Burritophile: Editorial Reviews

Taqueria Real (Novato, CA) reviewed by Dan (8/10)

Fri, 15 May 2009 21:37:00 -0500

Taqueria Real sits smack in the middle of a not-very-exciting stretch of business park in Novato; not the kind of place where you'd expect to find much. Indeed, it's the only food purveyor of any kind in sight. Four outdoor seats for nice spring days, a salsa bar with the normal four, plus limes and pickled jalepenos.

I ordered a supremo - they have regular, supremo, and gigante. The supremo is your standard super; the gigante looks...well, gigantic. Wet burritos are called "chile verde," although there wasn't any actual chile verde on the menu. All the other normal meats are available. I went with pastor.

Yum. Good al pastor - not world-class, but more than serviceable. Rice didn't take any prisoners, but rice really shouldn't be in the prisoner-taking mode in a burrito. Good guac, fantastic salsa, melted cheese, and hot all over. Nothing mind-blowing, but solid work all around. And did I mention the salsa? That stuff was good.

Cozy Corner (Los Angeles, CA) reviewed by Mark (7/10)

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:59:48 -0500

Einstein is credited as defining insanity as doing the same thing, over and over again, and expecting different results. I keep going to non-burrito places, expecting one of them to surprise me with a great burrito. I have yet to find a great burrito that way, but sometimes they aren't half bad.

It's an LA story. A middle-eastern family opens a sandwich place, in a latino neighborhood, next door to a 50 year old grill, across the street from a Burger King, and a block away from a legendary taqueria. My best guess was they couldn't afford the rent in Glendale. We checked them out shortly after they opened, and they had several family members working but no customers. They treated us like royalty and made us a very good turkey sandwich (freshly slicing all the ingredients). We resolved to give them some more business, but feared they were just in the wrong location (wrong culture, lots of competition, and precious little lunch trade). A month later, they must have started to figure this out, because put out a sandwich board in front that said "Tacos and Burritos". They weren't going down without a fight!

Today I was hungry, and didn't have much time ... and I decided to give them a try. Again I was the only customer (sigh, at noon on a Friday) and I asked the owner what kind of burritos they had, and he asked what kind of burrito I wanted. We quickly settled on a beef burrito (dry, no sauce) and I watched as they carefully sliced, grilled, and filled.

There were large slices of fresh onion, tomato and bell pepper, the steak was in large chunks. The refritos were a savory thin layer that seemed to glue the rice to the meat and tortilla. The fresh vegetables would have been more at home in a Greek salad than a burrito, but they played nicely off of the refritos, rice and meat. There was no heat (picante) to it, but it was actually a pretty good show. They supplied supplementary heat in the form of red and green salsas. I thought the green was pretty good, but I was actually enjoying the burrito pretty well as served.

People who put that much care into food preparation deserve to succeed. If this sounds like a place you might like to give a try, drop in any time. No reservations required.

El Burrito Express (Divisadero) (San Francisco, CA) reviewed by Chris (8/10)

Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:09:38 -0600

When i first heard the name `El Burrito Express', i was worried. It sounded like it might be a gimmicky fast-food place like Baja Fresh. But the reviews of the place were very positive, and i'm happy to find the reviews were right- a darn fine place i'd happily revisit.

The place is set up as a classic taqueria. You walk up, you order, then they deliver your burrito or call you to come get it. The menu is confusing. There are burritos, super burritos, bronco burritos, and super bronco burritos, and probably others that i'm missing. The different versions are separated by size and ingredients. The Expresso Burrito is mammoth- two tortillas to create a monster as large as the Super at La Costena.

The standard meat choices are available, plus a couple extras- chicken, chile verde, chili colorado, carnitas, steak. Not too varied, but quite sufficient. I stuck to the Super Chile Verde.

After just a few minutes nursing my Jarritos, my burrito was ready. It was more than ample and was solidly built and wrapped. The tortilla had some nice grill marks to it. I dug in. It had good flavor- a good chile verde, but perhaps a bit light for my liking (i like the tomatillo flavor to be really strong). All the standard ingredients, guac, sour cream, cheese, rice, were well-integrated and played their role properly. The burrito did develop a small tear, but retained it's integrity without incident. This was without a doubt a very good burrito.

