The Fold: Tmaz Taqueria
The taco series comes back to Ann Arbor for a Packard Street spot open until 4 a.m.
The first three entries in The Fold moved outward: Dos Hermanos in Scio Township, then Ypsilanti, then Dexter. The fourth comes back to Ann Arbor proper, on Packard Street east of Platt. Tmaz Taqueria is at 3182 Packard St, with a second location on Dexter Avenue. This entry covers the Packard Street kitchen.
The Al Pastor
The Fold already has two al pastor entries. Dos Hermanos built its version around a thick, house-made tortilla. Chela's went for something closer to Mexico City street style. Tmaz's al pastor is a study in the marinade itself: pork cured in a blend of dried chiles, achiote, and pineapple, cooked until the edges char and crisp, then chopped fine and stacked on a doubled corn tortilla with cilantro and raw onion. No pineapple chunk on top, no garnish flourish. The marinade is doing all the work.
The green salsa on the side is thin, sharp, and serrano-forward, the kind of heat that builds rather than announces itself.
A single taco runs $3. Buy two or more and the price drops to $2.50 each, which puts four tacos at $10, the cheapest full meal in the series so far.
The Barbacoa
If the al pastor is the reason to come, the barbacoa is the reason to stay. It's braised, shredded beef, dry and concentrated rather than swimming in broth. That makes it a different animal from Chela's birria, which is a dipping taco built around consomme: the mess, the double-dip, the project. Tmaz skips all of that. Pick it up, eat it, order another.
Pollo con chipotle and chorizo round out the menu beyond the two anchor fillings, alongside pupusas, tamales, enchiladas, and tres leches cake, a wider spread than the taco series usually covers.
The 4 a.m. Factor
Every other entry in this series closes by 9 p.m. Tmaz runs Monday through Saturday until 4 a.m. That is not a typo, and it is not a small thing in a college town where the after-midnight options thin out to pizza slices, drive-throughs, and whatever survived in the fridge. MAIZ and Chela's close at a normal dinner hour like everyone else. Tmaz occupies territory nobody else in The Fold has claimed: a taco cooked to order at two in the morning.
How It Compares
Four entries in, The Fold splits into two camps. Dos Hermanos and Tmaz are the traditionalists: meat, tortilla, salsa, cilantro, onion, nothing reinvented. MAIZ and Chela's run broader menus, and MAIZ breaks from tradition outright with a baked avocado taco.
Within the traditional camp, Dos Hermanos and Tmaz make the tightest matchup the series has produced. Both serve al pastor under $4. Both cook from scratch, no shortcuts. Where Tmaz pulls ahead is value and reach. At $2.50 a taco when you buy two, it undercuts every other entry. It sits inside Ann Arbor city limits rather than Scio Township, Dexter, or Ypsilanti. And its hours aren't in the same conversation as anyone else's.
Where Tmaz Lands
Four entries in: Dos Hermanos for the tortilla, MAIZ for the ambition, Chela's for the birria, Tmaz for the al pastor and the 2 a.m. taco run.
The closed-on-Sunday schedule is the one real limitation. Otherwise, Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. into the small hours, Tmaz has quietly been the most useful taco shop in this series: cheap, fast, and open when nothing else on the list is.
This is part of our ongoing series. Read the full tracker: The Fold: Best Taco in Ann Arbor.
Tmaz Taqueria is at 3182 Packard St, Ann Arbor, MI 48108. Second location at 2529 Dexter Ave, Ann Arbor. Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-4 a.m. Closed Sunday. Tacos $3 single, $2.50 each when buying 2+.