Ever since Instagram’s algorithm started pushing the Reel format, there’s been a trend for the sorts of establishments I’ve been adding to my ever-growing list of places to visit in Manchester and beyond. See, these rough and ready short looping vids lend themselves to foods with a certain visceral spectacle. Currently, it seems that molten cheese is often at the heart of viral foody success. My feed is getting filled with overstuffed sub sandwiches being pulled apart, deep-dish pizza slices being lifted up in a cascade of mozzarella and suchlike. And if it’s not cheese, it’s handheld foods being plunged into various dips. One food sitting at the apex of these two messy aesthetics, and therefore playing on my mind a great deal, is the birria taco.
For the unfamiliar, birria is a traditional Mexican stew of slow-cooked meats in an adobo stock, often served with corn tortillas for stuffing and various condiments and salsas. The birria taco involves this meaty stew being piled into tortillas with plentiful cheese, and whatever else chef fancies before being melted and crisped on the hot plate. The trendy way to serve these meat and cheese laden vessels is with a pot of consommé derived from the cooking juices for your dipping pleasure. Fuelled by social media hype, the street food dish has swept across the pond to the UK in the past year.
Enter Birria Brothers, the pop-up at Oldham Street’s Koffee Pot that has been clogging my Instagram feed and fuelling my food dreams over the past few months with its mastery of the Insta Reel. Seriously, the sequence of tacos being dipped in meaty liquid, popped on a hot plate and filled with cheese, only for steaming hot, soft meat to be piled on top, formed into a taco and ultimately dipped back into yet more meat juices has been running over and over in my mind. For a long time, given the indulgence involved, Kate and I have sworn off visiting like some sort of pious monks with a celibacy vow. But one Friday night, we allowed ourselves to pop along and see if the taste lived up to the promise.
Running a little late, I was delighted to see that Kate had already taken advantage of the happy hour deal of 2 for £10 margaritas by the time I arrived. Having been supplied with the suitably Manc-ified vimto variant of this Mexican cocktail classic, we scanned the QR code and got scanning the menu, knowing full well that we were really there for one thing. Besides the birria options, there are numerous sides from across the Tex-Mex spectrum, including loaded fries, nachos and chicken wings. We opt for the latter – one look at the size of the portions around the room suggests that adding a big bowl of carbs into the mix might be taking things a step too far.
Our food arrives in a waft of meaty aromas and immediately I’m taken aback by the weight and size of the tacos – these are not dainty offerings. I take a moment to compose myself and allow things to cool to handle-able temperature. Then, there’s the moment I’ve been waiting for – the first dip. How does it hold up to the social media fantasy? Well, truth be told, I’m not entirely positive that the consommé dunk hugely adds to proceedings beyond the theatre of the act. The thin soup moistens things beyond any last bastion of structural integrity while only adding more of the same delicately-spiced beefy flavour, which is already present in abundance in the stewed meat. The same cannot be said of the additional dipping pot on our trays, a tangy pineapple salsa with a vicious kick which proves the unsung hero here. It proves a great foil to the unctuous mess of soft meat and salty cheese. However, while the dipping broth doesn’t quite elevate the dish in the way I’d expected I am by no means disappointed – I still find myself continuing to plunge away into both pots.
The adobo pepper veggie option makes a surprisingly satisfying counterpoint to the beef taco. Served in a blue corn tortilla, the combination of grilled peppers and crumbly feta is almost fresh by comparison with the meaty treat. The flavourful refried beans hold things together in a way that nicely mimics the texture too. Contrastingly, the real star of the veg version is the mushroom broth that accompanies the dish. It’s deeply savoury, imparting an additional flavour sensation– if the meat juices simply amplified flavour, here the additional soup adds a harmonious extra layer to proceedings.
We had our misgivings over fries and tortilla chips, but even the chicken wings could be construed as a mistake. Two tacos down and we’re both struggling. Nonetheless, we persevere, given the promise of their 24-hour marination in a combination of pineapple, orange and chipotle, and a method of slow-cooking before being finished on the grill. What results is a delightfully soft hot wing, with a good combination of tang and heat.
As I twiddle the ice in a second margarita, I note that there are a surprising number of couples here on casual dates like ours. As an early outing in a new romance, I can’t help but think that this would be a bold choice, given the messiness of just about every menu item. However, 12 years in, we are well beyond such concerns. Perhaps it’s a good sign for those in budding relationships that they’re happy to ‘eat dirty’ together. It’s certainly a good sign for Birria Brothers. It will be interesting to see how long they can ride the hype-train and continue to grow beyond their current pop-up position. On the strength of this first visit, I do hope they aren’t a one-Reel wonder.
Birria Brothers occupy the kitchen at The Koffee Pot, 84-86 Oldham St, Manchester every Tues-Sat 4pm-9pm.
SOUNDS TASTY 