FreshWest Grill Chicken Burrito

Today at lunch I headed to a new spot, FreshWest Grill in the Richmond-Adelaide Centre, to get a burrito. Although they have been around for awhile, this is my first time eating there.

The counter was very clean and the food looked fresh as advertised. There was a tortilla grill on each end of the counter. Where I find most staff at food court shops not engaged in their work, the two guys who ran the front here were friendly and were easy to joke with.

I like how they heat the tortilla quickly before putting on any ingredients. Mine was a chicken burrito with cilantro-lime white rice, black beans, roasted corn, lettuce, cheese and burrito sauce. The burrito is then grilled.

Although all the fillings add to the taste, to me, the rice seems to be the item that makes or breaks a burrito. I really enjoyed the cilantro-lime white rice. I can't do much heat but really enjoyed the snap in the burrito sauce. Their mild salsa was basically tomatoes, which I don't like so passed on it.

I really enjoyed this burrito. It was tasty, a good size and price ($8.99 with tax). Not only will I be back again but plan to have the same next Friday but with cilantro-lime brown rice instead.

If you like burritos, I would recommend giving this place a try.

Big Fat Burrito

 

I love burritos and am searching for the best burrito in Toronto. 

Today Teena and I visited Kensington Market and both of us had a craving for a burrito. Big Fat Burrito is a very popular place in the market so we gave it a try.

I love their procedure. You go up to order (we both ordered a large chicken burrito) and instead of saying what you want on it, you are directed to a list on the board and say what you do not want on it. So much easier.

The above picture does not do this justice. It is huge and heavy.

Big Fat Burrito knows what makes a great burrito. Many places rely on their sauces. Big Fat Burrito knows the secret is in the rice and the refried beans. If there is no flavour there, the burrito will be flavourless. Both here have great flavours. 

The ingredients and layered throughout so every bit is different. The chicken is not chunked up small but has huge pieces in it. All in all this is a great burrito!

So far, I have not rated very many burritos but can say positively that this is in second place on my list. In first is Burrito Boyz on Adelaide and right behind them is the Loose Moose on Front. So many more to go!

The Quesada Mexican Grill Burrito

The continuing search for Toronto's best burrito!

I am a brown bagger.

Every day I enjoy bringing my lunch to work. It is cheaper and healthier, plus I know there will be nothing in it that I don’t like. So it is very rare that I find myself at work without my lunch bag. Today is one of those days.

Probably the worst thing about having to buy my lunch is figuring out what I want. The food court in our building is OK but I wanted something else. That's when I remembered that there is a Quesada Mexican Grill less than a five minute walk away, just west of John Street on Wellington.

Burrito time!

When I walked in, I liked how clean the place looked. They are licensed with a limited bottled beer selection but, hey, it's a work day and I was getting the burrito to go.

Their meat selection covered all the bases ... chile-lime shrimp, oven roasted chicken breast, steak, ancho chile adobo seasoned pork, spicy chipotle chicken (hot) and two veggie choices to chose from. For comparison's sake, I always order a chicken burrito the first time in so I can judge a shop's burrito using the same standards. If there is a second visit, I can order something more exotic. For this initial visit, I ordered the large oven roasted chicken breast.

I found the service to be excellent. I was greeted right away and the fellow that served me was fast, friendly, helpful and seemed to enjoy what he was doing.

I found there were limited ingredients to add to my burrito. I went with rice, black beans, cheese, lettuce, onion, medium green salsa and burrito sauce, which the server said would be "smokey". The tortilla is warmed first before the items are added, then wrapped in a foil before being pressed in a grill.

The large burrito uses a 12" tortilla which was warm and soft with some browning on it from the grill. As it had been wrapped before grilling, the tortilla was not crunchy where the grill marks were. I missed the crunch.

I was surprised to find how bland it was with my first few bites. The rice and the cheese were almost tasteless. The chicken had a nice texture but little flavour. It wasn't until I hit the black beans that I found any flavour. The sauce seemed to be further down and had a decent kick to it.

Overall, although the service was great, the burrito was not. There is a definite lack of seasoning to the ingredients and meat.

I was disappointed.

The Loose Moose Burrito

Today before the Blue Jays game, Ken and I ate at The Loose Moose on Front Street. When I saw that they had burritos on the menu, I knew I had to give it a try.

CHICKEN BURRITO
$10.99
Pulled Spit Roasted Chicken. Mozzarella. Monteray Jack. Cheddar

When at a burrito shop, there are plenty of choices of what to have on your burrito but with a restaurant, you really can only omit certain items. I still wanted to give it a try. While the $10.99 price seems high compared to a burrito shop, this one comes with a choice of fries, Caesar salad or house salad. I went with the Caesar.

The Caesar was great. Ken had a Caesar too and enjoyed his.

Time for the burrito!

First off, it was huge. I had to do the size justice so as the picture shows it is as tall as a pint glass, and almost as wide. (Oh, that is a Spearhead Hawaiian Pale ale in the glass, not a Heineken.) The outside was crunchy all around too so it may have been baked.

