Since the first Taco Task Force mission turned out to be so successful, we reconvened on January 3, 2010. Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet L.A., Matthew Kang (Mattatouille), Javier Cabral (The Glutster) Cathy Danh (gas•tron•o•my), her fiancé Vernon and I crisscrossed Los Angeles to determine the best birria taco in L.A.
There were certain factors we were interested in assessing at each stop, including the quality of the goat meat, the condiments/tortilla, the quality of the cooking and the overall flavor. This time, we voted to dispense with the oh-so-vague “authenticity” category, since Esparza and Cabral are the only members of the task force with extensive Mexican travel experience. Instead, we relied on some context courtesy of Mr. Esparza:
“We are doing goat birria from the heart of Mexico, Jalisco and Zacatecas. This birria is a dry chile adobo usually with ancho, guajillo, and cascabel; cumin, peppercorns, and cloves as a principal spicings; broiled tomatoes are used in the sauce.
The whole goat is usually roasted slowly in an oven, the drippings are blended with tomatoes to make a sauce that is added to the goat prior to serving. Chopped white onion and cilantro are added at the table and tacos made with fresh tortillas.
Authenticity-should be oven roasted, sauce prepared from drippings, served with oregano and chopped onions and homemade tortillas. Unlike baja fish tacos, the norm here are tortillas hecho a mano.”
Here’s my rundown, with interspersed scoresheets featuring Jo for Joshua, B for Bill, Ja for Javier, C for Cathy and her fiance Vernon and M for Matthew. We rated each category using a 5 point scale.
1. Birrieria Chalio
3580 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, 323 268 5349
Our first stop was at a 24-year-old Boyle Heights classic that specializes in birria representative of Nochistlan, Zacatecas. We sat in a green booth, surrounded by Aztec imagery. Stuffed goat and deer heads lined the walls. We had easy access to kid-friendly vending machines, but chose goat over gumballs.
We split a plate of rib and leg meat ($9.95). It cost an extra $2 for condiments, including fluffy, pancake-like corn tortillas. That was money well spent. The chile-lacquered meat wasn’t funky enough, and the accompanying consomé was bland, but the texture was nice and crusty. A bonus was the bottle of punchy habanero clove sauce typical of Zacatecas.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 3.5, B 3.5, Ja 4, CV 3.5, M 3 AVERAGE 3.5/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 3.5, B 3.5, Ja 4, CV 3, M 3 AVERAGE 3.4/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 3, B 3, Ja 4, CV 3, M 3.5 AVERAGE 3.3/5
Cooking: Jo 3.5, B 3, Ja 4, CV 3, M 3.5 AVERAGE 3.4/5
OVERALL BIRRIERIA CHALIO TACO SCORE: 3.4/5
2. Birrieria Guadalajara
1128 South Atlantic Boulevard, Los Angeles, 323 268 8885
This plain-looking East L.A. restaurant featured shelves stocked with tiny goat figurines, a well-stocked jukebox and soccer on TV. The owner is from El Salvador, which doesn’t necessarily disqualify their birria from contention.
The leg and thigh meat was dry and flavorless, and the consomé lacked any complexity. The minced onions were red instead of white, which hinted at inauthenticity, but no matter the color of the onion, it wasn’t going to make a difference at our least impressive stop of the day.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 1, B 1.5, Ja 1, CV 1.5, M 1.5 AVERAGE 1.3/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 2, B 1, Ja 1.5, CV 0.5, M 1.5 AVERAGE 1.3/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 1, B 1, Ja 1, CV 1, M 1 AVERAGE 1/5
Cooking: Jo 0.5, B 1.5, Ja 1, CV 0.5, M 2 AVERAGE 1.1/5
OVERALL BIRRIERIA GUADALAJARA TACO SCORE: 1.175/5
3. Tepeque
3249 East Gage Avenue, Huntington Park, 323 588 8350
Tepeque is a wonderful birria emporium in the style of Michoacan. Owner Gerardo Gutierrez has been making birria for 15 years and hails from Apatzingan in the region’s Tierra Caliente.
We sat at a large table in the middle of the room, surrounded by aqua booths and intricate murals, not only of goats, but also of beaches with palapas.
Tepeque’s typical order of birria consists of shoulder meat from a young goat ($8.99). This was the juiciest goat meat of the day, with an intoxicating consomé with a winning goat funk.
We also loaded up goat ribs (costillas), greedily ripping tender, juice-soaked meat from tiny bones.
Salsas were especially impactful at Tepeque. House-made chips came with dishes of salsa de arbol and tomatillo. Upon request, we received a concentrated salsa packed with salsa de arbol, dried chilies and oil.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 4.5, B 4.5, Ja 4, CV 5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 4.5/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 4.5, B 4, Ja 4, CV 4, M 4 AVERAGE 4.1/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 4, B 4, Ja 4, CV 5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 4.3/5
Cooking: Jo 4.5, B 5, Ja 4, CV 5, M 5 AVERAGE 4.7/5
OVERALL TEPEQUE TACO SCORE: 4.4/5
4. Tlaquepaque
1753 East Florence Avenue, Los Angeles, 323 581 0800
Our fourth stop led us deeper into South L.A., to a Guadalajara style spot with just nine red stools and a jukebox from Rodolfo Torres y Familia. Tlaquepaque is a neighborhood in Guadalajara, in case you were wondering. There’s a larger Tlaquepaque across the street where they cook the goat and make fresh tortillas. We opted for the original, which wasn’t as comfortable, or apparently, as fresh. Still, we made our choice, and had to make the best of the situation.
Each stop seemed to have increasingly elaborate murals, perhaps none grander than the Aztec imagery we found at Tlaquepaque.
