Best Budget Bites: $1.40 Tacos at Red Luna Taco Factory

Can we offer you a Taco Tuesday in these trying times?

12:25 PM CDT on July 7, 2026

Clare O'Connor

The cost of things these days? Far too expensive! Tariffs, the Strait of Hormuz, rent prices, giddy price-gouging from proprietors large and small—the boring factors are too numerous to count. To protect our readers, Racket launched the Best Budget Bites series, where we’ll showcase a toothsome, wallet-friendly food item that’ll actually fill you up. Have a nomination? Hit us up: tips@racketmn.com.

What: Crispy tacos
Where: Red Luna Taco Factory, 5960 US-61, White Bear Lake
Cost: $1.40
Availability: Tuesdays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

One of the great underdiscussed burdens of adulthood is figuring out what to eat every single day. It’s a Sisyphean process—an endless cycle of breakfast, lunch, and dinner until death. But once a week, the choice can be made for us, a reprieve gifted to humanity by the forces of alliteration: Taco Tuesday.

But the task of finding a good taco for cheap can dampen that Tuesday delight. So we’ve found one for you! Located up in White Bear Lake, Red Luna Taco Factory offers $1.40 crunchy tacos every Tuesday for anyone observing the weekly holiday. In a world of $6 artisan tacos, $1.40 for a well-made taco with a handmade shell and an array of free toppings is a Best Budget Bite worth celebrating. For contrast, a crunchy taco from Taco Bell (which doesn’t come close to the taste of the Red Luna tacos) costs $1.69, and that’s with only meat, lettuce, and cheese.

The Tuesday deal brings in a long line, but Red Luna Taco Factory truly operates like a factory, churning out tacos assembly-line style. This crew knows what they're doing: Red Luna was opened a decade ago by Gabriela Castellanos, whose previous WBL Mexican spot, Casa Lupita, debuted in 2001. While I got my food surprisingly fast even with the line, you can optimize the process by calling ahead to snag a to-go box at the counter. (Make sure to call instead of ordering online; the Taco Tuesday deal does not apply to online orders.)

I got three tacos and a bottle of Coke for under $10. With the plethora of filling options, every order will taste different, though I can say my tacos were excellent. The spicy chicken, spicy pork, and shredded beef were well-seasoned, the tomatoes tasted fresh, and the shells stayed together the whole time.

Some tips: The deal only applies specifically to hard-shell tacos with the “regular” meat options—spicy chicken, mild chicken, ground beef, shredded beef, or spicy pork. If you’re seduced by a soft tortilla or the tilapia filling, no one will warn you that you have to pay a few extra dollars (I watched this tragedy unfold in real time).

Also: To get the most out of your $1.40, take full advantage of the free toppings. Regardless of whether you’re a lettuce, tomato, and sour cream kind of person or an onion, cilantro, and hot salsa kind of person, ask to have your tacos loaded up.

Finally: Don’t forget to grab napkins. The meat fillings are juicy, and, even though my made-in-house taco shells stayed crunchy throughout, my hands got quite sticky.

I ate outside in the shade of a Corona-branded umbrella with a first-class view of Highway 61. If you’re not into the parking-lot patio vibe, however, Red Luna Taco Factory also has plenty of indoor seating. While the $1.40 tacos are definitely the star, everything at Red Luna Taco Factory is pretty reasonably priced. I didn’t get the timing right this week, but some upcoming Tuesday, I’ll be back during the 1-5 p.m. happy hour to pair my $1.40 tacos with a $2.50 beer.

God bless this holiday.