I must say, it was a good burrito. They were not skimpy at all with the chicken in the filling. I wish I had a good picture of it but it came out blurry. The description makes it sound cheesy but there is a kick that comes through.

It was a good burrito but not a great burrito. Better than I usually get in restaurants, however. A 6/10. Next time I'm at the Loose Moose, and I will be back, I would have it again for sure!

Fat Bastard Burrito Co.

Teena and I love burritos.

So there was excitement and some trepidation when we discovered that Fat Bastard Burrito Co. was opening up just a 5 minute walk away from where we live. Excitement, as we love burritos. Trepidation as we love burritos and this may be too close!

This afternoon we ate there for the first time.

I love the menu selection. To be fair to the other places I have tried, I went with a simple chicken burrito. They had little, big and huge. I went middle of the road with the 'big".

They had the usual lineup of fillers. I was not sure of the hot sauce and to be truthful, hot stuff has been annoying my stomach, so I avoided it. I went with refried beans, rice, lettuce, green pepper, salsa and burrito sauce. It takes about 5 minutes for them to add the chicken and then grill the filled tortilla.

It is a very filling and very good burrito. Not excellent. Teena and I discussed this (burrito geeks for sure!) and there was something missing that would put it over the top. It was not hot sauce as this is an added pleasure but something. I put it down to bland rice. I have had burritos that have rocked it out of the park and mainly it is because every ingredient was top notch. The rice was bland and dragged this one down.

This does not mean this was a bad burrito. On the contrary, I enjoyed it. I am only speaking of one thing that could put this over the top. Overall, this was a good burrito and I will be back.

There are a few burritos I wish to try there. For instance, the Baja Chipotle Chicken sounds good, as does the Tequila Lime Chicken and the Sweet Chile Lime Chicken.

Oh, oh! I think this is dangerous!. A burrito place in our 'hood that not only I like but so does Teena.

But then think about it. What is a burrito? Vegetables, cheese and meat in a wrap. A long as you get the big, not the huge and have it for a meal, rather than a snack, it should be OK.

I also like that they have many vegetarian choices so we can take friends and family who do not eat meat!

This could work! Welcome to the neighborhood Fat Bastards!

And here is my burrito!

Burrito Battles - The Whole Enchilada Burrito

Today we were at The Ex and had burritos at The Whole Enchilada.

I tried to find where they might be located in Toronto but seems The Whole Enchilada is just located only in the Food Pavilion at the CNE. There is a chain in the southern U.S., but could find no other places in Toronto.

Being a food stand at a national fair means the food is more expensive. Teena paid $8 for a small, which was smaller than the usual small, and I paid just over $10 for a large.

There was a good variety of fillings. I had a chicken burrito with beans and rice as the main fillings. It was a decent size and they did not skimp on any of the fillings. The burrito sauce had a little kick but at no time was I asked if I wanted a hot sauce on it.

It was grilled after in a press and I will say it tasted pretty good. Overall if I had to score and and, no I have not yet developed a scoring system (I should), I would give it a 6.5 out of 10. If they had a store in Toronto, I would be willing to give them another try.

Burrito Boyz, Adelaide Street, Toronto

It has been awhile since I have visited Burrito Boyz so Teena and I hit it for an early supper today.

Always a popular place, we try to arrive in off-times and did so today, getting there about 2:45. We walked right up and ordered but found that a line formed quickly behind us.

The routine is order the size, meat choice and type of tortilla, then pay, move down and select all your fillings. Your receipt has your order number on it. You grab one of the few tables available, while they grill your burrito. Once done, they call your number and up you go to pick it up.

I always chuckle when I pick up my burrito as it is so heavy. So good too!

There is a lot of eating in one of these and each bite is enjoyable.

They have a very hot sauce and the key is to ask for three drips. They put one on each end and one in the middle and it is perfect.

Two large chicken burritos and two Diet Cokes plus tax came to $18.26. Big, tasty and well-priced too!

There may be places in the city that makes burritos as well but I doubt there is one that makes one better.

Z teca = Blah!

I don't usually buy my lunch on a workday but today felt like treating myself to a burrito.

Z teca is a burrito place in restaurant row on King Street W by Peter Street and close to my office, so I decided to give them a try.

I was there at 11 and likely was their first customer of the day. The girl who served me from behind the counter could not have been more disinterested and spoke so soft that every time she asked me for a selection, I had to have her repeat the question.

As for choices on what to have on my burrito, there were few. I had rice and beans, the rice was plain white. I was not offered onions or tomato (I would have said no to the tomato anyways but should have been asked), I was asked about sour cream and said no and had the medium sauce on it.

They heat the tortilla first, place on the ingredients, roll it and give it a 10 second press in a sandwich machine.

The size of the burrito is excellent and the $8.76 is a good price for that size burrito. The rest not so good. It was a very plain and bland. The medium sauce was just OK but was the only thing that added flavour. The chicken, beans and rice were all extremely plain.

If you are there and want a burrito, head around the corner to Burrito Boyz. Z teca is not worth the visit.