My first blog post from outside England. It's north of the border for this post. Destination: Edinburgh, Scotland - home of the brilliantly named Illegal Jack's.
I first became aware of Illegal Jack's South West Grill earlier this year when I came across some online reviews about Mexican inspired food in Edinburgh. The reviews were both positive and negative, so I tweeted such together with a link to the Illegal Jack's website. I soon received an @ reply from the man behind Illegal Jack's via Twitter and have followed them on the social networking site ever since. They are into social media in big way and are well worth following via Twitter ( @illegaljacks ) for a take on a whole range of topics. With some annual leave and a short notice trip to Glasgow and the Isle of Mull, I decided to book a flight home to London from Edinburgh in order to check out Illegal Jack's. In fact, the majority of this blog post is being typed on my iPad aboard a British Airways flight from Edinburgh to London City Airport. Catching a train from Glasgow Queen Street in the early afternoon of Friday, July 16, 2010, I was soon at Edinburgh Haymarket station and taking the short stroll to the restaurant on Lothian Road. The large site, which was previously a badly maintained Pizza Hut, is unusually large for a burrito place and comes across as a sort of a fast-food / full-restaurant hybrid. The menu is larger than almost all places I've been to before with Fajitas, Chilli Bowls and Buffalo Wings being additions to the standard fayre. I highly recommend the chilli by the way, it is really good! I warned Illegal Jack's that I was coming and was greeted with this reserved table...!
This place, being Scottish and all, is a little different. Whilst food is ordered at the counter, it is usually brought to your table when ready. A different take to most production line burrito places (which I prefer to be honest) but it does give you time to relax and settle down. My burrito arrived promptly and it was huge! When I say huge I mean California huge and that's an impressive claim!
So what of my first Scottish burrito? It was pretty good. Tasty and satisfying but with maybe a little too much rice in proportion to the other ingredients. The salsa had a good combination of heat and flavour though it could have been a little hotter for my tastes. I was impressed by the choice of Louisiana hot sauce taking the place of the more usual Cholula. A good choice. I'm really glad I took the time to visit Illegal Jack's. They do things a little differently in Scotland and they've got a good thing going. It's great to see Mexican inspired food available in Edinburgh and even better to know that they sell good burritos. They are currently gearing up for the Edinburgh Festival with hopes to feed some of the swollen population that the city gets at that time. Based on my first visit I'll give Illegal Jack's a respectable 7/10. As a result I can now answer the big question... Yes, you can get a good burrito in Scotland! Next time you're in Edinburgh, do be sure to head up Lothian Road to check them out.
I went back to Chipotle on Charing Cross Road today, just to see if they had gotten any better. Actually I was intending to go to nearby newly opened Mas Burritos but they were already closed.
The answer is no. Chipotle now have a choice of white or brown rice and they have changed their drink selection somewhat. I was surprised that my chicken burrito w/ guac only came to £6.60 which is much cheaper than last time. Not sure if I might have been undercharged as the guacamole still comes in at a whopping £1.40.
Chipotle's offering in London remains bland and uninspiring. The saving grace remains the Smoked Tabasco which tastes superb. It's just a shame that it's needed to give the whole thing some taste.
Heading out of town I've popped in to Barburrito in both Manchester and Liverpool recently. This chain (now also in Leeds) seems to have quite a following up north and they were one of the first "proper" burrito joints in the UK. Sadly, I don't think they are particularly good. Both burritos were fairly bland and calling their salsa "extra hot" is just a joke!
Here's a burrito from the Barburrito at Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester.
A few developments in the burrito world in London of late:
BENITO'S HAT is now a chain with a second place just opened on New Row in Covent Garden.
MAS BURRITOS has opened up right around the corner from the new Benito's. I have not tried them yet but early tweets have not been particularly positive. They have another site in town but I'm not sure if that's open yet.
MEXICAN EXPRESS is apparently "about to launch a chain of Mexican Fast Food restaurants in several locations around London". Not much known about this other than this link. With thanks to @JonathanMathias on twitter.
WRAP IT UP has opened a new place on Villiers Street between Charing Cross station and Embankment tube. They do a mixture of wrap type foods including burritos and roti and have been trading opposite Liverpool Street for a while. I don't expect the burrito to be good as a result of what seems to be a lack of focus. Maybe I'm wrong?
