that's mostly walking. Fish tacos lean the local direction here too, and everything is built to travel to Peninsula Park or the sand. It's beach-day food doing exactly its job.

Best for

A walking lunch between Balboa Pier, the ferry, and the Fun Zone.

Parking

Balboa Pier lot, big but summer-crowded. Early arrival is the whole strategy down here.

Local tip

Tacos travel better than you think on the ferry. Order, walk on as a foot passenger, and eat the first one mid-harbor.

CdM village keeps a few spots along East Coast Highway that do a polished take on the beach taco, a notch more sit-down than the Peninsula counters, in keeping with the village. It's the natural stop before Corona del Mar State Beach or Little Corona, or the reward after an afternoon in the tide pools.

Best for

A slightly nicer taco stop wrapped around a CdM beach day.

Parking

CdM street parking is tight, and tighter near the beach ends. A couple of blocks inland off East Coast Highway usually shakes something loose.

Local tip

Post-tide-pool tacos at the bluff overlook above Little Corona is a top-five simple pleasure in this town.

Mariner's Mile is the working stretch of the harbor, boatyards and brokers, and the taco spots scattered along it feed that crowd fast at lunch. Fish tacos show up here too, unsurprisingly, since the harbor is across the pavement. Handy when you're running the PCH corridor and don't want to commit to the Peninsula.

Best for

A fast harbor-side lunch without Peninsula logistics.

Parking

Small lots off PCH. Not elegant, but almost always workable.

Local tip

Weekday lunch is this stretch at its best. Watch where the boatyard crews go at noon and follow them.

The local logic: fish near the water, asada inland. Order fish tacos on the Peninsula and around the harbor where the seafood traffic is real, and save the carnitas-and-al-pastor ambitions for the 17th Street corridor where the taquerias have the depth. Corn tortillas doubled, salsa from the bar not the packet, and a counter with a lunchtime line of regulars beats any rating.

Best for

Getting the right taco in the right part of town.

Parking

Same rule as everything coastal: the further from the sand, the easier the park.

Local tip

And yes, one town north, Huntington Beach will insist its fish tacos are better. Try both coasts of the argument and enjoy being the judge.