Taqueria La Juanita

The family behind a Sioux City landmark

Christina Bautista opened La Juanita in 1998 after moving to Sioux City from Los Angeles. Named for her older sister, the taqueria built its place in the city around family cooking and a compact menu of filled tortillas, burritos and other Mexican staples. The address for this profile is 1316 Pierce Street, the location confirmed by the Siouxland Chamber of Commerce.

The burrito wraps the chosen meat with beans, onion, cilantro, cheese and hot sauce. A bean-and-cheese ranchero and a vegetable burrito offer different combinations. Tacos put the filling into a smaller format, while nachos add beans, vegetables, cheese and sour cream over fried corn chips. Tongue and pastor feature in diners' ordering accounts as well as the usual steak choices, giving a visitor reasons to look beyond a generic ground-beef order.

Plan around an individual order

For a first meal, tacos let you compare fillings without committing to a large burrito; the burrito is the more contained option when taking food away. A quesadilla offers another cheese-and-tortilla route. The descriptions reviewed include hot sauce in several dishes, so a mild order needs to be specified when it is placed. This is particularly relevant to a shared family order whose diners have different tolerances.

Pierce Street, including late evenings

The tourism bureau lists Monday–Thursday 9 a.m.–1 a.m., Friday–Saturday 9 a.m.–2:30 a.m. and Sunday 9 a.m.–2 a.m. The restaurant phone is 712-279-0772. A DoorDash page offers pickup and delivery, with its own ordering window; the restaurant phone is a general contact rather than a dedicated delivery line. Cash-only service is reported for in-person orders. A similarly named restaurant across the river is in South Sioux City, Nebraska, and should not be confused with this Iowa address.

Check Pierce Street pickup or delivery.