Birria Shop, Glasgow: restaurant review

This month has a bit of a season finale vibe, with the seasons changing and a few threads from recent episodes coming together. On one hand, there’s the Mexican wave sweeping through Scotland’s restaurants and bars, which has us eating lots of tacos in spring. On the other, we’re on Cathcart Road in the south of Glasgow, just two doors down from the popular Sri Lankan sandwich Kofi Kade, which opened a few months ago.

Birria Shop – New initiative from the people behind Finnieston favourite Rafa’s – it was just an Instagram account when we were last here, but now it’s a small but well-formed space that packs a lot into it. That, friends, is food spelling code for ‘there’s a surprising number of seats here.’ As for the menu, it’s also on the small side, and the focus is on birria, a name we’ll get to shortly.

But first, the potatoes! Tacos dorados (£8) are essentially mashed potato tacos, and were accurately described by the staff as “like eating a hug”. It’s a big pillowy yellow pile that pairs beautifully with a big dollop of salsa verde, but there’s a surprising level of contrast between the corn tortilla and its starchy filling. The scallop ceviche tostada (£5) is less of a hug than a very friendly but very real fist-pump – very lively, very spicy and very, very tasty. Scallops, pickled veg, bits of herb, all piled onto a wide, flat, crispy tortilla; eating it is a bit like trying to interrupt a game of Buckaroo and carry it to another room. The bits will fly everywhere, you’ll embarrass yourself, but you’ll have a great time doing it.

Now let’s move on to the aforementioned birria—a Northern Mexican taco made with boiled, slow-cooked meat and served with a cup of consommé that you can sip like a small bowl of soup if you’re feeling particularly fatty. Appropriately for a place that says Birria in big red letters on the wall, there are three permanent fixtures on the menu, two of which are reviews of birria. Friends, the last few months of these food reviews have seemingly been devoted to these tacos.

The traditional Birria (£13) is a blend of lamb and goat, and the flavour profile here is ‘ridiculously meaty’. This thing is absolutely packed with chunks of meat, smothered in coriander and white onion, and served with a grilled chilli that doesn’t initially seem too spicy but, believe us, will grab you. Dip your tacos in the dark, oniony and very flavourful consommé and things take things to the next level. The Beef Birria (£12) is the juicier, slightly richer and heavier of the two. The traditional is more speckled and tender; it has a fattiness but without the fattiness of the Beef, if you know what we mean. If nothing else, it’s a sign of a kitchen that knows its stuff when two functionally very similar dishes have their differences and a little debate about which is the better one.

Birria Shop seems like a passion project — from the cute, homemade decor to the deliberately pared-down menu, this is a place with a plan and sticking to it. That plan: great, simple, delicious, and (most importantly) very special tacos, and the effort to get those one or two dishes just right. Judging by the chaotic crowds coming and going when we were eating at six on a Friday night, they may have been on to something.

Birria Store, 632 Cathcart Rd, Glasgow G42 8AA
Thursday-Sunday, 12-10pm
@birria_dukkani On Instagram