There is no salsa bar, but chips come with your burrito, along with a couple cups of salsa, one spicier than the other. You can also request a green salsa. All three were quite flavorful and worthy complements to the burrito. The chips were golden yellow and crunchy, cooked just right.

I don't know if i'll get back to El Burrito Express, but it's not due to a lack of desire. These are some darn fine burritos without any major issues. A solid 8.

Dos Coyotes Border Cafe (Sacramento, CA) reviewed by Eric (6/10)

Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:15:15 -0600

I don't know. Calling Dos Coyotes a taqueria is kinda like calling the Sacramento Kings a pro basketball team. Sure, the trappings and ingredients are there, and they perform according to the definition--serve Mexican food, play basketball--but something's just missing that prevents you from really feeling like you're getting the true experience.

Dos Coyotes is in a food court along with California Pizza Kitchen, which is the "restaurant" that may epitomize all that is evil about California Cuisine (or "California Cuisine," as I like to "say.") The interior is all southwest-y, and the menu's written in chalk. There's a tile floor. Prices are what you'd expect at a food court, mall-type establishment.

I ordered the Southwest carnitas burrito ($6.50), which comes "with chips & salsa bar." To my chagrin, I discovered that these were two separate entities. Instead of a bar that contains chips and salsa, they give you a rinky-dink amount of chips, and then you can take that set amount of chips to the salsa bar. Salsas are appropriately too sweet or too spicy, with the concomitant lack of flavor.

The burrito itself got low marks for presentation. No foil, just a lump of tortilla next to aforementioned chips. Imagine my surprise, then, when I bit in and the burrito was pretty darn tasty. The meat was very rich and savory, although it definitely was not the carnitas I'm used to--more of a barbecue flavor than true crispy fried pork. The guacamole was fresh, and I could see the chunks of avocado. The salsa was sorta spicy (I shudder to think what I would have gotten had I asked for "mild")...and that's pretty much what was in the burrito. No rice, no beans. Apparently you get those with the Border Burritos, which will set you back an additional buck and a quarter.

The juice from the salsa led to the use of copious napkins, but the tortilla held up very well despite the lack of reinforcement. I ate the whole thing quite happily. I want to dock them for price, but then I recall that even some of the more traditional places are inching within six bucks for a burrito.

If you find yourself at the mall, there are worse things than a burrito at Dos Coyotes--you could, for instance, be a Kings season ticket holder.

Antigua Bread (Highland Park, CA) reviewed by Mark (7.5/10)

Sat, 07 Feb 2009 14:33:47 -0600

It was a rainy morning, and we felt more like going out for breakfast than cooking something, and we decided this would be a good time to visit a nice local coffee shop and bakery. We've been there before, and it is a pretty good place ... but this time they were advertising a steak breakfast burrito, so we went for it. I've had (fortunately more than I can remember) bad experiences with ordering burritos in burger places, and had doubts about the wisdom of getting a burrito from a bakery that doesn't sell tortillas ... but hey, it was cozy in a nice place and "adventure" IS my middle name.

After a few minutes of good people watching and nice latin jazz, they brought me out a nicely foil wrapped log, the first bite of which told me that this was going to be a good day! Large chunks of succulent steak, mixed with well fried potato chunks, swimming in mild cheese, laced with little chunks of barely fried onion, and bell-pepper ... quality ingredients, carefully prepared, and masterfully assembled made for a wonderful experience. As served there was nothing Mexican about this burrito, but that didn't stop it from making me happy. There was a pretty nice chipotle salsa on the side, but there was nothing wrong with the performance being turned in by the basic cast.

Call me old fashioned, but I think of burritos as spicy fare that comes from wagons, stands, and cheap lunch places. I have probably felt that a mild sprinkling of sleaze was part of the magic, and that without it, they just aren't the same. I've had some pretty good up-scale burritos (e.g. Poquito Mas, or my first palate expanding La Salsa experience) ... but I think I still considered those to be cleaned up burrito joints. A trendy coffee bakery is clearly on the other side of (some) line. I guess that if they could gentrify Venice and Echo Park, they can gentrify burritos too.

