The Best Birria Tacos in L.A., Ranked, With Goat on Top

From a Boyle Heights goat specialist open seven days to the North Hollywood counter Yelp named America's No. 1 taco spot.

The best birria tacos in Los Angeles are goat. They come on handmade tortillas in Boyle Heights, and you can get them on a Tuesday.

That's Birrieria Nochistlan on East 4th Street, and it's No. 1 here. When Time Out added it to its L.A. taco guide in June, the guide noted that the family has made Zacatecas-style goat birria since 2003. It also pointed out that the shop opens daily, while weekend-only birria is common.

The order below is argued from what The Infatuation and Time Out have written and from Yelp's national taco ranking. Hours and prices are given only where a place or an outlet posts them, with dates. Nobody from The Globe ate at any of these spots for this list.

Dates matter with birria. Birria El Jalisciense, the weekend goat roast at Olympic Boulevard and Spence Street, has closed, Time Out said in that June update. The Infatuation's birria guide, last updated May 19, 2025, still lists it. A shop that's open every day earns its spot at the top.

1. Birrieria Nochistlan, Boyle Heights. It's goat and nothing else: stew, tacos, quesadillas. Time Out called them "the city's very best goat tacos" and singled out the handmade tortillas and a chile de árbol salsa. Order the tacos with a cup of consommé. Time Out's June listing gives the hours as 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends, at 3200 E. 4th St. It's cash only, and Time Out lists no dollar prices.

2. Tacos y Birria La Unica, Boyle Heights and Mid-City. It's the only spot here that both outlets reviewed, and they end up in the same place. The Infatuation rated it 8.3 and sticks to three orders there: one goat taco, one beef, and the goat quesataco. Time Out preferred the goat and called taquero Yasmany Mendoza's birria a "cleaner-tasting, less greasy" take on the stew.

Where they overlap is the goat quesataco, so start there. The trucks are cash only. The Mid-City truck at 5871 Venice Blvd. ran 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Tuesdays, Time Out listed in May 2025. The Infatuation puts the Boyle Heights location at 2850 E. Olympic Blvd. Neither review lists dollar prices.

3. Birrieria Gonzalez, Historic South Central. The Infatuation wrote that if it had to pick one Tijuana-style birria, it would pick this truck at 2524 Maple Ave. The beef goes into a consommé built on several dried chiles, and the order is tacos dorados eaten at the curb. The Infatuation, which rated the truck 8.0, called it "the closest we've found to late-night birria in Tijuana." Its review gives no hours or prices.

4. Birrieria Familia Castro, North Hollywood. This is the crowd's pick. Yelp's 2025 Top 100 Taco Spots list, built from millions of user reviews, put this family's counter at No. 1 in the country, Time Out reported. It serves Jalisco-style birria de res on handmade tortillas meant to hold up in the consommé, and Time Out said weekend lines have long run down the street.

I'd take a critic's case over a star average, so it's fourth. It's at 6102 Vineland Ave. Check its hours before you make the drive to NoHo.

5. Birrieria San Marcos, Van Nuys. This one's for the table that can't agree on a style. The beef specialist's window at 5937 Hazeltine Ave. serves Jalisco-style birria en su jugo and Tijuana-style quesatacos with consommé on the side for dunking. The Infatuation rated it 7.9 and called it a reliable go-to because it gets the balance of meat, cheese and oil right.

6. Teddy's Red Tacos, South L.A. Time Out says Teddy's Red may be the place that made birria popular across the city. The Infatuation's birria guide leaves it off, though, and that's why I put it last. It does post the latest hours of anywhere on this list: 731 E. Slauson Ave. is open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, according to its own site on Thursday.

So the list covers most of the day. Nochistlan's goat is there from 8 a.m. on weekends, and when it closes at 4, Teddy's still has six hours to go.

Source: timeout.com, retrieved November 5, 2026. Other sources: theinfatuation.com, timeout.com (2), timeout.com (3), teddysredtacos.com.