Cocina Vianney

Our dining at Cocina Vianney was pure happenstance. It was a Saturday morning and we had just moseyed through the Mercado de San Juan nearby and were discussing where we should go eat. As we were talking, I happened to see a crowd of people outside a storefront which turned out to be Cocina Vianney. Seeing how there were so many people queued up, it seemed a good idea to join everyone so we got in line too.
Cocina Vianney is open only on the weekends. It opens in the morning and they close shop when they run out of food which they say is usually early afternoon. They have two separate purveyors in the store, the right side serving Consommé (clear broth) and Barbacoa de Carnero (mutton, ram, sheep cooked in the ground wrapped in maguey leaves) in tacos or taquitos. The other set up on the left has quesadillas made with a variety of fillings of which we tried the Huitlacoche (black corn fungus) and Flores de Calabacín (squash blossoms). They also had a variety of meat fillings as well as more vegetables including mushroom.
The place was bustling but we squeezed in with other locals to share a table and dug in. The tacos de carnero and consommé were delicious. The consommé was clear with a bit of rice and chopped veggies. We saw other diners dusting it with chopped onions and cilantro and squeezing a wedge of lime so we followed suit. The consommé was quite tasty but the flavor was definitely gamier than what I was used to. The tacos on the other hand did not have a gamey flavor at all. At first, I wasn’t even sure it was carnero, I thought it was pork. The meat was so tender and these were some of the best tacos I’ve ever had.
Though the quesadillas were fresh and the fillings different from any other I’ve tried, I thought they were a bit underseasoned and thus, preferred the tacos and consommé over them.
The service was a bit harried but everyone was friendly enough. The experience as well as the tacos+consommé are highly recommended if you’re in the neighborhood and you haven’t already eaten at the mercado.

Mi abuelo materno era de un pueblo olvidado del Estado de Hidalgo. Era un pueblo sin pavimentación, luz eléctrica ni sentido del humor. Su única gracia era que todos los habitantes sabían cocinar una barbacoa perfecta, deliciosa, en su punto. Antes de morir mi abuelo solía hacer fiestas cada cumpleaños y obligaba a sus hijos a hacer un agujero en la tierra, matar un borrego y cocinarlo en el subsuelo envuelto en pencas de maguey. El resultado era una delicia que, a la muerte de mi abuelo, se convirtió en frustración cada que entraba a un local de la ciudad buscando un taco de barbacoa a la altura de mis recuerdos.
Este pequeño restaurante casi lo logra. La barbacoa no es deliciosa, pero es muy rica, lo que ya es bastante. El consomé es abundante, la pancita decente, lo mismo el guacamole y las gorditas de chicharrón. Enfrente del Mercado de San Juan, sábados y domingos, allí donde siempre hay una fila enorme. Vayan ya.