I'll have to go back and check out their Chorizo. You can't gentrify that!

Dos Amores (Newtown, PA) reviewed by Chris (5/10)

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 23:29:03 -0600

A Pennsylvania Dutch Farmers Market is not the place i'd have expected to find a burrito place, but such is the world we live in. Despite a dubious beginning and cooking methods, this was a half-decent lunch, but a better place to pick up supplies to make your own burritos

This isn't much of a place to look at- just another shack with a colorful sign in the middle of the Farmer's Market, and not much of kitchen. The burritos are pre-ready. When you order, they take it out and heat it up. I think they used a combination of microwave and a pannini-press-like device. The end result was a well heated burrito. It's short and squat with crisscross grill marks on the outside. The ingredients are simple. Sour cream and salsa (more like a paste) are served in small plastic cups. It was not wrapped in foil, but was solidly built and never fell apart. The pork of mine wasn't anything special, but not bad either.

Chips don't come with your burrito. You can buy packs in bulk though, of various types. Same goes for the salsa- plenty to choose from, but as this is a market, they're not part of the burrito. Finally, this place has one of the best selections of Jarritos flavors i've seen in some time.

This burrito was certainly better than what i had expected, but i can't really call it `good' either. Most of this is because they are a market. They're mostly selling food stuffs for future preparation, they're not a full service taqueria. It's a decent lunch filler, but nothing very memorable. If however you're looking for supplies for to make your own burritos, this would be a good place to stop.

Dos Segundos Cantina (Philadelphia, PA) reviewed by Chris (6/10)

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 22:58:52 -0600

Dos Segundos is another palce that was suggested to me via email. This is not a taqueria- it's a rather trendy restaurant and bar. But despite that, it serves out a taqueria-style burrito. Not great, but not a bad meal either.

There are plenty of options here, even though the menu is a bit confusing. Some of the options are traditional, but others are not what you could find elsewhere. Classics include al pastor, chorizo, and carnitas. Among the different is cabrito (goat) and atun (tuna). Feeling a bit adventurous, i went for the tuna.

The burrito arrived quickly after i ordered. It was mostly wrapped in foil, with just the top quarter showing as though they were telling me how to eat it. I dug in. Rice... lots of rice. Sadly, half of this burrito was the rice. The black beans and hot sauce spices predominated the flavor, and neither the tuna nor guacamole was able to really show its presence other than by color.

Before the meal, i was served a big basket of chips and salsas, all quite tasty and fresh. I could munch on these all day. But neither this nor the size of the burrito could make this a very good deal- $12 for the tuna burrito, and all the meat choices start at $10.

Perhaps, i should have gone for a more traditional ingredient, but i don't see many of the other meats coming through against the black beans and hot sauce that were entrenched inside any more than the tuna did. Certainly not bad, but it comes up rather one dimensional.

Los Jalapenos Taqueria (Philadelphia, PA) reviewed by Chris (7/10)

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:36:23 -0600

Thanks to an email from a viewer of the site, i found myself searching the narrow one-way streets of South Philly. Finally i found Los Jalapenos, a small grocery store that makes some fine burritos in the back.

There is no place to sit and eat here. The place is smaller than most convenience stores, and you walk to the back to order your food. I went with the pork and plantain burrito, though several other items caught my eye- chicken mole, and the shrimp chipotle mango sauce. It arrived about 5 minutes after, giving me time to decide which 1.5L bottles of Jarritos i wanted to take home.

Since it was a bit cold outside, i sat in my car to eat. The burrito was nice and hot through the foil, and felt solid. I unwrapped it, the construction was solid. I dug in. I was enjoying it, but it was all lettuce, refried beans (i would have preferred pinto but these were ok), tomatoes, and melty cheese. Not bad, but where was the meat? Finally, i found the meat about a third of the way in. These aren't fried carnitas, but the big pieces of pork were piping hot, juicy and tasty. Another bite and i found the plantains, adding a nice sweetness to it all. This was pretty tasty, though from this point on, i would find no more tomatoes. The only ingredient consistent through it all was the lettuce (which i could have done without). Missing entirely was guacamole and sour cream- one would need to request these as they're not standard.

