LONDON AND THE BURRITO BONANZA
Christina Donati
Source | Nicholas Rego
Calling all burrito lovers!
My name is Christina Donati, and I have a passion for burritos. My most well-known personality trait is my love for burritos. Because of this, I challenged myself with the task of visiting three chain burrito restaurants in London, Ont. to discuss the features and flavours for a chicken burrito at each place. I decided to use my burrito knowledge to write about my experience at each restaurant and share it with the world. Thus, Tina’s Burrito Adventure was born. My journey to Chipotle, Mucho Burrito and Quesada is found below.
HANDY HISTORY
Source | Make a Meme
Before I dive into my findings, I'm going to share a little bit of history about the burrito. First off, burrito is a Spanish word that means little donkey. You may wonder what this has to do with the actual burrito itself, well, Portable Press says that "Etymologists think that the burrito is so named not because it looks like a donkey (nor was it because donkey meat was ever used), but because a tightly-packed and rolled burrito looks like a bedroll or packs that a burro put to work would carry."
Source | Imgur
The word burrito dates back to Mexican dictionaries as early as 1895. Portable Press also explains that the Mexican Dictionary explains that a burrito is a food item which is a rolled tortilla with meat and other ingredients. It was popular in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, Yucatan and Mexico City.
Source | Popsugar
According to Vox, it wasn't until the 1950s that the burrito came to America. Apparently, they became popular through Migrant workers. Vox writes that "Many of their bosses gave them burritos for lunch, because they were easy to make and pack. But while many braceros — particularly those from Central Mexico — were ambivalent about the dish, Americans quickly learned to love it."
CHEWING AT CHIPOTLE
The First Stop
Source | Chipotle
The first stop on my adventure was Chipotle. Here, I purchased a chicken burrito. My burrito featured cilantro-lime brown rice, pinto beans, tomato salsa, roasted chili corn salsa, sour cream, lettuce, monterey jack cheese and guacamole.
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At Chipotle, a chicken burrito is $9.80 before taxes. To add guac, it's an extra $2.70--this isn’t a feature I’m fond of considering other burrito restaurants charge much less. However, I thought the flavours blended nicely together, and I enjoyed my burrito overall. Chipotle makes their own homemade guac; I thought it was smooth, and it had a good taste. Despite the extra cost, I would say that Chipotle's guac is one of the best I have tasted from a burrito restaurant.
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Chipotle also tasted fresh to me. I didn't feel like their chicken had come pre-made, and their toppings were fresh, too. This is something that I enjoyed about the restaurant. It's nice to know that your food is fresh, and you can definitely tell a difference in quality with the way the burrito tastes. Good job on this Chipotle!
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I think Chipotle does taste good, and the burritos are pretty large, but I think that they lack on their features. Compared to other places, they have limited options. For example, Chipotle doesn't have any sauce options. Their food options consist of a burrito, a bowl, a salad, a kids menu, a soft-shell taco or a hard-shell taco. There are six meat options, and only nine toppings. You also can't choose between a whole-wheat tortilla or white tortilla. The other restaurants I went to had significantly more options when it came to toppings and sauces. This is definitely an area where Chipotle lacks.
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When it comes to the burritos, Chipotle also doesn't offer any sizes. The size you get is significantly large, which makes the high cost a little more reasonable, but what if you aren't feeling that hungry? Unfortunately there's no option for those wanting a little less. This is something I dislike about Chipotle, too.
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Because of the lack of features. I decided to rate Chipotle three and a half burritos out of five burritos (see image below). There isn't a lot of diversity when it comes to changing up the flavour of your burrito at Chipotle because of their lacking options, but I did think the burrito was delicious nonetheless. I would recommend this restaurant to friends and family.
Source | Christina Donati
Source | Christina Donati
Source | Mucho Burrito
MUNCHING AT MUCHO BURRITO
The Second Stop
Source | Nicholas Rego
The second stop on my adventure was to Mucho Burrito. Let me tell you, I am in love with this place. Again, I purchased a chicken burrito. My burrito featured a whole wheat tortilla (gotta’ be healthy!), brown rice, pinto beans, pico de gallo, roasted corn, pickled onion, lettuce, monterey jack cheese, guacamole, sour cream and burrito sauce.
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Unlike Chipotle, Mucho Burrito has three size options for their burritos. I chose to go with a regular sized burrito, which was $9.75. To add guac, it’s an extra $1.25, unless you get the “mucho” sized burrito because then guac is free. The guac at Mucho Burrito is significantly cheaper than Chipotle, and I also enjoy the taste.
