Birria-Landia

Birria-Landia makes the city’s best birria, full stop. This Tijuana-style spot is a New York City landmark, like the Statue of Liberty, except the original is a truck under a set of subway tracks in Jackson Heights—and it’s actually worth visiting.

To all those living in or near Williamsburg, you were blessed with a second location of Birria-Landia’s truck on Metropolitan Avenue in 2020. It’s the same deal as the original spot: each of the four items on their menu (tacos, mulitas, tostadas, and consomme), is bolstered by tangy, mildly spicy, and mysteriously deep stew.

First you’ll taste lime, then tender meat, then adobo spice, then dripping fat, with everything melting together in your unworthy mouth. Make sure to take your crunchy-soft tortilla filled with beef and dip it in your cup of consomme. What happens is life-ruining, since you won’t be able to ever look at a truck or even a cow the same way again. Bring about $20 cash, and get one of each item on the menu.

Oh, and expect a line. These are special tacos, and you’re in Williamsburg where lines and tourists abound.