🍽️ Restaurant: Pittsburgh Taco Boys
📍 Location: 319 Maryland Ave., Oakmont
⏱️ Hours: 11:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Tues-Sat | 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Sun | Closed Mon
🌐 Links: pghtacoboys.com, Facebook, Instagram
❤️ Best $15ish meal(s): Three $5 tacos for $15; Chicken Volcano Burrito for $14; Classic Boyrito for $13
Why go?
Pittsburgh Taco Boys started as a pandemic-era pop-up before settling into Oakmont in 2022. The menu is compact but considered: corn tortillas pressed in-house, braised pork and beef shoulder, marinated portobellos, fresh-fried chips and plenty of pickled red onions and jalapeños.
The original Maryland Avenue shop has since expanded next door, adding more seats and pinball machines, but it still feels like a neighborhood taco joint.
What to order
Three $5 tacos come to $15. I like the chicken thigh, pork butt and marinated mushroom, all finished simply with salsa verde, onion, cilantro and lime. Honestly, the tacos are hefty enough that two could make a perfectly good meal, depending on how hungry you are. Hanger steak and braised beef shoulder cost a little more at $6 apiece. Whatever the combination, get extra habanero salsa.
The $14 Chicken Volcano Burrito is a great option if you’re feeling particularly ravenous. Chicken thigh, rice, cheddar jack and pickled jalapeños are wrapped with molten “volcano queso,” while seasoned tortilla strips stay crunchy inside. It is messy, but well worth it.
For something more classic, the $13 Boyrito folds your choice of protein together with rice, beans, cheese, roasted tomato salsa, pickled red onion and jalapeños.
Take your haul a few blocks to Local Remedy Brewing, where outside food is welcome. I like three tacos, plenty of habanero salsa and a malty beer for an easy Oakmont evening.
Good to know before you go
Sunday brings breakfast burritos and the $13 Brunchwrap Supreme, with egg, cheese, queso, roasted tomato salsa and a hash brown in the middle, with chorizo, bacon or black beans.
Vegetarians have more than an obligatory bean taco here. The $5 marinated portobello taco gets the same salsa verde, onion, cilantro and lime treatment as the meats, while the $14 mushroom quesadilla adds black beans and two cheeses.
For the full Oakmont doubleheader, Local Remedy Brewing is nearby at 531 Allegheny Ave. The brewery welcomes outside food, making it a tacos-and-beer night.
Know a Pittsburgh-area restaurant with a great meal around $15? Email us at social@publicsource.org.
