Finding the most authentic and best tasting Mexican food can be challenging. While there are several Mexican restaurants that have been popping up in every corner, it takes tradition and expertise to create the perfect burrito. But what makes a burrito extremely special that you are willing to stake your life on it?
A perfect burrito can be compared to an exhilarating experience, such as sex after a long abstinence or skydiving for the first time. It is both a comfort food and a guilty pleasure that you can’t seem to quit especially when you bite into the sexy combination of rice, beans, proteins, guacamole and extra-spicy salsa is wrapped in a freshly made soft tortilla.
So, if given a choice, which of the three restaurants will you most go to eat a burrito?
Chipotle
While there are many delicious Mexican dishes in Chipotle’s menu, nothing beats their burritos. The sexy wrap is made from flour tortilla and you can choose whatever protein you want in there such as steak, sofritas, barbacoa, carnitas, chicken or if you are some kind of a healthy buff, you can even choose to add organic tofu. As added filling, you can choose to add rice like cilantro-lime, bean like pinto or black, and fajita vegetables.
Lastly, the main event of a Chipotle burrito is the addition of the topping, from either mild and fresh salsa, medium hot and green-chili salsa, hot and red-chili salsa, sour cream, cheese and Chipotle’s best ever guacamole. For health buffs, they have a nutrition calculator that can help determine how many calories you will be consuming.
For the record, a serving of chicken burrito with pinto beans, tomatillo red-chili salsa, sour cream and guacamole can give you a total of 970 calories. This can be easily burned by doing jogging, treadmill fast walking or swimming so get ready to enjoy and celebrate.
Freebirds
This quirky Mexican restaurant is very similar to Chipotle when it comes to its interior but with a more relaxed atmosphere. The first thing you will notice as you enter a Freebirds joint is the laid-back ambiance, allowing customers to talk in peace and even interacting with servers. Furthermore, they are very serious about their burritos here, adding selections such as “grass-fed steak” or “organic, free-range chicken”.
The array of ingredients makes Freebirds a one-of-a-kind place to get great-tasting burritos. One of it’s intriguing ingredients is the Spanish rice, unlike in Chipotle and Qdoba where they only use the cilantro-lime rice. The tortilla also has options and these are flour or wheat; however, instead of a guacamole, Freebirds offer their signature Badass Barbecue Sauce.
Freebirds also has a nutrition calculator, just like Chipotle, to allow eaters of the number of calories that they are consuming. For example, a simple Freebird burrito with flour tortilla, Spanish rice, Jack cheese, pinto beans, grass-fed steak, and creamy jalapeño salsa has a total calories of 870 calories. This is much lower than the chicken burrito exampled above.
Qdoba Menu
While they do offer two variants of the burritos, one Mission-style and the other smothered, it seems that Qdoba lack the same taste or freshness of the ingredients used by both Chipotle and Freebirds to even make their burrito memorable to begin with. Good thing Qdoba is able to offer ingredients that are either vegetarian-friendly, gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, and wheat-free, of which neither Chipotle nor Freebirds though of.
For their burrito-making, Qdoba came prepared because they were able to give out various options, such as flour or wheat tortilla; cilantro or brown rice; black or pinto beans; grilled, pulled, shredded or seasoned meat; cheese; mild to extra-hot salsa; and the works. However, even if there are many options, the quality and taste will always be the vital force of any food and sadly, this is where Qdoba unavoidably failed.
The wrap is too damp and sticky, a clear indication that the main goal was to make it as adhesive as possible; chicken lacked the charred grilled characteristics of Chipotle; and while Qdoba can give out free guacamole, it is certainly different from Chipotle’s and even Freebirds’.
Heads up, a simple chicken burrito with pinto beans, flour tortilla, sour cream, queso diablo and extra-hot salsa only has 795 calories, which is lower than Chipotle or Freebirds.
The Verdict
Even though Freebirds has shown competitiveness in the burrito challenge, the winner has got to be Chipotle, hands-down. Besides being one of the most well-known Mexican places in the United States that offers many food options for different people, the burrito in Chipotle is also affordable and comes with the great and best-tasting guacamole in the world.
Freebirds cannot be beat