First Look: Papi’s Birria Tacos Finds a Permanent Home for Its “Holy Trinity of Beef”

If there’s a blockbuster queue near Haberfield’s Metro Petroleum, it’s not for unleaded or diesel fuel. It’s for Papi’s Birria Tacos, a food truck that’s been parked at the inner west service station since August 2024 – and frequently attracted crowds.

“We had lines wrapping around the servo, like a snake, and people waiting two hours – even more,” Lawrence Diaz, who runs the fan-favourite food truck, tells Broadsheet. His tacos have been a massive hit with Sydney diners: he once sold out in two hours, prepped 10 times the amount the next day and still ran out of food long before his shift ended. Even bestselling cookbook author Nagi Maehashi is a fan, name-checking his birria as recipe inspiration for her years-in-the-making take on the crusty beef tacos and spiced consommé broth.

Demand for Diaz’s birria-sidelined plates led him to open a second food truck in Carlton in February, and now his first-ever restaurant in inner-city Darlinghurst.

Obviously you can expect his signature dish – perfected by literally eating birria “every single day for three months” and adjusted to local tastes – at the bricks-and-mortar Oxford Street location. Tacos are filled with “the holy trinity of beef” (chuck, rib and osso buco) and don’t hold back on flavour. The punchy accompanying consommé is powered by 30 ingredients, including charred tomatoes and at least three kinds of Mexican chilli.

Once the tortillas hit the grill, a blend of Monterey Jack, cheddar and mozzarella oozes out the edges, bronzing and blistering. Think your crunchy bits look too charred? “My employees used to break [those bits] off. I’d say, ‘no, no, it’s the best part. Send it out’,” says Diaz.

The grill adds scorched notes to many Darlinghurst menu items, from refried beans rich with smoky beef fat and blackened garlicky tomatoes, to Papi’s signature three-cheese blend melted over corn.

The most significant change from the Haberfield and Carlton menus is the expanded range of proteins that can be flexed in taco, nachos or burrito form. Diaz showcases Mexico’s culinary diversity by offering Michoacan-style carnitas (meat braised for around six hours and flavoured with Coca-Cola, beer and oranges) and Tijuana-style al pastor – the region of Mexico connected to Diaz’s roots – where pork’s marinated for up to two days and paired with pineapple, then served with guacamole on top.

Plant-based tacos arrive stuffed with nopales, and a dessert station showcases fruit cups ramped up with Tajin and chamoy, sour and spicy Mexican condiments. Expect churros that are fluffier and more brioche-like than typical versions.

Everything is made from scratch in Darlinghurst, including the freshly churned drinks on the counter: there’s roasted rice horchata flavoured with cinnamon, and agua fresca that zings with pineapple, lime and mint.

Decor features imagery from the birthplace of tacos, spanning a portrait of Frida Kahlo and an older woman flipping the bird while drinking (presumably Mexican) Coke.

Diaz opened the Darlinghurst restaurant quietly last Tuesday. “But word’s been getting out there – Saturday, we had a line out the door.” The response, he adds, has been “ballistic”.

Papi’s Birria Tacos
147 Oxford Street, Darlinghurst

Hours:
Tue & Wed midday–11pm
Thu midday–midnight
Fri 11am–4am
Sat midday–4am
Sun midday–11pm

@papis.birria