Taco Nazo

Ask most Orange County residents of a certain age who invented the fish taco, and the answer will quite likely be “Wahoo’s” – a once high-flying Costa Mesa fish taco chain founded in 1988 – or “someone in Mexico.” The correct answer is closer to the latter than the former: Taco Nazo’s founders are credited with introducing Southern California to fish tacos in 1978, bringing their recipe from Ensenada, Mexico to a taco truck and then a La Puente restaurant, “permanently infus[ing] their Baja culture into LA.” In other words, if you’ve ever had a beer-battered taco in Orange County, it’s probably because of Taco Nazo, even if you haven’t visited one of their four LA-area locations or their La Habra restaurant.

In January 2026, Taco Nazo opened its second OC outpost in Santa Ana, taking the place of a Miguel’s Jr. in what was (and still feels like) an old Burger King. Though Taco Nazo’s offerings thankfully don’t look or taste like fast food, their menu is similarly laser-focued: eight taco choices (fish, shrimp, al pastor pork, steak, chicken, potato, beans, or ricotta cheese, $4.50 each), fewer proteins for burritos and tortas ($13.25 each), four types of ceviche (shrimp, crab/jaiva, mahi-mahi, or mixed, $10 and up by volume), shrimp or mixed seafood cocktails ($9.50 and up), and very limited sides (beans, rice, chips/salsa/guac, $2.50 and up) and mostly soda/agua fresca drink ($3 to $8.50) options.

Our advice is to stick to the fish and seafood. We tried both Ensanada-style beer-battered fish and grilled fish tacos, which arrived so overloaded with lime slices, cabbage, pico de gallo, and particularly outstanding chile güeritos that their large bars of fish weren’t visible at first. But one bite – particularly with the spicier of Nazo’s two optional chile sauces – was enough to make the flavor and textures of fluffy beer-battered or tender grilled fish stand out in ways that were more “that’s really, really nice” than “wow” for us.