Valentina’s Tex Mex BBQ is a fusion of Austin’s greatest cuisines: Tex-Mex and barbecue. The foundation of their breakfast tacos are the phenomenal flour tortillas that you’ll beg and plead and offer to trade in your car for a stack to take home (until you learn you can buy them by the dozen). Those get topped with exceptional brisket or pulled pork, scrambled or fried eggs, and tomato serrano salsa, to make some of the greatest breakfast tacos in the entire known universe.

There's often a wait at Joe’s Bakery & Coffee Shop, and that’s because of the exceptional Tex-Mex/Mexican diner food (and the pan dulce, too), especially the breakfast tacos made with fluffy house-made flour tortillas. Get the miga taco con todo, with still-crispy tortilla chips, as well as the super-crispy bacon that defies the laws of pork belly physics.

Migas tacos usually follow a basic formula that involves a ratio of eggs and tortilla chips to cheese and beans that all leads to an inevitably delicious outcome. Nixta uses the same formula, but with little enhancements along the way, leading to a breakfast taco that’s both familiar and entirely new at the same time. The beans are refried in duck fat, the tortilla chips are made from nixtamalized corn, and the addition of chorizo adds a savory pop.

It’s hard to miss Taqueria Anyeli, parked outside of a gas station on the corner of North Lamar and 32nd Street, right by all the medical offices. It’s very pink. There will inevitably be a line, or a crowd of people waiting for their order at the picnic tables out front, because the breakfast tacos here are dependable, quickly made, and affordable ($2 each at the time of this writing). These are not fancy cheffed-up tacos. No, these are the tacos for the people.

At Pueblo Viejo, you have options. You can order a simple, excellent breakfast taco like a bacon, egg, and cheese - or if you’re paralyzed by choice, there’s a set menu of more elaborate options. And while most breakfast taco places have two salsas (red and green), Pueblo Viejo has five: pico, tomatillo, creamy jalapeno, roasted habanero, and habanero and ghost chili. So when you’re ordering, just stay calm, follow your heart, and know you really can’t go wrong.

Popular with construction workers, manual laborers, or just generally hungry people, Ken's Subs, Tacos, & More is known best perhaps for their enormous and affordable breakfast tacos. While it can get busy here during peak breakfast hours, it’s a very efficiently-run operation with multiple cash registers and a kitchen that turns out food fast. We like the migas tacos here the best. What to get: Migas; Chorizo, egg, and cheese; Carne guisada

Sabor Tapatio in South Austin might serve some of our favorite birria tacos, but they're also very good at making breakfast tacos. We're especially big fans of the migas taco that comes absolutely loaded with eggs and chunky, crispy tortilla chips. What to get: Migas taco

The UT students who have clearly just rolled out of bed and stumbled over to Vaquero Taquero’s brick-and mortar have no idea how good they have it. The al pastor tacos on handmade corn tortillas and the quesadillas are what put this place on the map. But it’s the insanely good breakfast tacos - especially the bacon, egg, and cheese (with the cheese crisped up on the griddle first) - that make us consider going back to school. We’d study for a PhD just to get that machacado.

Unless you’ve been to Granny’s—or have your own grandmother with a family recipe for excellent mole and chilaquiles—there’s a good chance you haven’t had a breakfast taco quite like their chilaquil taco. Here crispy corn chips in a fluffy flour tortilla get topped with a spicy and earthy house-made mole, cotija cheese, onion, and pickled jalapeno. Unlike its more popular breakfast cousin—migas—this is an eggless taco. What to get: Chilaquil taco

Tamale House is an Austin institution that’s existed in various forms and locations since 1958. The soul of this place is the breakfast menu, filled with dishes like chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, and breakfast tacos made with outstanding homemade flour tortillas. The real standout is the phenomenal chipotle migas taco, with scrambled eggs and crispy corn tortilla chips that get tossed in queso with a smoky chipotle salsa.