There are no chips included, but you get a couple small cups of salsa- a reasonably spicy orange and an avocado green. Not bad to top off your bites. Since burritos are all about $6.50, this isn't a great deal, but the burrito was quite ample, so it wasn't bad either.

This was a darn fine burrito that could become very good very easily. It had several minor points against it though that add up. Drop the lettuce and refried beans, add guac and pinto beans, and get the ingredients evenly spread, and this would be an easy 7.5 or an 8. For now though, i've got to give it a 7.

Tequila Joe's Burrito Bar (Oreland, PA) reviewed by Chris (5/10)

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 13:19:30 -0600

First, a disclaimer: Despite the name Tequila Joe's is not a burrito bar, or even a taqueria. It's a nice vibrant restaurant and bar that serves decent restaurant burritos to be sure, but these are not Mission style burritos. Ye be warned...

I walked in- the bar was right there. I was the only customer at that moment. I sat down at the table, in view of the OSU-MI game on the tv over the bar. They brought me a monstrous bowl of chips with salsa. These were very good, but far too much- meant for a table of 4 i think. I also discovered they have Jarritos. The chips, salsa, and Jarritos is as close as this place gets to a proper taqueria.

As far as restaurant burritos go, this wasn't bad. I ordered the Supremo, which includes both fajita steak and chicken. The grilled flavor in the big chunks of meat was obvious, and the steak had a minor bite to it. It was packed with all sorts of ingredients- rice, beans (refried sadly), red and green peppers, onions, peas, and guacamole. In fact, i think there were too many ingredients to truly enjoy any single flavor. It was not wrapped in foil- no way to eat this with hands. Integration was spotty- each ingredient was largely limited to one portion of the burrito.

Tequila Joe's is certainly a nice place- good for a nice sit-down Mexican dinner and some drinks. But if you're looking for a proper SF burrito, steer clear.

El Taco Loco (New Hope, PA) reviewed by Chris (4.5/10)

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 14:47:28 -0600

Part of reviewing a place is considering the expectations. El Taco Loco in New Hope PA put me on a thrill ride of expectations. At first, i didn't know what to expect- certainly several places claim to be `California' style, and they've all differed in their success. But after giving some high hopes when i first arrived, Loco dropped a bomb on me.

The place has the right look and feel. You walk up, you order. A small but varied salsa bar is near the front. The energy of the place was somber, however. I saw Jarritos on the shelf, i saw pickled jalapenos and carrots in the salsa bar. I was so hopeful.

I ordered their carnitas burrito, with sour cream, guac and salsa. The only two guaranteed ingredients are beans and cheese. I also ordered a basket of chips to eat while i waited for my slab. The chips were right on the edge of going stale, but the salsas available were fresh and tasty. The hot red wasn't really that hot by Bay Area standards, but still had a kick. The salsa verde was likewise tasty with ample tomatillo flavor.

I was getting very hopeful- everything had been really good so far- all the details that made a proper taqueria were there. Then the burrito arrived.

It was not wrapped in foil, and had been cut in half on the bias. The tortilla was cold and sticky. I sat it up and dug in. The predominant taste was of refried beans. The guac, sour cream, salsa and cilantro made their presence known, but not enough so. The pork was flavorless- it could have been anything. Integration was not good, as each component seemed to have it's own location in the construct. Nothing came together as it should, and it wasn't even particularly large- at best 2/3 that of a typical Bay Area burrito. All this for a pricey $11.80.

I don't get how a place can get everything else right, but then drop the ball on the most important piece of the meal. To make one so hopeful and then let them down so thoroughly is cruel. If you want some nice chips and salsa and a bottle of Jarritos, Loco might be your place. But do not go in expecting a real California burrito- you'll just be horribly disappointed.