What began as a single food truck in downtown Austin, known for its boldly named tacos, Torchy’s Tacos has grown over 18 years into a chain with 126 locations across multiple states. For the first time in nearly two decades, the restaurant has updated its menu to include new, health-conscious options. The lineup now features the vegan Fo Sho Taco and Fresh Avocado, which is served fresh rather than fried.
Like many fast-casual restaurants, Torchy’s Tacos menu items can be high in calories, saturated fat, sodium, and added sugars. The menu primarily consists of tacos, but you can make a healthier choice by opting for corn tortillas instead of flour. Among the options, seafood and vegetarian tacos tend to be the lightest, though there are also leaner beef and chicken tacos available.
To help you make more informed decisions when you visit this taco restaurant, we took a deep-dive into the menu and chose the healthiest (and unhealthiest) orders from the Torchy’s menu.
How We Chose the Healthiest Torchy’s Tacos Orders
Here are the criteria we used to identify the healthiest options at Torchy’s.
- Lower in saturated fat: We wanted tacos that don’t weigh you down in unhealthy saturated fat. All our options have no more than 8 grams of saturated fat. For most adults, saturated fat should be limited to no more than 10% of daily calories.
- Lower sodium counts: The best bets on the menu have up to 950 milligrams of sodium. Sodium is always problematic when eating fast-casual food. It’s best to balance your food choices throughout the day to accommodate restaurant fare without blowing your daily sodium budget. According to the FDA, you should limit sodium intake to no more than 2,300 milligrams per day.
- Low in added sugar: Since you’re eating savory tacos and not dessert, we looked for tacos that ensure added sugars are kept to a minimum. For our criteria, that was up to 4 grams (1 teaspoon) of added sugar.
Read on to learn more about the healthiest orders from the Torchy’s Tacos menu, as well as a few items we suggest skipping. Then, check out these 25 Healthy Fast-Food Orders, According to Dietians.
The Healthiest Torchy’s Tacos Menu Items
Best: Migas Breakfast Taco
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 379
Fat: 23 g (Saturated fat: 8 g)
Sodium: 944 mg
Carbs: 27 g (Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 4 g)
Protein: 22 g
This breakfast taco is made with cage-free eggs, corn tortilla strips, chiles, avocados, pico de gallo, cheese, and tomatillo salsa on a flour tortilla. It is the best option among the breakfast choices because it has less saturated fat. For instance, the breakfast burrito on the menu has about 1,140 calories, 62 grams of fat, and 26 grams of saturated fat—more than you need in a day!
Best: Mr. Orange
Nutrition (Per order)
Calories: 237
Fat: 5 g (Saturated fat: 2 g)
Sodium: 711 mg
Carbs: 23 g (Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 2 g)
Protein: 14 g
This popular taco is made with grilled salmon, grilled corn and black bean relish, cotija cheese, and avocado sauce on a corn tortilla. All of Torchy’s seafood tacos are best bets because they are calorie-controlled, and you’ll get the brain, heart, and eye health benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids in fish.
Best: Baja Shrimp
Nutrition (Per order)
Calories: 267
Fat: 14 g (Saturated fat: 3 g)
Sodium: 703 mg
Carbs: 24 g (Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 3 g)
Protein: 12 g
The Baja Shrimp Taco is made with fried shrimp, cabbage slaw, pickled onions, and cotija cheese and is served with a chipotle sauce on a corn tortilla. It’s currently the only other seafood taco at Torchy’s. Like the salmon taco, this is a great option to get high-quality protein into your diet while keeping calories, saturated fat, and sugars limited. Plus, it has 3 grams fiber, which is more than many other menu options.
Best: Democrat
Nutrition (Per order)
Calories: 214
Fat: 5 g (Saturated fat: 2 g)
Sodium: 890 mg
Carbs: 20 g (Fiber: 3 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 10 g
This beef taco includes avocados, cotija cheese, veggies, and tomatillo salsa on a corn tortilla. It has fewer calories, saturated fat, sodium, and sugar than many other tacos on the Torchy’s Tacos menu. What’s more, with 3 grams of fiber and 10 grams of high-quality protein, it’s a taco that will help keep you satisfied.
