El Cabrito
El Cabrito is a birria restaurant on West First Street in Santa Ana specializing in goat roasted in its own juices, served as tacos with an oil-based salsa.
Overview
El Cabrito, whose name means little goat, is one of the Santa Ana restaurants devoted to birria de chivo, the Jalisco goat dish. The 2015 OC Weekly guide to the county's tacos, compiled by Gustavo Arellano and colleagues, recommended its tacos de birria, describing goat cooked in a pit and served with its own drippings, and singled out its salsa de aceite, a chile salsa made with oil rather than water or tomato. The paper listed the restaurant on West First Street.
Birria
In Jalisco, birria is traditionally made with goat or mutton marinated in a paste of dried chiles and spices and cooked slowly, historically in an earth oven, until it falls from the bone. Southern California's beef birria boom of the late 2010s overshadowed the goat version, and restaurants such as El Cabrito preserve the older style, served either in a bowl with broth or chopped into tacos.
Reviews
Reviews on WikiTacos open at launch. Until then, read what diners say on Google and Yelp.
Google Maps reviewsYelpSee also
References
- "The Only Taco Guide to Orange County You'll Ever Need". OC Weekly. Retrieved 2026-10-10.