After walking by Birrieria Barajas almost daily before its opening, I am glad to say the restaurant went beyond my expectations.

Quesabirria tacos are something I have only had a handful of times but it rarely disappoints. As a fan of Mexican food, I was excited to see a restaurant open by my house that features birria.

The restaurant, at 645 W. Fifth St.t, is right across the street from Riley’s. This location is great and you may notice the somewhat loud Spanish music playing outside when walking past it.

It is important to note this restaurant’s prices are constantly changing.. I have seen the menu have different prices three times. Because of this, talking about how worth the price the food tends to be is difficult. I will say, my orders usually do not go over $20.

When the restaurant opened, they had a deal for cheap street tacos so I ordered those and some horchata.

The tacos were amazing, had a lot of flavor and were a 9 out of 10. My only gripe is that they were small and not super filling; I was hoping for more food.

The horchata was great as well, and not too sweet like some horchata I have had from other places. I would give it a 9 out of 10.

The restaurant features a salsa bar with some truly amazing salsas. My most recent time going here they only had jalapenos and no salsa, so no guarantees they are consistently available. However if they are, I recommend asking for a salsa cup. Their salsas go well with almost everything I have had from here.

Other times I have gone, the three quesabirria taco plate with rice and beans has been my go to. This order, like others I have had here, sometimes takes a decent amount of time to be ready, but is in my opinion very worth it.

These tacos are very hot when you get them, a bit hotter than the rice and beans. The strength of great quesabirria tacos is their bursts of flavor.

The meat is soaked in flavor, and you get a dipping sauce that is very delicious as well. The cheese also pops more than in most Mexican dishes. I like to alternate the sauces I use to dip the tacos in.

Though I have had this dish several times with slightly different experiences each time, I would probably consistently give this one an 8.5 out of 10. This order is what I would recommend to people.

The most recent time I went I ordered two fried tacos and a grilled taco. I liked the grilled taco noticeably more as it was just more fun to eat than the fairly stiff fried taco shell. Both had a little too much lettuce in my opinion, and I say this as someone who loves lettuce.

I would give the grilled taco an 8 out of 10 and the fried taco a 6.5 out of 10. They are cheaper options and less committal than some of the bigger dishes.

Overall, Birrieria Barajas has cemented itself as my go-to Mexican restaurant  in Chico. Everything I have had in the restaurant just has so much flavor.

Dominic Curcuro can be reached at [email protected].