El Burrito Express

San Francisco, CA

See, when I’m obsessed about a particular food or cuisine, I can’t stop eating it until I am either sated or just over the obsession. One of my more recent obsessions had been banh xeo and sweet peas. Very random…but oh so tasty! And oh so horrible for my waistline. =P

Starving after my yoga class, my tummy was telling me to go for more Mexican food tonight. I’m surprised (yet not at the same time) when my appetite calls for a particular food more than 3 meals in a row. I’m used to eating a variety of foods in this wonderful area. The Sunset/Parkside neighborhood isn’t exactly known for it’s Mexican food, but hey, it’s on the way home and I know where El Burrito Express is located. I have no clue how long this establishment has been on the corner of 26th and Taraval – I just know it’s been around since I was a kid. The long lines at lunch had always deterred me since I'm not that patient when I'm hungry. =P I'd heard that this was the place to get burritos in the Sunset/Parkside neighborhoods since I was in high school.

Zipping up Taraval, I found a parking spot near the entrance of the tiny restaurant. I ogled the menu for a good 5 minutes...too many choices! Expresso, Bronco, regular, etc etc...good gravy. I'm slowly developing my palette and at the same time, I can appreciate simplicity in the menu like at El Farolito. Regular or super, various extras, choose your meat - makes for quick decisions. I finally decided on a regular carne asada burrito ($3.85) and a carnitas taco ($2.65). As a note, El Burrito Express is one of those places that makes tacos with beans.

I like places that puts your taco in a small, rectangular styrofoam box instead of just foil wrapping the little suckers. El Burrito Express' taco needs that box - it's ginormous! I was balking at the relatively high price for a taco, but this thing was BIG. Piled high with deliciously tender pinto beans and a mountain of moist carnitas, this was a belly buster. The carnitas were a bit bland but at least it was moist. The salsa fresca in the taco lacked pep and was chock full of unripe, green and yellow tomatoes. I believe the largish corn tortillas were made from white corn. Holy moly, was I pretty full after this taco.

Even so, I had to sample the carne asada burrito.

Now, if you look at the lower left corner of the burrito, you'll see the grayish-purply meat with a red tinge. Yeah, that was the carne asada. =/ My intial thought: cha siu. Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot. I picked a piece of meat out and tasted it - hmm, it even had a slightly sweet flavor remininscent of cha siu. The tortilla was a flabby, stretchy pale Sunset-ite specimen, even though it had spent some time heating up on the griddle. No grill marks whatsoever, elastic throughout except for the dried edges. Bleh. The rice was passable but not terribly flavorful and ugh, out of season tomatoes in the salsa fresca were found in the burrito. That green in the middle was not a cucumber.

Breakdown:

Tortilla: 5.5/10 – Griddled but still elastic as if steamed. Dry crusty edges…yuuuuuuck. Supermarket crap essentially.
Carne asada: 5/10 – Cha siu burrito = yuuuck. Other than sweet, no other discernible flavor or char marks. Gross.
Beans: 8/10 – Best part of the burrito – sadly. Tender but not very flavorful on its own.
Salsa: 5/10 – Flavorless with out of season produce.
Rice: 7/10 – Moist, but not flavorful. Second best part of the burrito.
Overall: 6.1/10 - A bland, forgettable burrito with questionable meat. Waste of calories. Tiny compared to the $3.75 regular burrito from El Farolito or the $3.95 regular from La Morena.

Though it's in my neighborhood, I doubt I'll be coming back, though the taco was halfway decent. I think I need to start rating tacos on a more consistent basis but I'm pooped. I think I'm better off forgoing Mexican food (before) and after yoga or just sticking to the consistent SSF taquerias. The only bright point: their chips are pretty good and they're free.