Flying Burritos on Middlesex Street now do breakfast burritos and they're really, really good. I really do mean really, really good!! Do check them out.
Not entirely off-topic as this is about Formula 1 (so called) burritos... For the second time (the first was back in 2006) I went to Silverstone on Sunday, July 11th to watch the British Grand Prix. Prior to the race I walked around the perimeter of the entire circuit to check out the merchandise and food stands. The Silverstone website specifically states that they strive to mainly provide high quality food and so, although still rather doubtful, I adjusted my expectations accordingly. What a mistake! The food places were all dreadful. Shameful actually for an expensive sport such as F1. Here is what passed as "Mexican" food. A total disgrace!
I didn't buy anything but a surprising number of people did. What would it take for a proper burrito-mobile or taco truck to make an appearance at next years event?
As previously reviewed on this blog, The Mission Mexican Grill is a three strong burrito chain with two restaurants in Oxford and one in Reading. The first time I tried a burrito from The Mission I was quite impressed and gave them a 7/10 after an enjoyable lunch in Reading. Back in early June I headed up to Oxford to meet the owner Jan and also head chef Victor. It was good to meet yet another enthusiastic burrito aficionado who seemed genuinely excited about bringing high quality burritos to the UK. The inspiration for The Mission is Pancho Villa in The Mission district in San Francisco and homage to the 'mother burrito' is paid through photography on the restaurant walls. There is real enthusiasm at The Mission and this certainly translated in to the quality of the burrito that I enjoyed in Oxford. That got an 8/10 from me and so The Mission remains, in my opinion, the best burrito outside of London. A few weeks later I popped in to the Reading restaurant on a Saturday evening whilst on my way back to London from Cardiff. Possibly not the best time to visit but the consistency of quality was almost there so Reading retains it's 7/10 rating. If you're in Oxford or Reading do make sure that you check them out. With a bit of luck we should see some more The Mission restaurants soon...
I can now claim to have visited all 4 Tortilla restaurants in London having finally gotten round to checking out the original restaurant on Upper Street in Islington. Overall my most frequented burrito place in London is the Bankside Tortilla on Southwark Street and I have been working my way through the others... Tortilla now have locations at Southwark Street, Market Place, Canada Square and the original restaurant on Upper Street in Islington. A little while ago I visited the original store to sample a burrito and to meet up with Brandon Stephens, the man behind Tortilla. Brandon is an ex-pat Californian who, like most people who have spent time in the Bay Area, greatly missed the lack of good Mexican food whilst living in London. His answer was to start Tortilla which started with the explanation Mexico > California > London. Tortilla do good burritos with the benefit of two size options and a choice of rice. It's always a large burrito with Spanish rice for me. The hot salsa tastes good and save for the occasional problems with consistency I do recommend Tortilla.
The comparison with Chilango always comes up when talking about Tortilla. The two places offer a similar product line but go about it very differently in terms of branding and promotion. Chilango has a more vibrant and 'exciting' brand whilst Tortilla is much more relaxed and conservative. The arguments about which one is better are sure to continue. Now that I have been to all for Tortillas, my next challenge is to try each burrito from the menu for review on the blog. This, over the next couple months, will be my Tortilla challenge.
It's not a place I particularly recommend, nor is it a chain that will feature much in this blog, however I thought it was worth mentioning that Taco Bell are to return to the UK at the end of this month. Opening at the Lakeside shopping mall in Thurrock at the end of June it would seem that this could well be the first of many Taco Bell outlets in Britain.
I find it quite appropriate that high-end Bluewater has a Chilango whilst lower-end Lakeside gets a Taco Bell.
Monday, May 10th, 2010 saw the opening of the first Chipotle restaurant in the UK and Europe at 114-116 Charing Cross Road in London.
There is quite an incredible amount of hype around Chipotle. It has a cult following in the United States where they have opened in over 900 different locations. My experience of Chipotle has been limited to a few visits to the two restaurants in downtown San Francisco on Market and New Montgomery streets. The chains entry in to SF was a little controversial given that city's burrito heritage, however I very much enjoyed the burritos from both places. Chipotle is now on an expansion drive in to the UK and onwards in to Europe. The first restaurant is thought likely to be followed by additional sites in London and possible new openings in Paris and somewhere in Germany. Speaking of Germany, I read on Twitter that one guy actually came over from Germany just to eat at Chipotle! There's a photo somewhere on the web of an unwrapped and uneaten Chipotle burrito in Deutschland after a flight from London. Wow!
