El Parian Restaurant — Restaurant in Los Angeles

GOAT HEAVEN in a Dive

I found out about El Parián through Jonathan Gold's "Counter Intelligence" First Edition 2000 which is a compilation of his Counter Intelligence food reviews in the LA Weekly.

Although Mr. Gold's reviews don't always agree with my estimation of the same restaurants (like the disasterous greasy, fried shrimp balls at Johnny's Shrimp Boat), we are congruent on the intrinsic worth of this birriería on Pico just west of the Harbour Freeway.

Order the bírria, a signature dish of the state of Jalisco, México, and you will receive a steaming bowl of sweet, delicately flavoured roast kid which has small bones in it with parts of the meat being succulent and meaty, and other parts having a rough chaw.

This mass of primordial meat is floating in a wonderously thickened chile infused broth made from the drippings of the roasting goat. The flavour of this broth is the essence of goatiness & goodness.

The bírria is accompanied by a pile of cilantro, chopped onions, dried oregano, lime to enrich the broth. There is a pile of tortillas de maiz so I grabbed some of the meat, put in onions and cilantro to make my own Flauta.

I then dipped the end of the rolled tortilla into the bírria broth like a Mexicanized french dip. (This tastes infinitely better than the french dip sandwich at Phillips where their lamb meat is dry, lifeless and tasteless. The bread is stale, and the jus is weak.)

This bírria is so good that I also drank the broth as an elegant goat consommé. There is something very primal yet sophisticated about the bírria at El Parián. So soul satisfying at a price that is almost too good to be true. (One warning: don't smell your fingers after eating the goat cuz you'll smell like one.)

This dish may be the perfect food for hang-overs, and if you get the munchies (wink, wink). Also for those who like King Taco better than El Parián, the temple of Mexican regional cooking, you've got to go to Phillipe's and get their...

I would hate to think because of the color of my skin I was given poor service. The first time I went It was great the food was delicious and the service was great, but this time I wasn't greeted nor did I feel welcomed. It's sad that people can't look beyond the color of a person's skin but rather treat them indifferent because of their race. I speak Spanish very fluently and most of my friends are Hispanic, so I'm very culturally versed when it comes to Mexican cuisine. I ordered a ton of food and all the waitress wanted to give me was one small condiment container of salsa when I asked for another she said something to the cook. I am hurt and disgusted by what transpired. I will spend my money elsewhere.

Update: The burrito is awful so bad that I almost choked a couple of times. I asked for a Carne Asada Not...

I really loved the Birria but mine was mostly fat and bones. Like 65 bones/fat to 35 meat. Not ok. So getting 4 tortillas was pointless unless I wanted to just eat them plain. Anyway, we also had really bad service which isn't generally something I would take into consideration for less points bc we all have our off days. What I didn't like I saw at the end. There were bones under our table that clearly had been there all day. I'm not sure how they keep their A but that's disgusting. I have gotten food poisoning before at a vegan place with an A many years ago, so I am not going to give this place a second chance because dried bones under the table is just wrong. And they weren't from me, just in case...