Taco Rice: Would This Work on Rice?
Japan has a remarkable habit of looking at something delicious and asking one important question: would this work on rice?
Tacos received the treatment in Okinawa.
The result is taco rice: seasoned taco meat, lettuce, cheese, tomato and salsa served over rice in place of a tortilla. It sounds like something a café might have invented last Tuesday. It has actually been feeding people since 1984.
The name gives Japanese speakers a moment’s pause: tako is also the Japanese word for octopus, and Japan already had takomeshi, rice cooked with octopus. The octopus had answered the question long before.
My plate at PICO Shokudo was colourful enough to make the rice difficult to locate. For an ingredient with its name on the menu, it was keeping a low profile.
Tacos, minus the tortilla
Taco rice began at Parlor Senri in Kin (金武), a town beside the U.S. military’s Camp Hansen in central Okinawa. Its creator, Matsuzo Gibo, had been running a bar there. Once the yen was allowed to float, the dollar no longer went as far, and the Marines from the camp were watching their spending. Gibo switched to inexpensive, filling food. Tacos had been popular at the bar. He put them on rice.
Seasoned taco meat over rice answered both requirements. The tortilla was apparently negotiable.
So, at first, were the lettuce, cheese and tomato. The original taco rice was rice and taco meat, nothing more. At King Tacos, the sister chain that opened in 1985, a plain order of taco rice still comes that way; cheese and vegetables cost extra. Parlor Senri itself closed in 2015.
There is something appealing about a local speciality with such a practical beginning. Nobody needed to wait for a centuries-old recipe to be handed down. There were hungry customers.
The dish spread beyond Kin and became one of Okinawa’s best-known foods. PICO Shokudo is in Shuri (首里), a district of Naha, Okinawa’s capital.
Taco rice with considerably more texture
PICO calls its version Goro Goro Meat Taco Rice. Goro goro refers here to substantial chunks, which is useful information to have before the vegetables conceal them.
The restaurant uses pork shoulder cut by hand into irregular pieces, seasoned with spices and herbs. Even the rice is cooked with chicken stock.
On my plate, lettuce and other vegetables surrounded avocado, cheese and an onsen egg, a Japanese-style soft-cooked egg. At first glance, the greenery made the whole arrangement look almost suspiciously healthy. Taco rice began as meat on rice. Four decades on, the vegetables appeared to have taken over.
The pork soon made its presence known. Its generous pieces gave each mouthful substance, while the vegetables kept the dish fresh and easy to eat. The avocado was creamy, without the grassy flavour it can sometimes have, and breaking the egg let its yolk spread through the toppings.
This was a satisfying plate to work through. There was enough variety to keep each mouthful interesting without making the ingredients seem as though they had arrived with separate plans.
The seasoning was spiced rather than spicy. Cumin and herbs contributed plenty of aroma, but there was almost no chilli heat. I could enjoy the flavour without periodically consulting my water glass.
Something local to drink
I had an Orion The Draft alongside it. Orion is Okinawa’s best-known local beer, and its light, refreshing character suited the pork and aromatic seasoning. It was easy to imagine it accompanying almost anything else I might have ordered.
A useful bed of rice
There was an entire history of adaptation behind the plate: taco fillings, American servicemen, an Okinawan restaurant owner and a very useful bed of rice. At the table, though, it all felt perfectly ordinary. A local dish and a local beer, with the street outside the window.
I had begun with the question of whether tacos would work on rice. Between the pork, the herbs and the egg yolk, I had become rather more interested in the next mouthful.
The tortilla had missed a good meal.
Location
Restaurant
PICO Shokudo (PICO食堂)
About 15 seconds on foot from Shuri Station North Exit, according to the restaurant
3-17 Shuri Tera-cho, Naha, Okinawa 903-0806, Japan — Arakaki Building 2F
Practical Information
- Dish
- Goro Goro Meat Taco Rice (ゴロゴロお肉のタコライス)
- Associated area
- Okinawa
- Opening hours
- 11:00–16:00 (last orders 15:00)
- Closing days
- Sundays and Mondays
- Price when checked
- Medium: ¥1,090; avocado: +¥200
- Official website
- PICO食堂
Information last checked: August 30, 2026
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