Ok, so London has a Chipotle. Great, let's investigate...
On opening day I headed up to the new London Chipotle to check it out. Getting there I wasn't surprised to see that many others - mainly Americans - had the same idea. When I arrived the line was almost out of the door and getting longer! It took something like 20 minutes to reach the counter from where I could place my order. Unfortunately there were no staff around to take payment from customers in line like on weekday lunchtimes in SF.
I went for my usual favourite of chicken burrito w/ guac and the obligatory hot salsa. That together with a lemon and lime This Water came to a total of £9.85. Ouch!
Chipotle Burrito #1
So what of the burrito? Well, it was ok. I found it too small in terms of filling and it was very poorly rolled. The tortilla itself was quite nice (though others report different experiences) and taste wise it was reasonably good overall. Not anything like the Chipotle in San Francisco, but not too bad.
It was certainly no better than some of London's established places despite all the hype. Most importantly Chipotle is far too expensive. Despite doing ok on taste, the poor construction of the burrito and the meagre filling made it a pretty poor showing overall. And so I left for home rather surprised that after more than 900 openings, Chipotle still haven't worked out how to get it right on day one. With that sort of experience you'd have thought they'd have cracked it by now.
Based on opening day I would give my first UK Chipotle burrito a rather uninspiring score of 5/10.
But it would be unfair to judge even a place as big as Chipotle just by opening day, what with the busyness and all, so...
Back I went the following Sunday...
This time there were just 10 people in line ahead of me when I arrived. There were plenty of people about but plenty of seats too so it was much less hectic than opening day. A good sign I thought.
Upon reaching the counter I decided to deviate from chicken and order a barbacoa burrito. This with guacamole and hot salsa and as usual, black beans.
The filling was a lot more generous this time round with the staff actually washing people if they wanted a little more. I got given a huge dollop (too much!) of guacamole which almost justified the rather outrageous additional cost of £1.40. Yes, that's right... £1.40.
But then things started not to go too well. My burrito was sitting on the counter for a good few minutes whilst people were bunching up by the counter waiting to pay. What caused this exactly I'm not sure but I have seen similar reports from other web reviewers. When I eventually got to the cash register I had to hand over MORE THAN ten quid for a burrito and a soft drink! I hope that Chipotle's high prices are because it is in the West End and that any future less prominent locations will be cheaper, but I doubt it.
So off to a window seat looking across at Foyles book store on the other side of Charing Cross Road to eat my second Chipotle burrito in London.
Chipotle Burrito #2
Oh dear. Although it was much better constructed than the first, the taste this time round was very bland. A burrito way below standard and by Chipotle US standards - terrible!
Where do I start? The tortilla was cold, the overall taste was bland and the whole thing was drowned in the massive amount of guac! I was genuinely disappointed with this meal. Actually the best thing about it was the Smoked Tabasco suace... it's great that they have that (also have it in their US restaurants) but I'd rather be pouring that over a tastier burrito!
So despite a promising start the end result was actually worse than on opening day. What a shame.
Taste test verdict number two... 4/10.
Hopefully this is not the end of the story. There is a tremendous amount of hype around Chipotle but that's not without any basis. They are a highly successful company that has been part of the trend for much healthier fast food. They take the well sourced, sustainable food thing seriously (as do the likes of Chilango) which is of course a great thing. Also, my experience of Chipotle in the US has been positive.
So what's wrong in London? That I do not know. Certainly price is one thing. I guess that they do have some leverage due to their brand awareness and also their very prominent West End location. That still doesn't justify a hugely inflated price for guacamole though. And if they are truly planning to replicate their American success, why no soda fountains or tap water?
But the big disappointment for me was the taste and construction. After hundreds and hundreds of store openings I would expect that these guys would be experts at getting it right - straight off. But maybe my expectations were too high... Hopefully everything will improve over time but sadly it doesn't seem that this restaurant will reach the standards of its US equivalents any time soon...
I will conclude with South Park's take on Chipotle. Still laugh at this every time I watch it...
