The menu at this Mexican-Lebanese counter spot focuses on deep-fried, corn tortilla-wrapped stuff, and the meatless dishes are coincidentally the best. Case in point: taquitos piped with garlicky mashed potatoes, a spicy roasted cauliflower and chickpea filling for crispy tacos, and a spectacular tray of nachos featuring melty pinto beans that could stop time. And the restaurant's sole non-fried option—a short rotating lineup of often-vegetarian soups—is an outstanding side that complements all that crunch.

Local drummer Lupe Flores' pop-up Situ Tacos, which launched early on in the pandemic and is now open seven days a week inside Jupiter Bar Like List in Belltown, may be best known for its Lebanese-inspired tacos, but her soups are worthy of praise in their own right. (As Lupe herself proclaims, "Don't sleep on my soups. People travel far and wide for them. Really.") Options include her crowd-favorite Lebanese vegetable stew, made with cauliflower, chickpeas, carrots, and celery and topped with Greek yogurt and parsley, and a soup and slaw combo, featuring 12 oz of a rotating soup of the week special and 8 oz of spicy Mexican slaw. Past soups have included chicken tortilla, pozole, veggie chili, fideo, lentil stew, and more—don't miss it.

When the pandemic forced drummer Lupe Flores to cancel her shows, she found a new way to entertain audiences: by making them tacos like the ones her Lebanese Mexican grandmother cooked for her as a kid. Fastened shut with toothpicks, the crisp, fried tacos come filled with brown butter beef, garlic mashed potatoes, or harissa cauliflower and cilantro chickpeas. Place your order at the counter, then head to the oilcloth-covered tables, or grab a spot at Tilda’s Bar in the back to wash them down with a “sad girl shot” (el Jimador with a side of Tillamook cheese).

After a year of popping up around town, this unique taqueria settled into the front bar at Belltown’s Jupiter Bar, giving Seattleites consistent access to the uniquely crunchy tacos of owner Lupe Flores’s Lebanese-Mexican childhood. The brown-butter hushwe-style meat and creamy garlic mashed potato fillings stand up to the hard fry of the folded and rolled tacos, the latter of which get even better when dipped in an order of hatch green chile queso blanco. This is bar food at its best, and thankfully in an at least semi-permanent home.

Lupe Flores serves up her signature Lebanese-spiced beef, creamy garlic mashed potatoes, and herby cauliflower in crunchy tacos with the same flair with which she played drums—her pre-Covid career. The tacos are pinned together with toothpicks and dunked in the fryer to a crispy and delightfully greasy end. Flores’s rotating cast of comforting soups, such as spicy chicken tortilla or vegan seven-spice Lebanese lentil, round out the short menu.

I don’t normally rave about a brand-new thing, much less put it on a best kinda anything list, until it’s had a sec to find its stride. But I’m making an exception for Situ Tacos, because damn, Chef (and badass rock drummer!) Lupe Flores and her team have really hit the ground running. It’s no mystery why.