The Vegan Tacos That Made This Mexican Restaurant a Community Hub

These aren't just any birria tacos. They're made with young jackfruit, an unripe green fruit that takes about seven hours to prepare to mimic the flavor and texture of marinated meat. And they're made by the family behind Borreguitas, a 100% vegan restaurant in Pomona, California. This women-owned family-run business wanted to do more than just share Mexican dishes they grew up with. They wanted to make vegan food accessible to their community. I'm Eunice and today I'm sharing the story behind what makes this restaurant so special. So let's check it out. Hi, my name is Moni and I'm part of the Borreguitas team here in Pomona, California. We're a family-owned woman-led restaurant here in Pomona and we started the restaurant eight years ago when our mom, who has been vegan for many years now, decided that it was time to open something here. To be completely honest, nobody believed in us. Most of our family was like, don't do it. One of the things that we always like to remember is that people love to see women in their house kitchens, but never want to see women lead kitchens in professional settings. We even got that from our uncles who, you know, most of them worked in kitchens or work in the industry itself. It was pretty hard. We didn't know what we were going to do. We started off, I remember, with quesadillas, mushroom and spinach quesadillas. And, you know, we were like, si Dios quiere, this works out. And we started actually next door in this super small little restaurant with a little electric grill and a little like panini press to make tortas. And we had three little tables and that's how we started. We started doing that and we're still here. I guess a win's a win. At Borreguitas, you'll find comfort classics like taquitos de papa, tortas, chilaquiles, homemade salsas, and of course tacos. But what really makes these so special? And speaking of soy meat, this isn't anything new to this family. They actually grew up eating and preparing it in Jalisco, where soy was being used in Mexican nutrition programs since the 1970s. So what does Mama Rosa have to say about soy meat? Aside from soy meat, the restaurant also specializes in jackfruit. They go through 400 cans a week and this truly was a labor of love to get perfect. So if they were making authentic vegan versions of Mexican food, why pick Pomona for the restaurant? I think we decided to stay in Pomona because it made sense to us. We had been in the community already for many years. It felt like home. If you come here, you kind of understand. A lot of people don't know that 60 to 70 percent of our customers are actually not vegan. There are people from the community that like our food, that have been with us for many years. There are people that come from all over the place to try our food. We wanted to make really good quality food that was accessible, that was affordable to people, where you could come in and feel at home and eat. But for Borreguitas, making food accessible isn't just about keeping prices low. It's also about helping their community think differently about what they're eating. And speaking of eating, it was time for me to have a snack. All right guys, so I'm gonna let you in on a little BTS. When I come to these shoots, I usually come starving. I haven't eaten anything, so I'm about to start recording, but I asked for a little snack. They wouldn't let me have just one taco. I got two. So I said, okay, I'll have one de asada and one de chicharron. The asada is loaded. These tacos are loaded. Like Moni said, they like to make food affordable, and they really do because they give you giant portions. Cheers. This is so good. They have a double tortilla, so if you really wanted to, you could make four tacos out of this two taco plate. The asada is really juicy. The texture's on point. You can tell it's soy-based, which is delicious. Really, it's all in the marinade. To give the asada flavor, it's the marinade. And it's no wonder that a lot of people from the community here that are not vegan still enjoy it, because a good taco is a good taco no matter what it's made out of, right? All right, let me try the chicharron. I can't even pick this up. Let me get a fork. The chicharron is de yuca, so cassava. I can't even really pick it up with my hands, but here we go. It's definitely on the messier side. It doesn't really hold as well, but the yuca is so good. It's so good. I would recommend almost getting the plate so you can have it on the side. All right, I'm gonna keep snacking, and I'm gonna go film because I have a lot to talk about this place. Something that Borreguitas really prize themselves in are their prices. They really wanted to make sure their food was accessible to the community, and you will definitely see that reflected on their menu. And make sure to look out for their combo specials. So on Wednesday, we have our tartar special with a small drink, either a nice coffee and an agua fresca for $12. We have a special every day, almost every day. And on taco Tuesdays, This kitchen is non-stop. The customers are in here all the time. They are a well-oiled machine in here. They're moving fast, making burritos, tacos, everything. They got experience, and they know what they're doing, and the people love them. I have not seen this line stop since I got here. And the crazy thing is, they tell me this isn't even a busy day. I want to know what a busy day looks like. But something else I wanted to know was, what's the story behind the name of the restaurant? Why are we called Borreguitas? First of all, Borreguitas means little lamb in Spanish. Our mom is actually the oldest sister of nine brothers, okay? And her brother is just a teaser. We'll call her Borrego. So we're three daughters, and we all work here. So our uncles call us Borreguitas. In our little community, we're known as Las Borreguitas, and that's where we took the name. So after learning the Borreguitas story, it was time for me to order some more food. You guys will see what I ordered in a sec, but something you have to get are their specialty drinks. This is their iced café de olla with date and caramel syrup with their own date syrup. They make an ounce with this foam that's dairy-free, plant-based, and oh my goodness, I had to try it while I was waiting for my food in the kitchen. Oh, look. Drinking café de olla is one thing. Having it iced like this, a whole other level. Order's ready. So it's finally the time that I've been waiting for. It is time to feast. I've been