Good burrito, bad burrito
Good burrito: La Burrita, Berkeley. A tiny cheap dive, but busy and good: Melinda used to go there as a Berkeley student. Daily Californian (the Berkeley student rag) Best of Berkeley winner umpteen times running; here's their 2001 review. I had an excellent carne asada burrito: watch out for the green salsa though, it's a lot hotter than it looks.
Bad burrito: El Faro, Concord. Right next to Costco, so it'd be handy if it were good: unfortunately not. As the review says, "been around for a long time", but that largely seems to translate into "run down and seedy". Melinda used to come here with her parents occasionally, but the verdict was: not the way it used to be. Burritos were dull, and the chicken burrito in particular slightly slimy: ugh.
Oh, and while we're on mediocre burritos: frozen heat-in-the-oven burritos, even from Trader Joe's, are not worth the money: they always end up too dry. Better to buy tortillas and fixings and build them yourself. Frozen tamales, however, turn out reasonably well.
Bad burrito: El Faro, Concord. Right next to Costco, so it'd be handy if it were good: unfortunately not. As the review says, "been around for a long time", but that largely seems to translate into "run down and seedy". Melinda used to come here with her parents occasionally, but the verdict was: not the way it used to be. Burritos were dull, and the chicken burrito in particular slightly slimy: ugh.
Oh, and while we're on mediocre burritos: frozen heat-in-the-oven burritos, even from Trader Joe's, are not worth the money: they always end up too dry. Better to buy tortillas and fixings and build them yourself. Frozen tamales, however, turn out reasonably well.
