A Burrito is a Burrito is a Burrito

About 15 years ago was when I first found Freebird's in College Station. I was like, wow, these are really amazingly good. But.

But lots of buts. Now mind you, this was 15 years ago, they've changed most of the things I found wrong, but one or 2 remain.

The first thing they ask when filling your burrito is do you want rice and cheese? The first thing they should be asking is do you want meat or vegetarian? Cause back then they didn't adjust the rice and beans amount if I didn't want meat so if I ordered a veg burrito it would be half the diameter of one with meat. They would want to fill it with lettuce and actually charged extra for the lettuce on a meat burrito which was really weird, cause lettuce isn't your protein substitute, rice and beans are. They don't do the weird lettuce thing anymore, at least not in the location in Houston I go to. And they offer more ingredients so you can add different items to bulk it up. This can be a bad thing cause not all the ingredients are complementary in flavour and some are overpowering, like the garlic.

Anyhow, back then in College Station, there was too much handling with fingers and bare hands. This has been corrected with utensils and gloves. But I remember watching some guy toss meat on the grill with his hands, flip it over with his fingertips and pull the meat off the grill, with his fingertips. I mean, come on.

Another problem they had was portion control. One employee would be more generous than the next and my friend would get a burrito twice the diameter of mine. This again has been mostly corrected by the utensils.

And being it was staffed by college students, often I'd get a surly server. "Would you like some attitude with that?"

The thing they are best at, and they are manic about it, is rolling a very tight burrito so it does not fall apart when you eat it.

But yeah, I was happy when they opened up a location in Houston. Not that close, but not that far. (Houston is a very big place if you've never been). Still, the negative impressions left a sour enough taste in my mouth to see if the alternatives were better. My other choices are Chipotle, Bullrito's and Mission Burrito.

Chipotle, surprisingly we liked. People kept saying they're owned by McDonald's but a manager at Mission told us that's not the case anymore. Chipotle has the fewest selections which I'm thinking is a good thing. Also made the smallest burrito, which is also a good thing. Possibly the cheapest as well, tho I wasn't paying attention to cost. The worst thing here was a loosely rolled burrito that fell apart, hard to eat. Better to get a burrito bowl (which I did, the next time we dined here).

Bullrito's we tried next. They have the ordering system with the envelopes like Which Wich, which I don't like cause when you stop to fill the stupid thing out, people walk past and get in front of you in line. As well, you can't stand there and point to what you want, in fact the counter is built that your view of the assembly area is blocked from the front. The first time we went there I had the chicken burrito and the meat had an unpleasant, rubbery texture. Took me a while to realize it was probably pre-packaged, diced and frozen chicken. They had beef cooking on the grill, but be warned that not all the ingredients are fresh. They suffer from the "half a burrito" syndrome. Like if you request 2 salsas, they'll put one on one side, one on the other side. So you're eating down the burrito and all of a sudden hit the hot salsa. No, I don't want my flavours compartmentalized. Second time I tried a veggie burrito, where they give you guacamole instead of meat.

Our last sojourn was Mission Burrito. The closest one to us is actually out of town, in the 'burbs so to speak, in Sugar Land.  This was the only place to offer shrimp! They cook to order since it doesn't sit well, so naturally I got it. Going down the offerings, what do I spy but a bin full of lime wedges! Curious, I pointed to it. The guy grabbed a handful, and squeezed them over my burrito stuff. Oh my (see the previous post regarding my citrus fetish). They claim all ingredients are fresh and it sure did taste like it. Tho we went right when they opened, I mentioned at the time we should go around 3PM to see if everything still tasted as fresh. Defitnitely worth a second and third and fourth try, we couldn't find anything wrong with this place. Weeelllll, they maybe could roll their burritos just a bit tighter.

In conclusion, our rankings currently stand: Mission Burrito we liked the best, Bullrito's the least, Freebird's and Chipotle somewhere in between.