One of Tijuana’s best taquerias, Tijuanazo, just expanded to Echo Park with a new location right off of Sunset Boulevard. Tijuanero by Tijuanazo quietly opened on September 24 after nearly a year of construction in the former Los Burritos space, where
it now serves tacos, burritos, and aguas frescas out of the beloved front window.
Antonio and Claudia Esquivel first founded Tijuanazo as a taco cart called Taco Nazo in Playas de Tijuana in 2008; three years later, they opened the first Tijuanazo restaurant in the same neighborhood. In August 2024, Tijuanazo made its stateside debut in East Los Angeles, led by the Esquivels’ daughter, Aria. A few weeks later, in early September, Aria’s sister, Karime, opened Tijuanazo in San Diego; later, the restaurant closed and reopened in a different neighborhood as Tijuanero by Tijuanazo.
For Aria, the expansion to Echo Park feels especially personal. Her father, Antonio, grew up in the area and had fond memories of Los Burritos from his childhood. Once Aria saw that the restaurant closed, she jumped at the opportunity to bring Tijuanero to the neighborhood. “We also wanted to preserve it being a Hispanic, Latino-owned business,” she says.
Tijuanero’s buildout in Echo Park coincided with the ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the area, which expanded significantly in mid-2025 as the agency conducted a series of large-scale immigration sweeps across Southern California. The constant risk of raids weighed heavily on Aria as a business that caters to a primarily Latino community, and she saw its effects reach the East L.A. location; customers seemed afraid to come in. In January 2026, the raids hit even closer to home as ICE took a worker from outside the Echo Park Tijuanero. After the sweep, Aria and the Tijuanero team helped connect the family with resources, but she says the incident made her feel more scared. “I’m hoping that all these people facing these injustices get their voices heard and we fight back against this,” she says.
Aria says Echo Park has embraced the restaurant with open arms throughout the opening process. “Echo Park is somewhere that’s so diverse that we wanted to expand on that and just really show what we’re about,” she says. Aria adds that neighborhood locals seem to be excited that the space will remain a Latino-owned business. “The whole neighborhood so far, all of our neighbors, everyone has been so warm and welcoming,” she says. “It’s just been great, honestly.”
In Echo Park, Tijuanero by Tijuanazo serves its usual lineup of proteins — adobada, asada, birria, chorizo, and vegetarian — available as tacos, mulitas, burritos, and vampiros. Aria recommends diners start with the adobada on their first visit, which gets cooked on the trompo before being loaded into tacos and topped with an avocado crema and sweet slice of pineapple. “That is what pretty much fundamentally started this taqueria, and it’s been our bestseller since then,” she says. “Everyone who is in TJ that goes to our taqueria, that’s mainly what they’re going for.” Daily agua frescas in flavors like horchata and jamaica are also available, along with other drinks such as Mexican Coke and sparkling water. “It’s pretty cool to see what people are interested in, getting that feel for what people’s tastes are and what are they looking for from us,” Aria says.
As Aria sees people start to line up at the window, she says she hopes the Echo Park location will bring new audiences to the taqueria. “I’m very excited for people to just see that we’re a Latino business that wants to add to the beauty of what Echo Park is a community,” she says. Reflecting on her father’s upbringing in the area, Aria says that it feels “very emotional” for him to see the taqueria in the neighborhood he grew up in.
“That was something I think he’s always kind of dreamed that would happen,” she says. “I feel very grateful that I’m the one that’s able to bring it there.”
Tijanuero by Tijuanazo is currently open Tuesday to Sunday from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m., but is still finalizing hours.
