El Metate

Details:

• Rating: 6.12
• Order: Burrito - $11.00
• Meat: Carne Asada - 7
• Beans: Refried - 6
• Rice: 5
• Guacamole: 8
• Crema: 8
• Salsa: 6.5
• Tortilla: 4
• Cheese: 5
• Size: 3.5
• Taste: 6.75

Description:

As the favorite taqueria of many who live in San Francisco, I had very high hopes entering El Metate. I'll start off by saying that the dining area, staff, chips, salsa bar, cantina bar were all a great touch that added to the burrito experience (and some bonus points to the "taste" category). And there was a lot of great things about the burrito too. But sadly there were also some oddities that detracted enough to drop this to the middle of the pack. The biggest negative was the construction of this very thin burrito. I've never cared much about whether a burrito is fat or thin, but I am now firmly an anything but thin type of guy. Not only was the burrito small, but the thinness made sure that many bites had only guac and crema, and others had only rice and beans. A wider burrito would at least give me the opportunity to take half a bite from one side and half a bite from the other. An even bigger issue was the folded clump of tortilla that stretched all the way from top to bottom. A fat burrito may have a clumpy top and bottom, but that is far better than a clumpy entire burrito. I counted 8 layers of tortilla in that clump...a great way to ruin a bite. Also only one salsa was good. However, all of the ingredients were pretty good. Meat was good but not enough of it, beans were solid, rice was ok, guac was great and plentiful, as was the crema. Cheese I don't even remember, and the tortilla tasted ok. The chips were multi-colored and also some were corn and some were flour (but others only got corn). So I can understand why people like the place, because they do have good fillings. But the small size, high price and poor construction were enough to put this burrito right in the middle of the pack. As it should, it falls near the bottom of a "solid" rating.

Other Notes:

Comes with chips. Sit down after order at register. Cantina in back. Salsa bar with 4 salsas, 3 picos, jalapeños, nopales.

Imperio Taqueria

Details:

• Rating: 6.46
• Order: Super Burrito - $9.25
• Meat: Carne Asada - 7
• Beans: Pinto - 5
• Rice: 7
• Guacamole: Avo - 1
• Crema: 5
• Salsa: 9
• Tortilla: 7
• Cheese: 8
• Size: 7
• Taste: 7

Description:

This taqueria resides in the corner of the most typical corner store (it was even on the corner). Equipped with no public restroom, but plenty of public restroom smell. Basically the perfect setting for a burrito, and the burrito itself held it’s own as well. Freshly grilled meat and tortilla imparted a nice grill flavor to both and also had great flavor. Unfortunately it was extremely salty, which may have only been the carne asada, or may be all the meats...? The rice had a little bite but was quite yummy. Beans were standard, as was the crema. The hot sauce was decently hot and very good. But, the burrito was so oblong that one corner had the salty meat, the other had hot hot sauce and crema, and the middle was mostly rice. The avocado was atrociously under ripe and terrible. Despite the saltiness, poor construction (also had clumpy tortilla at one end), and awful avocado, it was actually a pretty good burrito. As the rating suggests, I’d recommend it and also would go back, but it definitely was not a top tier burrito. An interesting mix of very good and very bad...but the good won out and I enjoyed the burrito.

Other Notes:

No chips. Jalapeños and carrots were ok.

Juan's Place

Details:

• Rating: 5.70
• Order: Super Burrito - $11.99
• Meat: Carne Asada - 5
• Beans: Pinto - 7
• Rice: 5
• Guacamole: 6
• Crema: 5
• Salsa: 7
• Tortilla: 5
• Cheese: 5
• Size: 10
• Taste: 6

Description:

Juan’s Place is a classic Berkeley establishment that you go to for huge portions, fresh flour tortilla chips, wild vibes and lights out blasting happy birthday music. And their burritos are...fine. They are massive, that’s for sure. The Asada was very dry and tasted a bit old, but at least had a great marinade and salty flavor. The beans were actually very good and the rice was decent. The burrito had pico de Gallo in it that was a nice touch. Guacamole and crema were on top so this was very obviously a fork and knife burrito. Burritos just aren’t the same when you don’t shove them in your face after unwrapping a nice layer of aluminum foil. Basically this burrito is just fine and that’s about it (besides being massive).

Other Notes:

Corn and flour tortilla chips with a red and green salsa.

