I was four days off coffee and moving through the world like a haunted Victorian child. Cooking was not going to happen.
So my wife and I went to one of our reliable dinner fixes: the taco truck on NW 39th just west of Pennsylvania Avenue. The truck I visited was marked El Taco Express #5, sitting at 2117 NW 39th Street in Oklahoma City’s 39th Street District.
She got pork. I got steak. We took home two big burritos, and that was dinner.
No debate. No dishes. No pretending either of us had the energy to make a responsible grocery decision.
El Taco Express #5 is not the kind of place where you need to overthink the plan. You walk up to the window, order, wait a bit, and leave with food that feels like it was made for people who have already had enough day.
The burritos are the move
We usually get tacos here, but this time we both went burrito.
The first thing you notice is the size. These are thick burritos, not the sad kind where you pay for mostly tortilla and air. Ours were around eight bucks each when we went, and one burrito was plenty for a full meal.
Mine was steak. My wife’s was pork. Both were the kind of foil-wrapped takeout that makes you feel like you made the correct tired-person choice.
There’s no elaborate presentation, no dining room, no ceremony. That is part of the appeal. Sometimes I want a restaurant to surprise me. Sometimes I want a burrito that weighs roughly as much as a small infant and lets me go home.
This was the second one.
I also appreciated the checkout situation. There was no giant digital screen spun around at the end asking whether I wanted to tip 20, 25, or 30 percent before I even had the food.
They had a little tip bucket.
If you want to toss a dollar in, toss a dollar in. I miss that kind of normal.
A taco truck in the middle of the 39th Street District
The location matters here. El Taco Express #5 sits right in Oklahoma City’s 39th Street District, near NW 39th and Pennsylvania, along a stretch that is both historic Route 66 and one of the city’s most important LGBTQ+ neighborhoods.
This area has been known as “The Strip” for decades, with bars, clubs, shops, murals, and late-night foot traffic that feels different from almost anywhere else in the metro. It is one of those Oklahoma City corridors where you can feel the layers if you slow down a little.
So a walk-up taco truck makes sense here.
If you’re already out on 39th Street, this is an easy food stop before or after whatever else you’re doing. If you’re not going out, it still works as a low-friction dinner run. That is how we use it most of the time.
The address has also had a taco-truck reputation for years. In 2019, Oklahoma Gazette wrote about a truck at 2117 NW 39th operating as Taco Loco, highlighting tacos and burritos from that same spot. The name on the truck I visited was El Taco Express #5, but the role feels familiar: quick Mexican food, big portions, and a location that makes a lot of sense for the neighborhood around it.
Why we keep going back
I don’t need every meal to be an event.
A lot of the best places in Oklahoma are useful before they are anything else. They solve a real problem. They feed you well, don’t make the process complicated, and earn a spot in your normal rotation.
That’s what El Taco Express #5 is for us.
When we’re too tired to cook, when we don’t want to sit down somewhere, when the answer needs to be “two burritos and go home,” this truck does the job.
If you’re in the 39th Street District and need food that won’t turn into a whole production, look for the taco truck at 2117 NW 39th Street, just west of Penn.
Or do what we did.
Be completely exhausted. Order two burritos. Go home.
Sometimes that is the exact right night.
