Mas Tacos Por Favor

Mas Tacos Por Favor is one of those Nashville places that locals guard jealously and tourists stumble upon by accident — and every family who eats here wishes they had come sooner. Tucked into a converted gas station on a residential street in East Nashville, this tiny restaurant serves some of the best tacos and tortilla soup in the city at prices that feel like they belong to a different decade.

The menu is short, which is part of the charm. A handful of taco options — fried chicken, pork, beef, fish — each served on fresh, hand-pressed flour tortillas that are made to order on a hot press right in front of you. The fried chicken taco is the signature and the item most people come for.

It is a crispy, perfectly seasoned piece of fried chicken nestled in a warm tortilla with fresh toppings, and it costs $4-$5. Two of these plus a cup of the famous tortilla soup is a complete, deeply satisfying meal for under $15.

The tortilla soup deserves its own paragraph because it is not just good soup — it is life-changing soup that Nashville food writers have been arguing about for years. Rich, deeply flavored, loaded with avocado, cheese, and tortilla strips, it is the kind of soup that kids who claim to hate soup will eat to the bottom of the bowl. A cup is about $5 and a bowl is $7, and either one is a meal on its own.

For kids, the experience is ideal. The portions are naturally kid-sized (a single taco is a full meal for most under-8s), the food is handheld so no utensils are needed, the tortillas are mild enough for picky eaters, and the casual environment means nobody is going to judge your family for being messy. The elote — grilled street corn with mayo, cotija cheese, and chili powder — is a must-order side that kids find visually weird and immediately delicious.

Two critical details: this restaurant is cash only, and it is open only from 11 AM to 3 PM (closed Sundays). There is no card reader, no Venmo, no exceptions. Bring cash. And arrive by 11 AM if you want to avoid a line — by noon, the queue extends out the door and down the sidewalk. The line moves fast (15-20 minutes even at peak), but first-time visitors are sometimes surprised by the wait.

The setting in a former gas station with a small indoor counter and a handful of outdoor picnic tables adds to the authenticity. This is not a polished restaurant experience — it is a neighborhood joint where the food speaks for itself and the atmosphere is the happy buzz of people eating really good tacos. For families touring Nashville, this is the real deal.