Al Vapor Street Tacos at Palms is Hard to Find, Impossible to Resist
Palms recently opened a new taco spot, Al Vapor Street Tacos, and nobody’s talking about it! That’s a shame, because while this new offering is tough to find, it’s well worth the search because these are some of the best tacos in the contiguous United States.
Palms needed a Mexican food option following the closure of Chronic Tacos in the Palms food court and La Popular CDMX (which replaced Bobby Flay’s Shark).
Al Vapor isn’t exactly a full-fledged restaurant (guests order at the counter, food is served in to-go containers), but calling it a food truck doesn’t do it justice. Let’s check out this Mexican spot at Palms, shan’t we?
Al Vapor Street Tacos is a family-owned Las Vegas business with roots in Mexico City. The restaurant at Palms is the company’s fifth location in Las Vegas.
Before we get into the menu, we need to deal with logistics.
Al Vapor is located on the patio that adjoined the former Mabel’s Bar & Q. Palms turned the Mabel’s footprint into a non-smoking casino space. Most people have no idea where that is, and Al Vapor is hidden within that space most people don’t know about, so that presents some challenges.
The non-smoking expansion at Palms opened Sept. 1, 2026. We covered that news, but completely missed the part about Al Vapor being part of the opening. We’re glad they sent out a news release about it recently, because it’s going to be our go-to spot at Palms from here on out.
Once you’re tacos deep into the non-smoking casino area at Palms, just look for these inviting doors to Al Vapor. During our short visit, we saw several casino guests approach the doors and turn around. Go figure.
Now that we’ve found the place, let’s look at the menu.
The menu features asada, adobada, birria and chicken tacos, along with quesabirria, quesadillas, nachos and loaded asada fries.
Individual street tacos are $3.90, or you can get three for $12.95, including chips and salsa.
The quesabirria combo runs $18.96, quesadillas are $12.25 and loaded nachos are $15.95.
We had the quesabirria, and it was spectacular. And we are not even a Mexican food person.
The quesabirria comes with a side of birria consommé. You know it’s good because it has one of those fancy accent marks. Anyway, you dip the tacos as you would a French dip.
Staff said the trick is to dip the taco, take a bite, then take a sip of the consommé. It’s magical.
Like we said, Palms needs to stop referring to this place as the “Al Vapor Street Tacos food truck.” There’s a truck, but that functions as the restaurant’s kitchen. There’s an entire seating area and bar (liquor license pending).
Beyond the welcoming space, once you find it, we were also really taken by the pricing: A canned soda is $2. Bottled water is $2. Mexican bottled sodas are $4.
Find another casino restaurant with those prices and we’ll eat our sombrero. Unless that’s cultural appropriation, then nevermind.
We should probably do some additional mansplaining about the background of Al Vapor.
No, “Al Vapor” is not the name of a Mexican magician. Please stop appropriating.
“Al Vapor” means “with steam” or “by steam,” a reference to a traditional Mexican method of preparing tacos.
The business was founded in 2018 by a husband-and-wife team. Ismael Gutierrez Perez is one of the founders. We haven’t been able to find the name of his wife, despite hours of research and by that a 30-second Google search. Thanks a lot, patriarchy!
Anyway, the couple’s recipes have been passed down through generations, and you can tell.
Our perfunctory research did turn up a little legal kerfuffle. In September 2025, Arizona-based Street Taco and Beer Co. filed a federal trademark lawsuit against Street Tacos Al Vapor LLC in Nevada. The case was resolved through a confidential agreement and dismissed with prejudice on July 2, 2026. The terms of the settlement weren’t disclosed.
Al Vapor posted on social media in April 2026 that it had been forced to change its logo.
Hello, rabbit hole. Street Taco and Beer Co. owns a federal trademark registration for the word “Street” in connection with bar and restaurant services. No, they don’t own the word. “Street tacos” is a culinary term, but it apparently gives the business grounds to pester Al Vapor because they felt it could confuse customers. In legal jargon, such actions are what’s known as “Absolutely moronic and a monumental waste of everyone’s time and money.”
None of these taco places should be confused with Street Tacos, the truck on Fremont Street. Get ready to hear from Street Taco and Beer Co.
Anyway, Al Vapor at Palms is exceptional and we highly recommend finding it.
Our only complaints about Al Vapor: 1) Four tortilla chips with our tacos. Either do 10 or none. 2) The hours are “11:00 a.m. until closing.” That’s not a closing time. If we’re hangry and looking for tacos, and you suddenly close because business is slow, we will not only be hangry, we will actually be angry and you would not like us when we’re angry.
Otherwise, Al Vapor is a winner and deserves to blow up in the biggest way possible. You go, Palms.
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