Best: Fresh Avocado
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 250
Fat: 14 g (Saturated fat: 4 g)
Sodium: 454 mg
Carbs: 24 g (Fiber: 4 g, Sugar: 2 g)
Protein: 8 g
The Fresh Avocado Taco is made with fresh avocados, pinto beans, and pico de gallo and is served on a corn tortilla. It’s one of the best choices because it’s moderate in calories, lower in saturated fat and sugar, and higher in fiber than most of the other taco choices at Torchy’s. (Whether you order the avocado salad as fresh or fried, both meet our guidelines as being one of the best choices on the menu).
Best: Kids Grilled Chicken Taco
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 281
Fat: 15 g (Saturated fat: 6 g)
Sodium: 510 mg
Carbs: 16 g (Fiber: 0 g, Sugar: 1 g)
Protein: 19 g
When eating out at fast-casual restaurants, it’s a good idea to check out the kids’ menu for healthier fare. At Torchy’s, the Grilled Chicken Taco is an excellent option, no matter your age. It has 19 grams of lean protein and lower fat and saturated fat counts than many other taco options on the menu.
Best: The Fo Sho
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 354
Fat: 20 g (Saturated fat: 5 g)
Sodium: 761 mg
Carbs: 39 g (Fiber: 4 g, Sugar: 4 g)
Protein: 5 g
This new vegetarian menu option (as of August 2024) features avocado, pinto beans, rice, grilled veggies, and corn relish on a corn tortilla. Since it doesn’t have animal-based protein, it is among the lowest in saturated fat. It lacks the protein of the beef, chicken, or fish tacos, but you can ask for more beans to up the protein in your taco.
Juan’s Refried Beans
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 262
Fat: 1 g (Saturated fat: 0 g)
Sodium: 761 mg
Carbs: 35 g (Fiber: 8 g, Sugar: 2 g)
Protein: 12 g
Refried beans are the best side dish due to their high fiber content (8 grams), low sugar content, and moderate sodium and calories. They’re the perfect side to add to one of the vegetarian tacos to amp up the filling protein of your meal.
Worst Torchy’s Tacos Orders
Worst: Tipsy Chick
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 476
Fat: 22 g (Saturated fat: 8 g)
Sodium: 1,025 mg
Carbs: 40 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 18 g)
Protein: 22 g
This taco is made with chicken and is served on a flour tortilla with bacon bourbon marmalade. When you order a chicken taco, you normally wouldn’t expect it to have the added sugars that you’d get in an energy drink. But that’s essentially what this menu option is like. It has 4.5 teaspoons (18 grams) of sugar, likely from the BBQ sauce. It’s also higher in saturated fat, due to the cheese and bacon, compared to other healthier options on the menu.
Worst: Breakfast Burrito
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 1,139
Fat: 62 g (Saturated fat: 26 g)
Sodium: 2,829 mg
Carbs: 100 g (Fiber: 7 g, Sugar: 7 g)
Protein: 49 g
This is likely the unhealthiest choice at Torchy’s. This enormous Breakfast Burrito is made with eggs, pinto beans, potatoes, chorizo, and cheese and is wrapped in a flour tortilla. It packs in an entire day’s worth of calories for many adults and more saturated fat and sodium than we need in a day. This is exactly what you don’t need to start your day off right.
Worst: Republican
Nutrition (Per order):
Calories: 474
Fat: 29 g (Saturated fat: 11 g)
Sodium: 1,261 mg
Carbs: 35 g (Fiber: 1 g, Sugar: 3 g)
Protein: 16 g
Made with smoked beef brisket, BBQ sauce, corn relish and chipotle sauce on a flour tortilla, this taco has more saturated fat than most of the other taco options on the Torchy’s Tacos menu. It has about half of the saturated fat you should have in an entire day, plus is higher in sodium than many other menu items.
