Marination Station

I honestly don't know how it took me so long to visit the Marination Station (it is located upstairs in the QFC complex at Broadway and Pike). I had read about and heard about their "sexy tofu" tacos and finally stopped by to give them a try.

The Marination Station is the brick and mortar sister of the Marination truck, which drive around town selling items from an unusual Korean/Mexican fused menu. The truly vegetarian choices are a little scant (they use shrimp paste in their often used kim chee, so if you don't mind shrimp paste the menu expands). I ordered two sexy tofu tacos (at $2.50 a piece, not quite in the realm of super inexpensive taco truck prices, but they really are in a whole different league), and am here to say that the hype was warrented!

The tofu was well marinated, lightly seared (not deep fried, awesome!), and on fresh warm tortillas with vinegary slaw, pickled jalapenos, onions and a creamy, garlicky, gingery sauce. I could have easilly doubled the size of this order and finished my plate.

The meat menu looked amazing too.

Taqueria El Asadero

This is the long-existing taco bus near the Genesee area Safeway on Rainier Ave. This place has its perks. To begin with, they will make vegetarian versions of most of their menu (and even have vegetarian tamales!) I ordered 3 vegetarian tacos and they were packed with rice, refried beans (likely including lard), cheese, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes. They tacos were very inexpensive.

Once you get your order, there are a few awesome things in the bus. For starters, Taqueria El Asadero still manages their salsa old-school style: in squeeze bottles scattered around the bus and on the outside tables where you help yourself to all you want. For a salsa lover such as myself, this is a real bonus. Second, the radishes, limes, and pickled jalapenos and carrots also exist in a "serve yourself" style dispensary. I love these additions to the taco, and it is very satisfying to have full access!

Flair Tacos

I have a new favorite in the Seattle taco truck department: Flair Tacos in Fremont. This is vegetarian's taco truck dream with two awesome, intentional, distinct types of vegetarian (appear to be vegan) tacos: a grilled veggie version, and a tofu adobado version. Both of them are delicious. 

Two grilled veggie, two tofu adobado.

In addition, Flair makes tasty salsa and adds plenty of radishes and limes to your order. It is also open late, something that I have benefitted from after a celebratory night in Fremont, but the tacos are equally delicious in the sober light of day.

It's not hard to find a decent vegetarian taco around town, but the Flair Taco truck has really taken the prize for creating an intentional, healthy option for vegetarians that looks and tastes every bit as satisfying as the meaty counterparts. As a general indication of taco size, if I'm super hungry, I can probably eat around 5 tacos. A typical light meal might be 3-4 tacos. One taco makes a perfect little snack.

Prices are typical taco truck cheap.

Tacos El Asadero

I have walked past the jumbo bus, Taco "truck" at Othello and MLK, by the Othello lightrail station, countless times and finally stopped in for some tacos. There weren't any vegetarian tacos on the menu, but it was no problem to order them. After you order, you can actually board the bus and and sit inside and eat and watch Mexican TV, but I got my tacos to go.

I ordered three vegetarian tacos. They were somewhere around a buck fifty a piece, and came full of beans, rice, lettuce, tomatoes and sour cream. Both the red and the green salsas were delicious and spicy. I think the refried beans may have been cooked with lard.

The one thing that was obviously lacking was the little packet of pickled carrot/radish/jalapeno/fresh lime... on one hand, they are tiny insignificant garnishes, on the other, they are one of my favorite parts of eating at a taco truck.

These tacos totally hit the spot, and are hard to beat for the price. One complaint is the use of styrofoam in the packaging for the tacos to-go. I'd definitely be willing to pay a little more for a compostable option.

Tacos Chukis

[UPDATE, 1/21/12: I haven't seen it yet with my own eyes, but it sounds like Tacos Chukis now serves homemade salsa and home-stewed beans for the vegetarians. Has anybody tasted either of these? I'm excited to go and give them a shot!]

There has been quite a little stir recently for Tacos Chukis, the taco shop with a sweet story (the Mexican owner, after finishing a degree at the UW, took a giant bike ride down to Mexico and spent some time investigating all the best street food with the intent of coming back to Seattle and opening a restaurant) and I was eager to give it a try.

Tacos Chukis has a limited menu with a handful of meat options and a vegetarian version of each that uses nopoles, grilled prickly pear cactus pads, in place of the meat. I ordered two nopoles tacos.

While I am not a huge fan of nopoles, these tacos were still pretty good: fresh, hot tortillas, cilantro, onions, lime, guacamole, and a little melted cheese on the tortilla. However, if I could redesign these tacos to fit my personal perfect vision, I would make them with tasty home stewed beans instead of with the cactus.

I was super hungry and found that 2 tacos wasn't quite enough to fill me up (the tacos are inexpensive and can easily be eaten many at a time!). Good to know.

This is such an endearing little taco shop and I love the story and the fact that they have an unusual vegetarian option (even if it isn't my ideal vegetarian option). The one other missing item, far as I'm concerned (aside from some beans), would be some homemade salsa.

On the meat side: I heard rave reviews from my meat eating dining companions about their tacos. I think between the two of them they managed to try just about every meat taco on the menu!