Lori N.
Yelp
Food fads come and go in the San Francisco Bay Area. Remember cronuts, charcoal buns and now the fried chicken sandwich, mochi doughnuts, and ramen craze? Well, you can add quesabirrias to the list now!
Although these tacos are the latest popular food trend here, they've actually been around for a long time. These tacos originated from the Tijuana area, and have long been popular in SoCal. I don't know what took them so long to gain popularity up North, or how long this food craze will last, but it's here!
After hearing about these Tijuana-style tacos and hearing great things about Los Originales, I knew this is where I wanted my virgin tongue to taste these tacos for the very first time. Just expect to wait a very long time. After standing in a long line and finally placing my order, I was told that the wait to get my tacos would be somewhere between 45 minutes to an hour. They were ready in about 45 minutes. Still a long wait for tacos, IMO. I'm just glad I was actually able to get my tacos in the knick of time because halfway into devouring them, they had to close their stand once the winds started howling and the rain started coming down like crazy. They refunded everyone who hadn't yet received their order, and there were a lot of people in this category. It got a bit crazy, but this was totally beyond their control. I was actually glad to see that they prioritized safety above profit because hot cooking grease and a hot griddle under a tent set-up outside makes for a dangerous combination with strong winds and rain.
The tacos are made with two tortillas filled with cheese and birria, a stewed-like meat, similar in preparation to barbacoa. You can get them with or without the cheese. A customer behind me said she was a regular and orders at least 40 tacos to-go each time for her family. She told me I just had to get them with cheese, and I really really love cheese beyond belief, so it was a no-brainer. Within a second, my perpetual indecisiveness disappeared, and I got all four of mine with cheese.
The tacos are definitely tasty and delicious with the stewed meat. No doubt about that, especially with all the extra added condiments. However, just know that they are very greasy and when I picked it up, grease started dripping out immediately. These are filled with a lot of cheese, almost maybe a tad too much, making it a bit difficult to distinguish the birria. This is coming from someone who will smother cheese on anything and everything she can. Immediately, my fingers were smothered in the grease seeping through both tortillas. However, that didn't stop me from polishing off all four of them by myself!
The real problem though was that these tacos didn't hold up so well, even within a short amount of time. They told me my order would be ready within 45 minutes to an hour, so I went back about 50-55 minutes later to check up on it, only to find that my tacos had already been made and were just sitting out. Because the tacos sat out for about 5-10 minutes before I got them, they were already a tad cold. The very first one I ate was still crunchy and had cheese that was still warm, but the remaining three had cheese that had already solidified and lost their stretchy cheesy pull. Unfortunately, sitting out and also being placed one on top of another also caused the tortillas to loose most of their crunch. I'd strongly suggest trying to get them right when they're ready so you can enjoy them at their "peak". Or maybe they could hand out buzzers so that customers know exactly when they need to retrieve their tacos.
Included with your order will be an accompanying consomme which can be used for dipping your taco into. Personally, I couldn't really taste it much when I used it for dipping, and it just seemed to make my tacos soggy. For me, it was so tasty that I preferred just taking sips of it.
I really like the self-serve condiment bar, where you can add on as much chopped cilantro, red onions, radishes and lime wedges your taco-loving heart desires. I don't think these tacos would nearly be as tasty without these added fresh toppings though.
If you've never had a quesabirria, this is worth trying. Try something you've never had!Sometimes it's good to allow your FOMO to overtake you. I personally prefer traditional street tacos, but I'd go for these whenever I'm having a serious "go-all-out" taco craving.
Heads Up: Los Originales will be making their San Francisco debut at the super popular Off The Grid at the Salesforce Tower in December. If you want to discover food trends, look no further than an Off the Grid!