Tacos 3Hermanos: Authentic Mexican Food in Harajuku
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Despite being one of the quintessential parts of the fat American diet, tacos are not a major thing in Japan. In fact, until I exposed my wife and her family to an Old El Paso taco kit, they’d never tried this artery-clogging version of the Mexican classic. Overall, you’re not likely to find much Mexican food in Japan, as even Taco Bell doesn’t have much of a footprint here. The most you’ll see is taco rice, something I won’t talk about because it offends me with its grossness.
Outside of North America, it’s hard to find good tacos. I’ve traveled a bit, and Mexican food is one of the cuisines you generally want to avoid because wherever you are, they’ve probably decided they know what Mexican food is and have added their own vile spin on it. Japan is no exception.
Thankfully, we live in Tokyo, restaurant capital of the universe, so we’ve got options like Chipotle knock-off Frijoles not too far away (although I can’t eat there anymore after I ate it the day I caught norovirus). In addition to a decent TexMex place, our neighborhood has Los Tacos Azules, a boundary-pushing restaurant serving up blue corn tortillas topped with a rotating menu of delicious combinations.
Because good tacos are so rare here, when a new restaurant pops up that is said to have authentic Mexican tacos, people like us hear about it. Now, when I say “People like us,” I mean people scanning Google Maps for a place to eat close to where we get our hair cut. I guess I also mean travel/food bloggers, but I’m not sure we even qualify as that. Regardless, after our latest haricut, we checked out the trendiest new spot in Tokyo for taco fans longing for the real deal.
Tacos 3Hermanos Harajuku Tacos Public Hall
I only speak a little Spanish, but I believe “3Hermanos” is some kind of train. The restaurant is run by a Japanese man with enough facial hair that I honestly didn’t realize he wasn’t Mexican. Located in the Harajuku/Omotesando area, it’s tucked away from main streets, meaning it solely caters to those going out of their way to get there. Because of buzz on the Internet, it’s become quite popular - we read they run out of tacos by 2 p.m., so we made sure to get there around 1:00. Luckily, there was no line when we got there.
Ordering at Tacos 3Hermanos
Much of the extended menu was crossed out, leaving us to choose between three types of tacos: carnitas (pork), lengua (tongue), and suadero (beef). They come in sets of five for 2,000 yen each (around $12.70 as of this writing). Five seemed like a lot given that Eriko is very small and usually only gets two tacos at Los Tacos Azules, but that’s how many you get.
We ordered one carnitas and one suadero, both to share. I asked for no onions on either. “You sure?” asked the guy. I said I was sure. This was not my first taco rodeo. You see, I spent 15 years living in Los Angeles, which gives me an unearned sense of superiority when it comes to Mexican food. If these tacos weren’t authentic, I was ready to call them out.
They have soft drinks and mango juice, which we chose because we like juice. One bright spot about Japan is that there’s usually a juice option or two at most restaurants for people like us who don’t drink alcohol. I wish more restaurants worldwide would follow suit. We were ushered down the line while our tacos were prepared, and once seats opened up, the helpful lad advised us to sit in them and he would bring our tacos there.
Dining space at Tacos 3Hermanos
As I said, the shop is quite small. There were only two tables, each smaller than your average beer pong table. The communal atmosphere adds to the street taco feel, heightened by the street taco smell and street taco containers of salsa. The whole place is cramped not only because of customers, but because stuff is stored all over the place as well.
Behind us at a small counter sat a guy filming himself eating, most likely for YouTube. This place is becoming big with the FoodTube community. (Fun tip: if you’re in a restaurant and see someone filming themselves, sing Beatles songs as loudly as you can so they can’t use any of the audio. It might cause them to fight you!)
I didn’t expect much from the mango juice, but it was great. Sometimes restaurants water down their juices for extra profit; none of that here. Really flavorful and good for washing down spicy food. We had to wait a bit for our tacos, but not too long - this place is definitely faster than Los Tacos Azules. Soon our man plopped down our first plate of tacos.
Carnitas tacos at Tacos 3Hermanos
Up first were the carnitas tacos with green salsa and a couple unwanted onions. As you can see, the tortillas are small, yet thick enough to handle the juice. They lay five tortillas down and then add everything on top, so it’s all kind of plopped in the middle and you have to do your own work as far as getting even distribution of goods.
I picked up a sturdy tortilla and took a bite… and I was transported. It was an out-of-body experience. Though my physical form sat in Harajuku, my mind was taken to the streets of Los Angeles. I was at the taco truck by my old place in K-town. I could not believe it. Not only was the pork juicy, the salsa flavorful, the cilantro and lime adding the right amount of depth, but these tacos were authentic to the core. They tasted EXACTLY like the tacos of my misspent youth. If you blindfolded me, told me I was on a plane for 12 hours, and fed me these, I would assume we’d traveled across the ocean. Delicious. And we weren’t done!
Suadero tacos at Tacos 3Hermanos
The suadero tacos came with a red sauce that was a bit spicier, a little too spicy for Eriko. The slow-cooked beef, just like the carnitas, was moist and delicious. Not too greasy, not too dry, just right. We both agreed that the carnitas were the best, but the suadero were really good, too, and now I really want to try the lengua next time we’re there.
In fact, I want more. I want to see what kinds of quesadillas these guys can make. I want every Mexican dish. They’re already so popular that I imagine they will have to move to a bigger space soon, and they’ll likely even expand overseas judging by their fundraising efforts. When they do, I will absolutely be there.
As soon as we finished our tacos, they announced they were out of carnitas and suadero. Eriko looked at her phone, and it was 1:59. We’d read correctly about when they run out. When we left, the line was out the door. If you want to try these tacos, you should get there before 1 p.m., especially on a Saturday.
Verdict: is Tacos 3Hermanos Harajuku worth adding to your Tokyo itinerary?
It should be obvious by now that I loved these tacos. They were authentic and delicious. They were also completely different from those at Los Tacos Azules. While LTA is like an upscale Mexico City restaurant, T3H replicates the street taco experience with absolute precision. Both are amazing, and I can’t choose between them.
With our food reviews, I often find myself dividing the review between “is this a good place for Tokyo residents” and “is this a good place for visitors to Tokyo?” If you live in Tokyo, you have to come here. For Japanese people, this will be the best introduction to authentic Mexican food you could hope for. And if you’re an immigrant from Mexico or America, you’ll get a reminder of home at a great price.
For tourists, it depends on where you’re from. If you come from Los Angeles or Mexico, you can probably skip this place since you have great tacos all the time. But if you’re from Europe or even other parts of America where they mostly eat hard shell ground beef tacos, this is an experience you need to try. It may seem strange to your friends back home that you got cheap tacos in Tokyo, but they don’t know what they’re missing.
Where is Tacos 3Hermanos Harajuku?
Address: 〒150-0001 Tokyo, Shibuya, Jingumae, 3 Chome−26−5 URAHARA CENTRAL APARTMENT102
Website: Tacos 3Hermanos de Yamato
Hours: 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. or until the tacos are gone.
Tacos 3Hermanos has no sign on the street, so you’ll need to take a small alley until you see the restaurant. The one sign they do have is pretty far off the street, but the people chilling outside are a good indicator of where it is. They’re very welcoming of newcomers who don’t know how to order, so don’t be intimidated if this is your first taco adventure. And don’t be surprised if the restaurant isn’t there anymore by the time you go - I have a feeling they’ll need to move to a bigger space very soon.
