Texas’ cattle country spirit and a well-rooted northern Mexican immigrant population have given Dallas-Fort Worth a bevy of meat taco options, but very little in the way of worth-a-damn vegetarian tacos. So when Resident Taqueria opened in October 2015, plant-eaters rejoiced. The caramelized cauliflower laced with kale and sprinkled with green pumpkin seeds might scream hipster taco to the uninitiated. But like the fish taco paired with cabbage, lime crema, and watermelon radish with a shawl of mustard pearls, the house-made chorizo with cubed potatoes and a smoked tomato crema, and all the tacos served at this Lake Highlands joint, everything respectfully nods to the flavor profiles and ingredient of the taco homeland.

Perhaps the most dismissed taqueria in the city, Urban Taco offers spiffy takes on tacos from across Mexico, all in tortillas made from fresh nixtamalized masa (i.e., the Aztec way). The chicken mole taco employes the mole recipe from co-owner and Mexico City native Markus Pinyero’s mother, and the pastor is sliced from the traditional vertical spit, the trompo. Go deluxe on the al pastor with the a la Tuma, what Texas Monthly named one of the top 10 tacos in the state. It melds the street taco cousin costra’s fried-cheese shell to a corn tortilla with habanero-bathed pastor, pineapple and avocado.

Boundaries? What boundaries? A favorite with the lunch and late-night crowds, Velvet Taco barrels headlong toward the taco’s limits with options like the shrimp and grits taco, the Nashville hot tofu, and the Indian paneer cheese taco on handmade tortillas. Try the hibiscus tortillas, which echo the mixed tortillas south of the border while carrying enough tang to balance other dialed-up flavors.

Occupying the sweet spot between modern and traditional taqueria isn’t easy—unless you’re El Come Taco. The East Dallas taco joint packs in metal punched tables, exposed brick, neon calaveras, local craft beer and classic tacos—we’re talking everything from chorizo and lengua to chapulines (roasted grasshoppers) and tacos al pastor straight from the spit.

The walk-up taqueria is a favorite of construction workers, local Design District residents and tacos lovers from all walks of life. They go for the saucy picadillo punctuated with carrots and potatoes. They go for the crispy strands of carnitas, the steak with truly “magic onions” cooked down with bacon and a hush-hush marmalade. And they go for the diminutive breakfast tacos. They also go to help those less fortunate by donating coats each winter to Taco Stop’s Leave A Coat Take A Coat clothing rack.

After a real estate drama in Fort Worth, what could very well be the best taqueria in Texas moved to Dallas’ Deep Ellum neighborhood opened a back room for reservation-only prix-fixe multi-course dinners prepared by Doña Juanita, owner Regino Rojas’ mother, and earned a James Beard nomination. Made-to-order corn tortillas are the foundations for the upmarket tacos of seared duck, octopus carnitas, cabrito (kid goat) and experimental specials like the Kermit in Bangkok, a frog legs and house-made yellow curry number that sears the tongue even while it sweetens.

The elaborate seafood tacos of Tijuana shine just west of Trinity Groves. Fans line up for the seafood campechano of grilled octopus and carne asada and the double whammy of fungus (portabella mushrooms with fresh huitlacoche), a side of mole fries and an agua fresca to wash it down with. Pop in on Tuesdays for the CriscoKidd Fish Tacos, mahi mahi breaded with crumbled chicharron and served with guacamole, onions, crema, and pico de gallo.

The original Tacodeli opened in Austin in 1999 quickly becoming the quintessential Austin taqueria with its knack for inventive tacos folding the area’s locavore sensibility into the culinary multiverse of Mexican eats and Tex-Mex. When Tacodeli came to Dallas and chose to source tortillas from the neighborhood’s La Norteña Tortilleria, which specializes in the buttery, translucent Sonoran-style flour tortilla, the restaurant upped their game. Favorites here fall mostly into the breakfast category. They include The Otto (creamy refried black beans, an extra crispy bacon strip and queso fresco) and the migas. Don’t sleep on the lunch specials, especially the seasonal pomegranate seed-studded, stuffed chile en nogada.

This beloved (and nationally acclaimed) taqueria recently moved to a brand new home in the Bishop Arts District, where its namesake taco still shines as one of the city’s finest examples of tacos de trompo. The taco al pastor’s northern Mexican cousin eschews the chile- and -achiote-based dressing of pork al pastor for a paprika-heavy marinade that’s punchy with pinches of smokiness and not a pineapple in sight. Whatever else you order, request the Monterrey-style campechana: trompo meat and beef mixed with white cheese on a flour tortilla made a couple miles up the road.

What opened as a trailer stationed on West 7th Street in Fort Worth in 2010 eventually rolled into a permanent location thanks to the dedicated, ravenous fans of Taco Heads breakfast tacos, including the A La Texicana—a substantial package of eggs, caramelized onions, thick, crispy bacon and aged cheddar—and such signature options like the seasonal fish taco, which gets a chimichurri pesto bath and toppings of pickled slaw, garlic aioli, crumbled queso fresco and a healthy does of onion and cilantro. Feeling indecisive? The chipotle brisket is always a killer choice.

This Fort Worth institution is unique among these entries. At its several locations, including Sundance Square, the food reflects the tri-regional heritage of co-owner Ramiro Ramirez. His parents are from Oaxaca and the Rio Grande Valley but he’s from Mexico City. Those influences are evident in the El Capitan taco, a crisped flour tortilla packed with carne asada, a netting of melted Oaxaca-Monterey Jack cheese, a heavy-handed shot of pickled cabbage, and onion and cilantro, of course. If you can’t schlep to Cowtown, drop into the Downtown Dallas branch, Flor de Mayo, a sweet little thing complete with trompo.