Tacos Perla recently opened in North Park, serving gourmet tacos and cricket toppings.
Traditional tacos are priced at $3.95 and nontraditional tacos are $4.95 each. For an additional $.75 you can add chicharrones or cricket toppings. 
They also have a complimentary salsa bar with six varieties of salsa to pair with your tacos.
Ocho Taco (braised then grilled octopus with poblano, pesto and cheese)
The chewy pieces of smoky octopus had a hint of bitterness from the char, mingled with pesto and cheese, providing an intriguing mix of flavors. It was a tasty combination though, especially if you like octopus. All tacos are served with their handmade corn tortillas, grilled until crisp.
Del Mar Taco (mexican shrimp marinated in ginger, chiles achiote with jack cheese and avocado)
This was another enjoyable choice. There was a good amount of juicy shrimp which paired well with the fresh avocado.
El Futbol (smoked albacore, green chili pipian, jack cheese, red onion)
This taco didn’t have as many different elements, making it a little plain, but I really liked the smoked albacore.
Overall, we had a good time here. The staff is friendly and the tacos, while not traditional, were quite tasty.
Check out CC’s visit, complete with photos of the cricket toppings!
Tacos Perla
3000 Upas Street, Suite 105 San Diego, California 92104
The salsa guide seemed very helpful but I cringed at the mixing of capital letters and numbers. Ugh. The journalism major inside of me cried, haha. The shrimp taco looks so yummy! I have had good and not so good octopus in the past so I would try that, too. No crickets for me, though. Never ever ever. 🙂
lol! yeah i dont plan on trying crickets any time soon
Aww I was totally hoping for a picture of crickets all over the tacos 😛 I too am totally sold on that octopus taco – it sounds delicious! I really like that they give you a “guide” for the salsas; sometimes I need a little help in figuring out what goes well with which taco 🙂
i like the salsa guide too! I think if the topping had been cheaper I might have gone for it, but it was $.75 extra and I was already squeamish.
That octopus taco really sold me! But I was expecting a picture of tacos with crickets on it haha. Don’t know if I’d be brave enough to try that one too, even for the sake of the blog.
haha! I thought about it, for the sake of the blog. I don’t think i would mind the taste, just the look. i’m just a little too squeamish for that. was trying to persuade Mr. K but he didnt get my hint
My friend and I tried the octopus and the shrimp and loved both. The next day, I went with Bert and TC for our anniversary. For “fun”, we actually tried the crickets over the adobada. I thought it would be on “the side” but they put it ALL OVER the taco, ugh.. Even though it didn’t really have any flavor, I didn’t like it because I knew what it was. The tortillas got hard after a few minutes as well. I liked the variety of the salsas ; the small wooden spoons may look cute but seem inefficient in getting the sauces out, especially the red onions. Hipster tacos.
i just re-read your posts. The cricket toppings all over your taco made me a little squeamish. hehe. Too bad about your tortillas getting hard. i didn’t have that, but then we ate ours right away