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The flavour of the burrito from this restaurant was my fav! There was a really nice variation of flavours that worked well together, and I enjoyed being able to add sauce to my burrito. Let’s be honest here, this girl likes her sauce. This is definitely a bonus point for Mucho Burrito.
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Mucho Burrito was definitely the most fresh burrito I have ever had. For their chicken, they actually cook it themselves and then cut it up into small squares for the burrito. I love that it doesn’t come from a frozen bag. The veggie section was all fresh too, and this is something I can seriously appreciate. Thanks Mucho!
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I didn’t feel like Mucho Burrito lacked on with their features. Their menu includes tacos, quesadillas, burritos, bowls, salads, a take-home taco kit, sides (such as nachos), desserts and a kids menu. Under their build your own burrito menu, there were six meat options and a veggie option, 15 toppings and six sauce options.
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Because of the various features, and the delicious taste of the burrito I had, I decided to rate Mucho Burrito five out of five burritos (see image below). There was a lot of diversity at this restaurant and I was impressed with the taste. I would 100 per cent recommend this restaurant to family and friends, and I would go back (which I totally have). This place can be classified as “yummy.”
Source | Christina Donati
Source | Christina Donati
Source | Quesada
CASHING OUT AT QUESADA
The Third Stop
The final stop on my burrito adventure was Quesada. And yet again, I purchased a chicken burrito. My burrito featured a whole wheat tortilla, brown rice, pinto beans, cheese, corn, diced tomatoes, lettuce, red onion, guacamole, chipotle-tomato salsa, sour cream and chipotle sauce.
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At Quesada, I got the smallest sized burrito. In total, with guac being an extra $1.00, my purchase came to $9.82. For a burrito that is the smallest size, this is expensive in my opinion. However, they had a decent amount of options when it considering their toppings and sauces.
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I’m not really into the Quesada burritos. I find the taste to be bland, and the burritos don’t have the same fresh feel like I get from Mucho Burrito. Because of this, I can’t consider Quesada to have the same kind of quality that Mucho Burrito and Chipotle have. Sorry, Quesada, I can’t lie to my fans!
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However, it’s nice that Quesada has sized options. Their burritos come in three sizes: regular, large, and bis ass. It’s nice to know that there is a size depending on your appetite. Quesada also has a lot of options. You can get burritos, bowls, tacos, quesadillas, tortilla salads and nachos.
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There are six meat options and two vegetarian ones. They have the option for a white tortilla or a whole wheat one, and they have 17 toppings and five sauce options. Because of this, there is opportunity for you to change up the flavour of your burrito depending on what you feel like having.
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Even though Quesada has quite a few options, I just can’t get over the taste. I know this sounds hard, and It’s not that it’s bad; I was still able to enjoy the burrito I had, but it’s not great either. I do like Quesada, but If I had the choice between Quesada and the other restaurants I went to, I would choose one of the other two. Because of this, I rated Quesada a sad three out of five burritos (see image below). Sorry Quesada! Better luck next time.
Source | Christina Donati
Source | Christina Donati
BRILLIANT BURRITO HACKS
Below are a list of burrito hacks that are helpful for when you are eating burritos at home or in a restaurant. Check out some of these helpful hacks so that you can become a burrito master, too!
THE BONKERS BURRITO CHALLENGE
After checking out each restaurant, I was challenged to see if I could figure out where a burrito was from based on taste alone. To do this, I was blindfolded and tasted a burrito from Chipotle, Mucho Burrito and Quesada. Unfortunately, my friends didn't have faith in my burrito skills. Did I disappoint them or surprise them? My results can be found below.
Source | Christina Donati
TELLING THE TALE ON TWITTER
I hope that you have enjoyed my adventure. I had a lot of fun being able to travel around and try burritos. Let's be honest here, this is what I would be doing in my spare time anyway, but now you have my honest opinion on these three places.
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A few other places I would recommend trying are Burrito Boys and BarBurrito. Unfortunately I wasn't able to include them in my adventure... this time.
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You can find my social media campaign for my adventure on Twitter. Search the hashtag #TinaTriesBurritos2K18 to follow my story there! Feel free to follow and tweet @ me!
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In the end, my favourite burrito place was Mucho Burrito. It tasted the best to me and they had a lot of variety with choices. I was impressed and I will continue to eat my burritos there whenever I can.
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Source | Twitter
AWESOME ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A thank you to a few classmates who helped me with my burrito adventure: Rees Dabbs, Aruna Dutt, Max Martin and Nicholas Rego.
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A thank you to Chipotle, Mucho Burrito and Quesada for allowing me to come in and film in their restaurants.
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A thank you to burritos for being delicious and always making me happy.
Source | Nicholas Rego