This has got to be my favorite Mexican place in San Diego. Oof their Birria de chivo is 🔥 and their pozole is amazing! I ate this last weekend and am craving it since then. Their salsa is so unique - very spicy yet flavorful. I am definitely gonna come back! One suggestion I have is that I don’t understand why we have to order at the door and then go sit. It does not make sense to us as customers. We anyway ordered more food after we sat down. If it is for takeout, it makes sense.

Birrieria Don Rafa is an authentic Mexican restaurant that specializes in birria. They also are well-respected maestros of menudo, and prodigies of pozole. If not for the wildly colorful wall art, Birrieria Don Rafa would be plain and humble in appearance. It's not fancy, but it's welcoming. As are the staff. Waitress Ilse, in particular, is a delight. On my visit here, I ordered the "Tatemada de Res," where a substantial amount of dry-roasted beef birria, seasoned and bearing crispy carnitas-like edges, is piled on an oval cast-iron sizzler adjacent to a serving of pinto beans, and accompanied by a concentrated beef broth served on the side in a cup. This dish arrives at the table with fresh corn tortillas, which inspires a DIY taco assembly process that leverages the lime, raw onions, cilantro, and hot sauce delivered to each table before the rest of the food comes out. The shredded beef is well-browned at the expense of being slightly over-done and dry. However, with the accompaniments provided, particularly the broth, the meat transforms into a nice tortilla filling that is characterized by its strong, concentrated beefy presence. I also tried the "Taco Chivo," a delicious taco featuring rich, juicy braised chunks of goat, with pinto beans in a fresh corn tortilla. Like the Birria, once you hit it with some onions and a little of the hot sauce on the table, you're in business. The "Menudo Rojo" is excellent, possessing a good, clean, and non-insinuating flavor. The distinctive spongy tripe, tender as it is, is paired with hominy to facilitate robust spoonfuls of fun textures to be extracted from the spicy red pepper broth. Spiked with Don Rafa's scorchingly spicy hot sauce, cilantro, onions, and a squeeze of lime, this is a tasty soup. Everything's good here, I look forward to returning!

My family and I ate here. Service was good. It was awkward to order before being sat at our table. We had never felt rushed to order at a dine in restaurant before. I got the quesa birria tacos and wife got chilaquiles, kids just got bacon and eggs. The chilaquiles and 3 quesabirria tacos came out first. Took 10 minutes from that point to get my kids eggs. I believe they forgot but failed to apologize or even address the fact that eggs were delayed. We got there right at open and restaurant was already hot. No air flow or AC. Our total for 4 drinks, chilaquiles, 3 birria tacos, 2 orders of eggs with bacon was $70+. Food was good. Host was friendly. But won't be coming back.

Amazing food!! The goat Birria is well marinated and delicious!! Also I ordered the goat quesadilla, delicious! Will come back again for sure. The only little thing, the portions are a little bit small, but with high quality!

We tried the Menudo Rojo with hominy, and the Quesadilla Ahogada de Chivo(goat). The Menudo was good with lots of hominy and came with corn tortillas. The Ahogado was very good, but not as large as expected. The goat meat was lean, tender, tasty, and not gamey at all. The birria broth was very good.

My wife and I visited Birrieria Don Rafa on Sunday 1/14/2018. Both of us have been here before but this time around we ordered something different. My wife ordered menudo and I ordered carne en su jugo. My wife said that her menudo was excellent and very tasty. My carne en su jugo was good too but a little bit salty. Put a little bit less salt and it will be perfect. Service was great. The menudo plate was huge !!

Delicious Birria, great for breakfast. It's a family ran business. One of those family spots that really care about their customers. I normally go on weekends with the occasional visit during the week and I am always satisfied. Side note: if you cant handle hot sauce, dont try their home made style salsa. Its spicy. However, its spicy but has great flavor. So I encourage you to try it and add fire to your food as you see fit. Every time you sit down here to eat you will get fresh cilantro, diced onions, lemons, and salsa to eat with your birria. They have oregano as well and various drinks as well as a few selections of beers.

Food was delicious we ordered 2 birria tacos a plate of birria tatemada and 2 cafes de olla we'll be definitely be coming back

The food was great. It is the greatest birria I've ever had; left me speechless. The service was also excellent. The music isn't bad as well. Fully recommend the order of birria de res tatemada, delightful. I'll be eating here more often 😋

Came into the restaurant and took a seat l, the waitress never acknowledged us, she took the order of the table next to us and then proceeded to clean another table without saying anything to us, never offered water or anything! That's just ridiculous, so we got up and left!!! Will never return!

$12.75 for 1 taco. Not sides. No consome. Just the taco itself we are talking medium size taco. On a small plate. Ridiculous. Also they make you order at the door before they seat you.

Food was good and server was polite and attentive. Horchata was delicious, I got the quesadilla with corn tortilla and lamb, which was very filling

Birria was good, but served with bad tortillas, prob a few days old, tasted rancid. Ruined the whole meal.

Ordered pozole why they call it pozole its actually birria soup with some birria meat and they just added the maiz, what a joke and lie on their part, pozole is made with espinazo, pork meat and "patas" plus the traditional veggies. Unless they're from another country and not from mexico🇲🇽 and that is the style they make it. And actually that wasn't even good, the best birria in town is at Don Vicente menuderia once you have that one you will never come back.

Simply put this is how Mom does it. Family owned and operated with the Family trade dishes that are just like eating at home. Staff is great, friendly and quick. Great music!

Service is great, good variety and they have coffee from the pot.

Really good birria..from the I.E... was in town... this place is really good.. will be coming back to try different menu items.. so if you're looking for some good birria tacos.. this is the place to go.. nice atmosphere good customer service...nice prices...