Many different recipes exist and it is common for French tacos restaurants to deliver made to order products by letting customers choose à la carte from the aforementioned ingredients.

However, Soualhi himself, as well as other sources, have affirmed that "French tacos" were first sighted in fast food restaurants in the city of Vaulx-en-Velin near Lyon in the early 2000s.

[2][5] Years later, their popularity spread to the rest of France as dedicated chains ran massive ad campaigns, with the help of social media and celebrity endorsements.

[11] As of August 2023, the French chain O’Tacos operates 260 locations in France and has expanded to The Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

Daniel Shkolnik of Vice describes the naming as tacos as "a kind of marketing bait-and-switch, drawing people with the promise of a Mexican culinary icon and then selling them something completely different.