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.