A grande order of leg and rib meat ($9.25) was submerged in a spicy consomé that had a good chile kick and didn’t quite allow the goat-y flavor to shine through. Unlike other locations, Tlaquepaque’s version was already fully loaded with white onions and cilantro. We received crispy foil-wrapped tortillas, which were not homemade in this location.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 3, B 3.5, Ja 3.5, CV 4, M 5 AVERAGE 3.8/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 3.5, B 3.5, Ja 3.5, CV 3, M 3.5 AVERAGE 3.4/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 3.5, B 3.5, Ja 4, CV 4, M 4.5 AVERAGE 3.9/5
Cooking: Jo 2.5, B 3, Ja 3, CV 4.5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 3.5/5
OVERALL TLAQUEPAQUE TACO SCORE: 3.65/5
5. El Parian
1528 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, 213 386 7361
El Parian is a formidable 46-year-old restaurant in the style of Jalisco, from owner Maria Garcia. Writers like Jonathan Gold regularly laud the restaurant, for good reason. Our birria ($8.25) arrived dry, with an intensely but oh-so-satisfying goat-forward consomé. The meat achieved an excellent balance of crusty and juice. A squeeze bottle of vinegary habanero sauce added to the experience.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 3.5, B 3.5, Ja 4, CV 4, M 4 AVERAGE 3.8/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 4.5, B 4, Ja 4.5, CV 3.5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 4.2/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 4, B 4, Ja 4, CV 4, M 4 AVERAGE 4/5
Cooking: Jo 3.5, B 4, Ja 4, CV 4.5, M 4 AVERAGE 4/5
OVERALL EL PARIAN TACO SCORE: 4/5
Jacotepec went OUT OF BUSINESS in East L.A. We attempted to visit Flor del Rio, but at 5:30 PM, it was already CLOSED for the day, since birria isn’t always a nighttime venture.
6. Birrieria Jalisco
1845 East 1st Street, Los Angeles, 323 262 4552
We circled back to Boyle Heights for Birrieria Jalisco, a local landmark that now has multiple locations. The space sported canary yellow walls and black-and-white photos of Jalisco.
We selected an order of birria ($9) with spine, rib and leg meat. The meat was fairly tender, but didn’t have the juiciness, crust or intensity of flavor of previous stops. The consomé was a disappointment, murky brown and salty. The tortillas were singed and came from a bag.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 3, B 3, Ja 3, CV 4, M 3 AVERAGE 3.2/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 2.5, B 2.5, Ja 2, CV 3.5, M 2.5 AVERAGE 2.6/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 3, B 3, Ja 3.5, CV 3.5, M 2.5 AVERAGE 3.1/5
Cooking: Jo 3, B 3, Ja 3.5, CV 3.5, M 3.5 AVERAGE 3.3/5
OVERALL BIRRIERIA JALISCO TACO SCORE: 3.05/5
7. Flor del Rio
3201 East 4th Street, Los Angeles, 323 268 0319
We all visited Flor del Rio on separate occasions. Don’t bother asking for a menu. Your only choice is whether to get the meat on or off the bone. Either way, birria costs $10.65 per order, but by all means, eat on the bone. As food aficionados know (and Ruth Reichl titled a book), meat is more “tender at the bone,” and it was at Flor del Rio.
The roast goat was certainly tender, but also spice-rubbed and crusty at the edges. Still, the highlight was definitely the addictive chile-flecked consomé loaded with goat-y debris. This is the only birrieria where the flavor built in intensity with each bite, which was truly impressive.
Grade of Key Ingredient: Jo 4.5, B 4.5, Ja 3.5, CV 4.5, M 4 AVERAGE 4.2/5
Condiment/Tortilla: Jo 4, B 4, Ja 3, CV 3.5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 3.8/5
Overall Flavor: Jo 4.5, B 4, Ja 3.5, CV 4.5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 4.2/5
Cooking: Jo 4.5, B 4.5, Ja 4, CV 4.5, M 4.5 AVERAGE 4.4/5
OVERALL FLOR DEL RIO TACO SCORE: 4.15/5
After tallying the votes, our surprise winner was Tepeque, followed by Flor del Rio. El Parian also scored big, but wasn’t quite as good as the other two birria-centric restaurants.
In the near future, the Taco Task Force will be on the hunt for L.A.’s best barbacoa.
Related Posts
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- Flor del Rio – Los Angeles, CA - September 19, 2009
- Malo Introduces Dollar Taco Mondays
- My Taco – Los Angeles, CA – Monday, September 22, 2008
- Favorite Posts from February 1-7, 2010
I love Tepeque. I hope this post helps get them more attention. And I have never tried the goat at Flor del Rio. I will have to get out there as soon as possible. Thanks for the tip.
Hobson,
Glad to hear you’ve already discovered the wonders of Tepeque. Flor del Rio is also well worth a visit.
By far, one of the best posts I’ve seen. I want it on the next taco task force..
I mean to say… “I want IN on the next taco task force”
Bricia,
Thanks for the feedback. You’re in for barbacoa.
seriously, this is great… I posted it on my FB ; ) — you know, us normal people, that’s what we have.. Facebook (Foodmarathon’s words)
I’m so in for barbacoa
Not before we do potato tacos first
KCRW also wants in actually. As always, thanks for being the first to write and inspiring the rest of us to get on it!
see you around.
Potato tacos vs. Barbacoa? No contest, but we did discuss potato. How’s your scout going, Glutster?
Bricia can handle like 10 stops in one day. Alright glutster, get on the potato tacos, I’ve got the barbacoa booted up and ready to go, no unknown quantities this time. And, a new find.