Birria LES — Restaurant in New York

Visited the St. Mark’s location w/ friends last night after realizing that the Rivington location didn’t have too much available seating.

This was my first time trying Birria Les. Honestly not impressed at all.

I had 3 beef birria w/ cheese. My entire meal was watery. Not oily because I can do a little oil - but straight watery. There was so much liquid pouring off the beef that it was pooled into the bottom of my container. The beef had flavor but could have done with more flavor. My tacos were crazy soggy after sitting in the liquid coming off the beef.

I love a good consume but theirs was unfortunately so underwhelming that I requested to return it. It was quite literally the texture of tea and had the muted flavor of tea as well. Dipping my taco in it resulted in nothing but watery liquid running immediately back into the container - as if I just dipped it in tea.

That would all be doable if at least the flavor of the consume was delivering. Nope, it was basically salted water with parsley and onions floating at the top. After seeing the texture of the consume, I understand why there was warm water pooled at the bottom of the container that my tacos were in.

Pretty underwhelming flavor experience. I would give it one more try if someone else paid for it. Because maybe they were having an off night. As far as me going there willingly again, I don’t see...

I have been talking so much smack about NYC Mexican food, or lack thereof. It was the one cuisine I was struggling to find authentically done, and to be quite frank I had almost given up hope.

However, you can't deny the shine of a Jedi, and Birria LES is the light in the abyss. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.

This spot transported me straight back to my time in San Diego, where you are surrounded by authentic Mexican food hand crafted by the abuelitas. Dang now I miss my Granny.

I went with 3 tacos and 1 tostada. The real MVP was the surf and turf taco, my goodness. It blew me away like a category 5 hurricane. Eh more like category 4 let's not get too dramatic.

The surprise player of the year had to be a chicken taco, because I mean who expects a lot from a chicken taco. This pulled chicken taco was juicy and tender, and at a price point of $4 it is going to be getting A LOT of playoff minutes. Everyone needs a quality 3 and D in a championship rotation.

My new go-to spot for Mexican...

The food is so darn good here I don't even have pictures — but for y'all who love to Instagram your food, it is very worthy of it. Service was quick and friendly, very lovely lady behind the counter (please give her tips, thank you). Atmosphere is no frills at all, so I recommend takeout. It's usually packed, and most seats will have you rubbing elbows with strangers, sometimes literally. Not my jam. Luckily, takeout holds up super well. Have gotten delivery before, too, and it's super speedy and always arrives very carefully packed. Favorite taco spot in the LES (and there's actually more good ones than you'd think!).

Highly recommend surf and turf tacos, esquites, and the beef consomme to incorporate into literally anything on the menu. I sometimes pick it up by itself as a soup. A friend got the sliders and they were delicious but didn't seem to have as much meat as they pack into the tacos — still worth it, though. Just an...