Taco Nazo and the Baja fish taco in LA County: the 1978 Ensenada-style pioneer

The beer-battered fish taco — fried white fish in a corn tortilla, shredded cabbage, a stripe of crema, a spoon of salsa, lime — is so completely naturalized in Southern California now that it’s easy to forget it had to arrive here, and that someone had to be early. In LA County, one of the spots that was early is Taco Nazo, founded in 1978 by Gilberto and Maria Romero, who had moved to LA from Ensenada and started out of a taco truck in La Puente ^[1]. Before the Baja fish taco was on every other menu from Long Beach to the Valley, Taco Nazo was frying it in the Ensenada style — and the chain still bills itself “Pioneers of the Fish Taco since 1978.”

The dish, and where it comes from

The thing Taco Nazo is known for is the Ensenada-style fish taco — the Baja original: a piece of white fish in a light batter (beer-battered in the classic telling), deep-fried, tucked into a warm corn tortilla, then dressed with shredded cabbage, a crema / white sauce, and salsa, with lime squeezed over ^[2]. The format was popularized in Ensenada, Baja California — there are competing San Felipe claims for the batter version, and the broader genealogy runs Ensenada → San Diego / the San Felipe variant → Los Angeles County as the dish moved north with Baja cooks and Baja-loving Californians ^[2]. Taco Nazo’s contribution is being one of the LA-County nodes on that northward path — bringing the Baja fish taco across the line and serving it, in the Ensenada manner, well before the citywide boom.

From a La Puente taco truck to a small chain

Taco Nazo started in 1978 as a taco truck in La Puente, run by Gilberto and Maria Romero, fresh from Ensenada ^[1] — a working Southeast/East-LA-County origin, not the kind of place culinary maps usually start, which is rather the point. It grew into a small local chain; the well-known Bellflower location at 10326 Alondra Boulevard is the one most often written about today (the founders’ son Omar greets customers there, and the shop gives a free fish taco to first-timers), with additional locations in South El Monte, La Habra, and Walnut. The 1978 La Puente truck is the origin the lineage is hung on; “the Bellflower flagship” framing should be softened to “the Bellflower location” — it isn’t where the story began.

Jonathan Gold and the critical blessing

Part of why Taco Nazo carries the weight it does is that Jonathan Gold — the critic who, more than anyone, taught Los Angeles to read its own food map — featured it in 2013 among his favorite Baja-style tacos in Los Angeles ^[3], folding it into the larger story of the Baja fish taco and the unglamorous LA-County corridors where a lot of LA’s best eating actually happens. A Gold mention isn’t a fact about the food so much as a fact about the dish’s standing — and Taco Nazo’s standing in the Baja-fish-taco story is part of why it belongs in the directory.

Why it’s in the directory

Taco Nazo is a “brought it here / got there early” entry: founded 1978 (out of a La Puente taco truck) by Gilberto and Maria Romero, fresh from Ensenada, it helped carry the Ensenada / Baja fish taco into Los Angeles County ahead of the wave, is now a small five-location Southern-California chain, and was a 2013 Jonathan Gold pick. The page should carry: the 1978 founding and the La Puente taco-truck origin; the well-known Bellflower location at 10326 Alondra Blvd (plus La Puente, South El Monte, La Habra, Walnut); the Ensenada-style battered fish taco (batter / cabbage / crema / salsa) as the signature; the Baja lineage (Ensenada → San Diego/San Felipe → LA — present as the common account, not asserting Ensenada vs. San Felipe); and the Gold connection. Cross-reference the baja cuisine slug.

Draft — Search session, 2026-05-11. Fact-check done: founding year (1978) and the “Pioneers of the Fish Taco since 1978” line confirmed (Wikipedia, taconazo.com); founders confirmed as Gilberto and Maria Romero, ex-Ensenada; the original location was a TACO TRUCK in La Puente, NOT Bellflower — the “Bellflower flagship since 1978” framing has been corrected throughout; current count is five locations (Bellflower 10326 Alondra Blvd, La Puente, South El Monte, La Habra, Walnut). Jonathan Gold connection confirmed as a 2013 favorite-Baja-tacos list (per Wikipedia, citing Gold) — founder may pin to the exact column. Ensenada-vs-San-Felipe left as the common account, not asserted. Companions: baja cuisine slug.