Birrieria La Vaca brings the flavors of Jalisco to Roanoke with savory birria dishes, inventive tacos, and house-made desserts in a vibrant new setting.
Photos By John Park
The first thing you’ll notice when you step into Birrieria La Vaca is the large portrait of Frida Kahlo beaming from the wall, holding a birria taco. The second thing you’ll notice, after you slide into a booth and check the flat screen televisions to see which fútbol game is being aired, is the expanded menu. When Sandy Sifuentes, who owns the popular food truck of the same name, opened Birrieria La Vaca in the Old Southwest neighborhood on August 22, 2025, she was intent on offering a diversified spread of birria dishes, alongside tacos, sopes, and homemade desserts.
As you might expect, birria gets top billing here. The flavorful braised beef is a traditional Mexican dish in Sifuente’s home state of Jalisco, and has been her signature since she first started her business as a catering operation in 2021. She said that she chose to focus on birria not only because of its complex, savory flavor, but because of its versatility. “You can enjoy it in different ways: ramen, tacos, on a plate, with soup, just a plate with rice and beans or by itself with cheese,” she said.
Without divulging too many trade secrets, Sifuentes shares that her birria is seasoned with cumin, garlic, dried guajillo chiles, which boast a bright, fruity, sweet-tangy profile, and avocado leaves, which are employed like bay leaves to impart an earthy, anise-like flavor to the broth as the meat stews.
Sifuentes said the most popular birria-based dishes at Birrieria La Vaca are the quesabirrias, where the meat is nestled into tortillas with cheese and griddled till melty, and the birria ramen, which features instant ramen-esque noodles in a heady broth (some might say it’s supremely savory, but my dining companion and I both found it too salty). Other birria mainstays include crazy fries or crazy chips birria, served like nachos or loaded fries with special sauce. For the holiday season, Sifuentes also served a birria tamale special paired with beef broth. On weekends, Sifuentes plans to offer goat birria as a more frequent special. “The flavor is very different,” she said. “It’s way more tender, it takes longer to cook; it changes the flavor.”
Beyond quesabirria tacos, seek out either the carne asada tacos or the Matones, a grilled taco with stewed beef and melted cheese that is also one of Sifuentes’ favorite dishes. “The grilled part is crunchy, the cheese with the meat is very melted so it’s crunchy outside, melty inside—that’s the part I like,” she said.
Want to learn more about the diverse birria dishes and hidden gems on the menu at Birrieria La Vaca? Check out the latest issue, now on newsstands, or see it for free in our digital guide linked below!
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