Birria-Landia

"This Tijuana-style spot is a New York City landmark, like the Statue of Liberty, except it’s a truck under the subway track in Jackson Heights. Birria-Landia now has four other locations from the Bronx to the Lower East Side, and they still make the city’s best birria. Everything on the menu (tacos, mulitas, tostadas, and consomé) is bolstered by tangy, mildly spicy stew. Take your crunchy-soft tortilla filled with beef and dip it in some consomé. What happens is a sea change. The word delicious seems somehow inadequate." - willa moore, bryan kim, will hartman, neha talreja, carlo mantuano, sonal shah

"Birria-Landia makes the city’s best birria, full stop. This Tijuana-style truck certainly didn’t invent birria, and it wasn’t the first NYC place serving it—but this place gave birria the headliner status it always deserved. There’s always going to be a line outside of their brightly-lit trucks, located in a few neighborhoods across the city besides this Jackson Heights original. The menu is tight, focused, and flawless. Order a few of the tacos on broth-dipped tortillas, and dunk them into a cup of the mysteriously rich consome. First, you’ll taste lime, then tender meat, then adobo, then dripping fat, with everything melting together in your unworthy mouth." - bryan kim, neha talreja, hannah albertine, carlo mantuano

"When this truck pulled up to 78th Street on Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights in 2019, it was laden with beef birria tacos prepared in the style of Tijuana. Years later, there are still just four items on the menu — tacos, mulitas, tostadas, and cups of consomé — that draw crowds late into the night. The truck is operated by José Moreno, former chef at Del Posto, and his brother Jesús, who have since opened further locations in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan." - Robert Sietsema

"Birria-Landia makes the city’s best birria, full stop. This Tijuana-style truck certainly didn’t invent birria, and it wasn’t the first NYC place serving it—but this place gave birria the headliner status it always deserved. There’s always going to be a line outside of their brightly-lit trucks, located in a few neighborhoods across the city besides this Jackson Heights original. The menu is tight, focused, and flawless. Order a few of the tacos on broth-dipped tortillas, and dunk them into a cup of the mysteriously rich consome. First, you’ll taste lime, then tender meat, then adobo, then dripping fat, with everything melting together in your unworthy mouth." - neha talreja, kenny yang, carina finn koeppicus, willa moore, will hartman

"It’s often hard to pinpoint exactly where a dining trend began. But we can confidently say that this food truck in Jackson Heights is the reason why you can now find birria in almost every corner of New York City. Birria Landia certainly didn’t invent birria, and it definitely wasn’t the first NYC place serving it—but this place gave birria the headliner status it always deserved. The menu is tight, focused, and flawless. Order a few of the tacos on broth-dipped tortillas, and dunk a mozzarella-stuffed mulita into a cup of the mysteriously rich consome. For roughly $20, everything on the menu can (and should) be yours." - bryan kim, neha talreja, willa moore, will hartman, sonal shah