what I really want to know is the best place to get a san diego burrito in SF.
Key differentiators:
- no fillers (no rice, no beans; beans acceptable in breakfast burritos)
- generous portions of meats
- chicken that is finished by grilling on the grill, not ropa-style pulled straight out of a dewey plastic bin
- wrap that is toasted
- wax paper wrap instead of foil (lets the burrito breathe instead of becoming damp and gooey). Also avoids the danger of accidentally biting into the foil and getting that delicious aluminium flavor.
Yes please. I grew up in and came back to Northern California but San Diego has better Mexican food and we don’t talk about it enough. I uncharitably claim that San Francisco seems to have a reputation for awesome Mexican food more from visitors from New York and other places outside the state who don’t know better. I miss midnight burritos from Cotixan’s something fierce. I haven’t found anything comparable up here since moving back, after years of trying. I have resigned myself to an admittedly still solid mission style burrito or just sneaking over to the taco side of the menu to bypass the burrito feelings.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s some good places up here for other aspects of Mexican and Mexican adjacent food, but I dearly miss San Diego style burritos and haven’t found a replacement.
Don't know how long it's been since you were there but IMO vallarta's across the street from coti has basically surpassed coti's. I would say it's like 25% better.
I think just about all of these are achievable except for the wax paper on which it's probably simplest to just recognize they are doing it wrong in San Diego.
Why is wax paper wrong? The only possible advantage to foil is that if you don't eat it all it's marginally easier to take home.
As for the other criteria. You say it's achievable but I challenge you to find a place in SF. I seriously was on a four year quest to find such a place. There are a few places that come close on like two or three criteria - EBX on divis and chandos in... Sacramento, come close, (except for the foil, which is universal), but otherwise it's just not as good.
Somewhat more seriously, I think an aspect of California food is that it's highly regional and it ends up being a bit of a fool's errand expecting it to be replicated precisely out-of-region.
It's bizarre you can't get a structurally integral burrito south of San Jose, never mind Weehawken, and I'm equally bewildered, as an adoptive Northern Californian, that foil could possibly be such a point of contention.
The only possible advantage to foil is that if you don't eat it all it's marginally easier to take home.
I can only assume that San Diegans take their burritos home far too sober. Surely that can't be true. We have to get to the bottom of this.
Hello, kindred spirit. I grew up in San Diego but have lived in the Bay for almost 30 years. I still can't enjoy a Mission-style burrito. You've articulated the key reasons why.
The answer to your question is, you can't get what you're looking for in SF, but if you're willing to drive for nearly an hour, you will find the burrito of your dreams at Adalberto's in Fairfield.
the morelos empire: 2nd and a, north 6 and bedford, grand and graham (edit: they had/have a storefront in the east village, don't remember where now but near superiority burger i believe)
also there's supposedly some legit birria trucks about, but i have not tried them. and, i don't know if anyone closed due to the pandemic.
Dos Toros burritos are not great (though to be fair you said tacos), I wish people would stop recommending it.
I spent years looking for a good Mission burrito in New York City, and never found it. Lots of good food, but every burrito was Tex-Mex or San Diego style or some such. Also, I never found a place with real al pastor; it was always grilled.
for the uninitiated: dos toros was started by the (bassist?) of third eye blind. it was modeled after the classic sf taqueria gordo. some of the shops have pictures of gordo on the wall.
Hah! So the bassist was only a touring bassist for Third Eye Blind after the dissolution of his original band, the criminally underrated "The KGB," (not to be confused with the likely hundred other bands with the same name) which is how I knew him.
I played in a basically unknown Bay Area band called Red Lantern.
Key differentiators:
- no fillers (no rice, no beans; beans acceptable in breakfast burritos)
- generous portions of meats
- chicken that is finished by grilling on the grill, not ropa-style pulled straight out of a dewey plastic bin
- wrap that is toasted
- wax paper wrap instead of foil (lets the burrito breathe instead of becoming damp and gooey). Also avoids the danger of accidentally biting into the foil and getting that delicious aluminium flavor.
- salsa roja cremosa