Phoenix was named 7th best taco city in the US. But it totally should have ranked higher

Everyone knows Phoenix is one of the best places in the U.S. to get Mexican food. We share a border with Mexico, and have an abundance of taco shops serving nearly every regional variation. You might say tacos are in our DNA.

A new study ranked the 50 top cities for tacos in the United States, and Phoenix came in at No. 7 on the list.

That's great and all, but in my opinion, we should be higher.

No. 1 on the list was Austin, Texas. After that was San Jose, California; Las Vegas; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, California; Los Angeles; and finally, Phoenix.

The study used seven factors to determine its scores, each worth different amounts of points: taco restaurants per 100,000 residents; average Yelp rating from taco restaurants; cost of taco supplies (prices for 1 pound each of cheese, chicken, lettuce, tomato and onion); affordability of weekly taco supplies as a percentage of average income; taco restaurants per square mile; percentage of restaurants that are taco restaurants; and "taco passion."

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If it's not on a fresh tortilla, I don't want it

Phoenix was found to have about 2.4 taco restaurants per capita, and 0.028 per square mile. The study also found that 5.4% of restaurants in Phoenix are taco restaurants, with an average Yelp star rating of 4.17.

The factor worth the most points in the study (six points!) was taco restaurants per capita, or 100,000 residents. But should we really be ranking quantity over quality?

The study does not specify what types of taco restaurants are more prominent in each city. Sure, a city might have more taco restaurants per capita than Phoenix, but what kind of taco restaurants are we talking about exactly? Are they chains like Taco Bell or Del Taco, or are they mom-and-pop restaurants that serve fresh tacos based on generations-old family recipes? How can you compare family-owned food trucks with chains that don't even make their own tortillas?

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Finally, there's "taco passion," which is calculated based on Google Trends scores for 23 taco-related terms, such as “tacos,” “tacos near me,” “taco recipe,” “taco truck,” “Taco Tuesday," and others.

Phoenix's "taco passion" score was 85, based on Google Trends. But is passion really something you can calculate based on data?

Maybe I'm just mad that cities like Las Vegas were ranked above Phoenix. Don't get me wrong, I love Las Vegas — I visited three times in 2022 alone. But it was never because I was craving a taco. Vegas has its "things," like circus shows and casinos, concerts and endless shopping. Let's let tacos remain Phoenix's "thing."

Regardless of what one study says, Arizonans love tacos. That fact is indisputable. And I'd say we're pretty good at making them, too.

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Reach the reporter at endia.fontanez@gannett.com. Follow @EndiaFontanez on X, formerly Twitter.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Phoenix named top 10 taco city in US. Why we should have been No. 1