Tacos Sinaloa

Details:

• Rating: 6.77
• Order: Super Burrito - $8.00
• Meat: Carne Asada - 7.5
• Beans: Pinto - 8
• Rice: 4
• Guacamole: No
• Crema: 9
• Salsa: 3
• Tortilla: 8
• Cheese: 6
• Size: 5
• Taste: 7

Description:

An Oakland classic that holds it's own, but definitely is not my favorite burrito. I had a few bites that were amazing, but the rest of them were just decent. Sinaloa's burrito is heavily filled with rice and unfortunately the rice is a bit undercooked and lacking flavor. But the flavor of the meat, beans and crema make up for that. The meat is not charred but still has lots of flavor (too bad there isn't more of it or the burrito could be great). The crema is top notch and mixes perfectly with the cheese for those amazing bites. The beans are great and the tortilla had a nice chewy texture while still giving some nice grilled flakiness. The salsa was a little spicy, but besides that it was like it wasn't even there. It was pretty average sized and the pickled jalapenos/carrots were awful. Solid burrito overall, but it would be much better if it weren't so dry. Less rice, add some guac (all they have is avocado and they were out) and it would be top notch. But...it's not quite.

Other Notes:

No hot sauce, salsa or chips.

Tacos El Jaliciense

Details:

• Rating: 5.37
• Order: Super Burrito - $7.50
• Meat: Carne Asada - 7
• Beans: Pinto - 4
• Rice: 3.5
• Guacamole: No
• Crema: 9
• Salsa: On the side - 7
• Tortilla: 6
• Cheese: 2
• Size: 3.5
• Taste: 5

Description:

This is about as typical a taco truck as it gets, equipped with it's very own sketchy parking lot. It was an easy stop pre-A's game and far better than hot dogs and peanuts. But, it was not a top tier burrito by any means. This starts off with the fact that they do not carry guacamole at all. The two things that stood out in the burrito were the meat and crema. The carne asada had a great marinade, but had no grill char at all. The crema was about as good as it gets, though. Beans and rice were...there. Cheese was a few little unmelted strings floating in the crema. Tortilla was grilled but still soft and chewy. Simple burrito, simple review. Probably won't go back, but it might still be one of the better burritos in the coliseum area.

Other Notes:

N/A

Kelly's Deli

Details:

• Rating: 4.86
• Order: Super Burrito - $8.50
• Meat: Carne Asada - 4
• Beans: Pinto - 6
• Rice: 5
• Guacamole: No
• Crema: 6
• Salsa: Spicy - 7
• Tortilla: 1
• Cheese: 3
• Size: 4
• Taste: 5

Description:

Kelly’s Deli is attached to the outside of Home Depot. Sooo...yeah. There isn’t too much to say about this burrito besides that it wasn’t very good. Hard to say exactly why, but not good. The meat was definitely not great. It was almost like ground beef and tasted like some odd type of pork. The tortilla had a huge wad of packed up thick tortilla at the seam (see picture). The salsa was so spicy that it masked the flavors of almost everything else. The cheese was completely unmelted, and there was oil dripping everywhere (but not yummy oil). Ok, well I guess it wasn't too hard to say exactly why this wasn't a good burrito. But with that being said, there were some redeeming factors. The meat was flavorful (albeit odd flavor) and the beans were good. They overloaded on the good ingredients and not rice. And the crema and salsa were good, but spicy. The salsa had lots of onions and cilantro that were very nice. But still, I can’t recommend it beyond saying it’s a filling and convenient stop while shopping at Home Depot.

Other Notes:
No chips or salsa.

La Mission

Details:

• Rating: 5.54
• Order: Burrito - $10.30
• Meat: Carne Asada - 8.5
• Beans: Refried - 7
• Rice: 3
• Guacamole: No
• Crema: 4
• Salsa: Tomatillo - 6
• Tortilla: 3
• Cheese: 7.5
• Size: 4
• Taste: 6

Description:

Right off the bat, this place is a little bit more Americanized than your typical taqueria. So, the higher price point is not too surprising, but definitely not a plus. The highlight of the burrito was clearly the freshly grilled carne asada. It was flavorful and nicely charred, but not too oily (which I would’ve preferred more oil). The rest of the burrito was pretty average at best. The tortilla was almost uncooked and about half of the burrito was only undercooked rice. And not even very good rice. But, the beans were good, the scarce salsa was good, and the cheese was nicely melted even though it was thrown on cold. The crema was extra sour and not very creamy or plentiful. The burrito was an average to small size, which is still filling enough. The meat got a solid “wow” on first impression, but not enough of it and a whole lot of “meh” from the other ingredients make this an expensive burrito only worth getting if you’re already in the area. Oh yeah and guacamole is your typical $2 extra, guac and crema are 35¢ each...dumb.

Other Notes:
No chips, no salsa bar.