seeing them back there making all these dishes, and I was like, it's proper lunch time now. I already had my snack, but now it's time to feast, and I'm gonna start strong with this torta. Look at this, you guys. This is the torta de jackfruit. The reason I wanted to try this is because, as you heard, their jackfruit is a labor of love. To get good jackfruit, you really need to work it. You need to rinse it. You need to marinate it well, and it takes time. Time is the most important ingredient when making good jackfruit. So I'm gonna start with this, and I love their green salsa de aguacate. I'm gonna pour that on here so you guys can see. Are you guys jealous? You should be. Cheers. Let me describe this bite to you. The first bite you get is the soft, fluffy telera bread, the torta bread, and then you taste the escabeche, the homemade escabeche. That's the first flavor that you feel. Then it's the texture of the jackfruit. Since my first bite was more of the escabeche, I want to get a bite with just the jackfruit so I can taste the jackfruit on its own. This bread is everything. When you get it with the beans, this is such a good sandwich. I'm not a huge onion person, but this isn't the only dish that has jackfruit. So they have another dish with jackfruit. That's why I wanted to get the quesadilla. The reason I wanted to get quesadilla is because not a lot of restaurants offer it anymore. So if you make a good quesadilla and they make it out of their jackfruit, I'm trying it. I love that they finish it off on the grill to give it that smoky flavor. Let's dip it in. All right, here it goes. Oh yeah. The torta was good. I'll be honest, I couldn't taste the jackfruit in there. I knew it was in there but I couldn't get a full grasp of it like I can with this taco. Oh my god, I like it. It's so good. And again, the jackfruit doesn't taste like jackfruit. If you know what I'm talking about, you know what I'm talking about. That briny flavor, they do a really good job of making sure you do not get that briny flavor. They worked it. It's so good. It's so crispy. It's delicious. Okay, but what I'm most excited for are mulitas. Okay, and let me tell you why. When I used to live in Seattle, I used to drive 45 minutes to a taco track. I was obsessed with these mulitas. Mulitas are essentially quesadillas but with corn flour. They really stuff these mulitas and what makes it nice is you can see they grill the cheese. Oh my god, let me just get this perfect bite with grilled cheese. This is the al pastor. When they add the pineapple, the al pastores will put them on the map for taco madness. Wait, I need to hear about taco madness. We've been part of taco madness for the past two years. It's basically the biggest taco competition in LA and we've made it to semi-finals in both years. Okay, granted we're a small little vegan taqueria in Pomona against the biggest meat eaters. So just to be there, it really has meant a lot. You have to be chosen to be part of it. So shout out to Memo Torres, Arturo Memo, for putting us in there and then you kind of just have to make your campaign out of that. You have to have people show up for you. You have to have people vote for you every week. We didn't know if this was going to work for us or not, but it has been probably one of the most amazing things we've done at Borre so far. We became friends with people that we really admire and really love in the industry and I think working with Deli Taco has been super amazing because we believe in everything they do. We believe in independent journalism and the way they support the community and I think we align a lot. All right, now back to the taste test. The mulita that I used to always get was asada. Why? Because I love asada. That was my favorite thing. So if I can get it vegan, I'm making it vegan. Add some salsita to this mulita. I love their asada. I still haven't gone to proper Valle del Pastor. Hold on. These are fully loaded. Oh my god. All I have to say is you have to try mulita. Nobody makes them that I've seen. They are the only ones that make mulitas. I don't understand because mulitas are like the perfect food. They're like a nice little bite. I like that they're not too big. It's the fact that they grill it with oil and crispy and have cheese on top and then the cheese crisps up too. The mulitas are definitely my favorite. I mean everything's good. Don't get me wrong. Okay, but I think just because I haven't had this in a long time is also why I'm really liking it. And since you know I gotta finish with something sweet. You guys have never had cafe de olla? Cafe is a spiced coffee. There's anise, there's clove, there's cinnamon, vanilla, I think. But when you combine that with in-house made date foam and a caramel syrup and to me I just it's so good. Their other daughter makes cookies in-house, right? It's a big beautiful tray of cookies. I might have to try that before I leave. If you guys have been following my channel for a while you know that the reason I love making these videos isn't just because the food is good, it's because they're pioneers in a movement. They're basically showing people you don't have to give up any food that you grew up with or that's part of your culture just because you're trying to go plant-based. You just got to switch around the ingredients and make it your own. There's plenty of ways to still get your protein with natural food sources and eat less meat. Maybe you're not ready to become fully vegan. That's okay. You don't have to be vegan to eat vegan food. So you can try it just by making one dish a week or trying and going out to eat one dish a that's plant-based makes a big difference for the sustainability of the world, ethics of you know animals etc. There's a lot of different reasons. Health and something I want to touch base on is if you guys don't want to just see me eat in front of the camera, you want to eat with me at different cities in the world, you can travel with me. I'm actually hosting international vegan tours. You can check out this page and it'll show you which tours I'm doing this year and next year and all the trips to come. So I hope you guys can join me on my adventures and if you want to keep supporting this channel you can hit the super thanks. You can help fund and donate to the channel or you can hit the hype button so you can get more reach and show the video to more people. I would love to know what other videos you would like to see or what you would want to try here at this restaurant and I'll catch you next time on Rated V. Bye!