By Sandi Masori
SANTEE, California — I have long lamented that my area is a food desert. In general, if you want to get what I call “food worth dreaming about,” you need to leave the Santee/ San Carlos/ Del Cerro area and travel to North Park or the Convoy district of San Diego. Yes, there are plenty of decent taco shops and some adequate barbecue places, but none of them keep me up at night craving the food. Until now.
I recently discovered Mr. Birria, which is a small restaurant off Mission Gorge Road and Carlton Hills Boulevard, across the street from GTM. I drive past it on the regular route to get gas at the Santee Costco. One day, on a whim, I decided to stop and get some food to go. I was blown away. Finally, I had found food worth dreaming about that was only a short drive away, and en route to many of the places I already go.
The ambiance of the restaurant is simple, like any other taco place. And like others, they have carne asada and the usual fare on the menu. But, what makes them different is their namesake, the birria. Birria is beef or goat’s meat that has been stewed for a long time and is tender and juicy, served in its own broth, so it’s very moist. Mr. Birria uses only beef for theirs.
The Birria tacos are really good, but the item that has me salivating and dreaming about it is the Birria Ramen (combo). Using what seems to be packaged ramen, they add the birria and the beef broth that take it from an interesting fusion dish, into something beyond. The noodles give the birria an added dimension for texture and mouthfeel, while the broth and stew from the birria itself transform regular store-bought dry ramen into a tantalizing mouth-watering dish. The combo is served with two birria cheese soft tacos. It’s a lot of food and sure to please even the more most demanding palette.
The restaurant opened in 2020 during the height of the pandemic. Manager and part owner Luis Olann worked with majority owner Keyven Hanareh for over 20 years in the latter’s Persian restaurant at the same location. The Persian restaurant did not do well there, and truth be told, I actually went there once with the intent to review but found the food so lacking it wasn’t worth mentioning. I’m happy to say that this new collaboration is quite the opposite.
So how did they decide to go from Persian cuisine to Mexican fare? Well, one day Hanareh hired Olann to cater his personal event, and Olann catered it with food from his own hometown of Tabasco, Mexico. Tabasco is about as far from San Diego as you can get and still be in Mexico — it’s on the southernmost point, bordering Guatemala, so their food is a bit different from what we think of as Mexican food, which comes more from the Baja California area. Anyway, Olann catered the event and it was a huge hit. So much so that the two then put their heads together and came up with the Mr. Birria concept. Even though it opened during the pandemic, it was an instant hit with to-go and delivery app orders. Now they do a fairly even business among to-go, delivery, and walk-in service.
I recommend giving the restaurant a try, and even if you’re not in the area, I think it’s worth the drive to try it out.
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Sandi Masori enjoys exploring food and culture and the junction between them. When she’s not trying new restaurants, she helps people self-publish, hangs out with her kids, and engages in crafty projects.
