Americas Top Restaurants
We ate our way across the country to find the quintessential versions of six American Classics: pizza, steak, tacos, hamburgers, fried chicken, and ribs. After we chose the three finalists in each category, we shared our picks with Food Network. Read on to savor the delicious journey - then watch Food Network on August 18 as Alton Brown reveals our winners.

Tacos
The Place: Taco Taco Cafe
145 East Hilderbrand Avenue
San Antonio, Texas
210.822.9533

WHY ITS THE BEST. The lines are long and start early at this 40-seat breakfast-and-lunch restaurant that cooks the best cheap tacos in town. Breakfast may seem an odd time for Mexican food for some, but the chorizo-and-egg tacos and chilaquiles will satisfy cravings you never knew you had.

Everything - from the tortillas to the salsas and refried beans - is made fresh daily, and the El Taco Norteño (a flour tortilla stuffed with beans, cheese, avocado, and grilled beef or chicken) has reached cult status.

WHAT TO ORDER. El Norteño and bacon-and-egg taco with a side of rice and beans.

"This place looks like Austin," said a friend. Well, maybe an Austin circa 1950. The look is very Anglo (white walls, orange swivel chairs at the abbreviated counter, and tiles with a frilly floral design.) But the menu is pre Mexican, and among the plethora of tacos, the biggest and best is the Norteño. This behemoth boasts a homemade flour tortillas nearly the size of an individual pizza. Said tortilla is grilled to a toasty finish and stuffed within an inch of its life with thickly sliced, reasonably tender beef fajita meat (the chicken is almost as good). Then it's piled even higher with a layer of refried beans plus sliced avocado and bell pepper and melted white cheese. You won't need to eat again for three days.

Ignore the restaurant's gringo-fied name and the fact that the owner, Helen Velesiotis, is not exactly an abuela from Oaxaca: when breakfast tacos are this good, questions of authenticity are moot. And the tortilla-and-egg concoctions at this laid-back San Antonio cafe are spectacular. Cradled by delicate house-made flour tortillas, the indelicate mess of fluffy eggs, along with some morning-friendly meat (potatoes, refried beans), can kill a hangover as quickly as it can concert a taco purist.

When you name yourself Taco Taco, you're staking out a clearly defined niche. Not to say that you can't find enchiladas, menudo or picadillo at this family-owned, Olmos Park-area restaurant, which has attained national TV fame while cementing its repeat Best of S.A. title. But people come for the tacos, and their breakfast selection alone boasts 19 enticing choices. You can't go wrong with the Chorizo & Egg, Super Taco, or Papa Ranchero, but no one would blame you if you wanted to sample all 19 before you're done.

Dig a little deeper:
Taco Taco Cafe and Los Valles Fruits and Foods.
Taco Taco Cafe is totally insider. San Antonio natives cram into this tiny breakfast taco joint daily for the chilaquiles (egg with tortilla strips, peppers, spices, tomatoes, and cheese).

You may go into Taco Taco Cafe expecting to share, yet the gigantic tacos are almost big enough for two. But suck it up, Bucko, and eat the whole thing. Better yet, order a breakfast plate (served all day) so you can delight in two handmade flour or corn tortillas plus potato chunks that straddle soft and crispy as if they were one texture.

They don't call it the biggest and the best for nothing. One popular Taco Norteño is sire to satisfy two or three hearty appetites. This taco is simple but serious on flavor.

A jumbo, slightly toasted flower tortilla is stuffed with fluffy refried beans, tender beef fajitas and avocado and topped with melted white cheese. Juicy chicken fajitas can be substituted for beef if preferred.

Recognized for having the best tacos in America by the Food Network, Taco Taco Cafe's food is homemade from the freshest ingredients and contains no added animal fat. Feel free to indulge without feeling too guilty.