10 Creative Taco Plating Ideas
Tacos! What’s not to love? From corn to flour, crispy to soft, large to small, traditional street food to Asian fusion, the time-honored taco is the perfect handheld device you’ll never have to plug in.
Did you know tortillas have been on most of NASA’s extended shuttle missions since 1985? It’s true. Tacos have been in space for more than 30 years and nobody told you. Space tacos. Wrap your mind around that for a minute.
Unfortunately, not everybody can float around a spaceship plucking their taco dinner out of the air. For those of us left to consume our tacos within Earth’s gravitational pull, we’ll need a way to serve them. We’ve put together 10 creative ideas for crafting the perfect taco presentation for your guests.
Let’s taco ’bout it, shell we?
Get this vintage chic look by serving on a faux wood board with a small ridge around the perimeter to prevent items from sliding off. Couple your taco service with a Rustic Millª bowl for your delicious beans, and a metal taco stand and ramekin. The mixed materials support a cozy, yet modern look that’s quite popular these days.
Products Used:
14″x7″ Faux Oak Wood Display: SB-1472
6″x2.5″ Taco Holder: 4-81858
2 oz. Metal Condiment Cup: 4-84100
22 oz. Irregular Bowl: B-22-RM
A great fit for the emerging urban industrial dcor embraced by New American restaurants, this metal tray provides plenty of room to use a taco stand, adding height to your presentation. Use a food-safe paper liner to prevent your taco stand from sliding around and for easy cleanup at the end of the meal.
Products Used:
10.5″ Guitar-Shaped Taco Holder: WGUITAR-01
13″x9″ Rectangular Tray: 4-77800
2 oz. Metal Condiment Cup: 4-84100
24 oz. Squeeze Bottles: SB-24-CL
12″x12″ Food-Safe Paper: 4-TS1010
{{cta(‘b328eb8c-da26-4c29-b25d-21311cb4c664’)}}
The hand-painted look of light brush strokes on the rim’s pattern creates a rustic and welcoming feel, like you’re enjoying your taco dinner in a garden. The soft yellow colors with orange and green accents on the rim support an outdoors feel with cheerful earth tones.
Products Used:
Venetianª Oval Platter: OP-618-VN
Venetianª 4.5 oz Bowl: OP-618-VN
Taco Holder: 4-81833
7 oz. Bowl: BC-70-TY
Bring your guests out of their shells with this public house-esque presentation. The faux wood board includes a rim to keep your service accessories in place, and a handle for easy service from the kitchen to the tray to the table. The bistro pot with handles and the slick metal styling of the taco holder aren’t just adorable, they elevate your taco presentation from common street food to a meal with European sensibility.
Products Used:
13.5″x7.75″ Faux Oak Wood Display: SB-1375
10 oz. Mini Bistro Pot w/ Lid: 4-80910
6″x2.5″ Taco Holder: 4-81858
{{cta(‘e7d6a0aa-192e-4fd0-a06a-724a4406c916’)}}
Tacos – dressed up or dressed down, folks are always happy to eat them. Serve on this matte finish black plate to achieve a luxe brand position. The dark color and matte finish work in tandem to hide fingerprints and any sauce that’s escaped its taco home, a nice touch for the discerning diner. The soft, rounded, and raised rim of this plate is friendly and draws your diners into their experience. They may even eat their tacos with pinkies in air!
Products Used:
Naraª 9″ Square Plate: P-875-BK
No ordinary wire foodservice basket here – this one comes with two ramekin holders on either side. We love this because you can serve your salsa verde and salsa roja in a single turn. It’s especially useful if your servers carry food on trays. The ramekins fit firmly in the holders, so you don’t have to worry about sauce spilling and making your tacos soggy. Use a food-safe paper with a newsprint design to create a laid-back vintage feel, and enjoy the added benefit of easy cleanup.
Products Used:
11″x8″ Oval Basket w/ 2 Holders: 4-38822
4 oz. Metal Condiment Cup: 4-84111
12″x12″ Food-Safe Paper: 4-TE1050
Hand-woven baskets give this presentation an artisanal style reminding us of simpler days. They’re a perfect depth for nestling tacos while still offering enough room to accommodate salsa and lime wedges without overcrowding. They’re dishwasher-safe, an added benefit you’re sure to enjoy. You’ll definitely want to use a food-safe paper liner for this presentation because it’ll keep any runoff sauce and juices from leaking onto the table. Also, have we mentioned easy clean up? Maybe once or twice? Hey, we just want to make your lives easier.
Products Used:
11.5″x8.5″ Rectangular Basket: WB-1508
4 oz. Metal Condiment Cup: 4-84111
12″x12″ Food-Safe Paper: 4-TS4010
Round tortillas are wonderfully contrasted by the square edges of this contemporary white plate. The slight slope of the rim draws your guests’ eyes to the center of the dish, where your colorful ingredients will pop beautifully against the unbiased white background.
Products Used:
7.5″ Ceramic Square Plate: CD-3040
Another option to support the urban industrial look, this metal basket lets your guests know you’re up to date with modern dcor while not being too fussy about it. This is another plating idea where you’ll definitely want to use a food-safe paper. In this application, not only will it keep runaway sauce or juices from getting on the table, it’ll keep your food from touching unapproved food contact surfaces, like your servers’ hands or trays.
Products Used:
9″ Stainless Steel Square Grid Basket: 4-83599
12″x12″ Food-Safe Paper: 4-TS1010
Perfect for family style dining, this understated platter lets your food shine while offering plenty of room to plate open-face tacos without having to worry about crowding. Because there’s not much overlapping of tortillas, your guests’ hands will stay cleaner than if open-face tacos were crammed onto a smaller plate. Using a food-safe liner makes cleanup painless after serving a large party.
Products Used:
SuperMelª Platter: OP-616-T
4 oz. Molcajete Bowl: MOJ-801-BK
12″x12″ Food-Safe Paper: 4-TS4010
We hope you enjoyed this spe-shell presentation of creative plating ideas for one of the most beloved foods on Earth and in space. Just because tacos have been enjoyed for centuries doesn’t mean they have to be boring. Have fun plating this playful food in new ways and enjoy the exciting reactions from your guests.
For a bit more fun, if you’ve ever wondered what kind of taco you are, you can find online quizzes to help you figure that out. Just search for “what kind of taco am I.” Thank you internet of things – you never let us down.
On the more practical side, however, we have plenty of creative serving ideas to inspire you. You can browse through all of them here. Tell us which ones are your favorite, or share your own ideas with us in the comments.
If you’ve made it to the end of this post, we’d like to thank you for sticking with us through all of our awful puns. We just can’t guac away from them sometimes.
