Taqueria La Herradura — Restaurant in Knoxville

We were in town for a funeral. We love tacos, especially when they are authentic.

When we told our über driver where we wanted to go they were surprised in a “why don’t you want to go to the Mexican place that serves margaritas in bathtub sized glasses with mariachis playing?”

We arrived at the unassuming building and immediately I got the vibe: This is a place where you go with your friends, family or coworkers when you want real food made by people who know what they are doing.

This place isn’t about frills and decoration. It’s about the food.

While we were ordering workers were parking their vans, coming in, families too. These were people who knew this was the best place to eat this side of town.

Traditional Mexican music played on the speakers. I ordered a steak taco, and 2 beef tongue tacos with an order of beans and rice. The service was fast, kind and made us feel welcome.

Shortly after we sat down, a server brought us our food. A small bar with great condiments (sauces, hot peppers) was nearby and I decked my food out.

Everything was flavorful. Legitimately the best tacos I’ve ever had. The rice and beans matched it perfectly.

The quality can’t be beat. If you are open to authentic cuisine, don’t look any further. Don’t be thrown off by the unassuming building, or the repurposed fast food restaurant interior.

I don’t know when or why we’d be back in Knoxville again, but you can be sure any trip we take to the South will have a detour just for a chance at these...

I've been eating here for 5 years and absolutely adore this place. It seems like the concern for their consumer the/customer is throwing lesser and lesser. I've spent a lot of money here. I came through two nights ago and my order was completely wrong and of course I didn't realize it till I got home and by that time I'm not driving all the way back down here. I tried calling but no one answered. And they were still open. Here we are. The day after 7:00 at night I tried calling to relay the information to management. The phone just rang and rang and rang and rang and rang. So I eventually got my car and drove down there only to be greeted by a 16-year-old manager who's best customer relations was to tell me that he was sorry and then insinuate that I might have the wrong number when I was calling the one that Google gave me which is the right number because we called it. I called it right in front of him and the phone rang. My goal wasn't to be a pain in the tail or to get free food. It would have been nice for them to take some sort of accountability and fix my order for me, but that wasn't even an option so. Typically this is not what you get from this place. I am very disappointed and may never go back. I know they'll survive, but I'll make sure to tell everyone I know that they are not as good as they used to be and to double check their orders...

Warning long review... Being from Dallas, (my wife and I are also both chefs) I was skeptical of a taqueria in Tennessee that would be decent. But La Herradura exceeded my expectations- in more than 1 area. The restaurant is small but clean, with a large, simple menu with pictures covering the main wall, as well as friendly, inviting staff. There's a 'salsa' bar, with fresh limes, cilantro-onion mix, pickled carrots, pico de gallo, salsa verde, and red salsa (all very fresh and good quality). My wife and I ordered sopitas, street tacos, rice and beans, guacamole, and chips and salsa- with a variety of carne asada and beef steak. The shell on the sopitas were tender, but not greasy, tortillas on the tacos fresh, meat was tender and flavorful on all items, rice was fluffy and beans not runny, guacamole very fresh, chips thin, and salsa house made and fresh, but both a little on the hot side for the average diner- even the 'mild' salsa verde beware. Overall food very good. The only reason why I didn't give this restaurant 5 stars is because the food is a little slow(although it's made fresh to order) and the cashiers aren't very knowledgeable about describing the different meats, etc. Highly recommended though if you're in the mood for authentic Mexican food in...