Burrito Journey

I recently made the obvious observation that there are enough stores selling burritos around Ann Arbor to have a different burrito every day for weeks, months, maybe even years.  To that end, I've had a burrito for lunch each day for the last 7 work days without visiting the same restaurant twice.  The following is my in-progress report on all things burrito.

Chipotle has a special place in my memory.  An earlier incarnation of this chain was the first burrito-specific food place I ever went to.  When you're young and in love and in Cincinatti, and you come accross a place serving large tasty burritos, it sticks in your memory years later.  Recently Chipotle opened a store in Ann Arbor which seems to be doing quite well.

I enjoy Chipotle's burrito offerings because they have carnitas as a choice of meat and the hot salsa is good and unique.  Adding guacamole is tasty but a bit pricey.  My burrito on this day was carnitas with black beans, hot salsa, cheese, no sour cream, but with chips and guacamole on the side.

Moe's has been my ongoing favorite.  It's a rare week that I don't get to Moe's for lunch at least once.  That's a habit that started before Chipotle opened in town, so we'll see what happens in the future.  Moe's is also the only burrito place I've ever branched out at and gotten a non-burrito main meal.

My burrito on this day was a Triple Lindy with black beans and steak.  That means it has salsa, cheese, and guacamole added.  I also added jalapeños which I do to just about everything I ever order at Moe's.  I like that they have a burrito with guacamole standard and I like the large selection of additional fillings you can add for free.  The standard salsa is nothing special, but it's the only place that serves chips standard and has a salsa bar.  The hard rock sauce at the salsa bar is good.  Also at Moe's I like their sweet tea, but on many occasions they seem to have forgotten the sweet part.

Qdoba was the start, to me at least, of the Ann Arbor burrito revival.  These days, there's not a lot that stands out about Qdoba, but for a while it was new and exciting to have a burrito place in Ann Arbor.  I still like Qdoba because of some of their sauces they offer.  They're the only place that has mole and they also have a pesto-variation.  My day 3 burrito was chicken mole with black beans with the extra hot salsa.

Formerly Big Ten Burrito, there are two BTB shops around town.  Both are tiny store fronts, but they have a nice menu.  I had planned to have a half-and-half burrito with chicken and steak, but they were out of steak so I just had a chicken deluxe burrito.  I forget exactly what deluxe adds.  The good thing about BTB is that it's good food for a bit less money than the other places around.

For two years I lived just down the street from Burrito Joint, only at that time it was just Mr. Pizza.  Had it been a Burrito Joint at that time I probably would have been there every day.  However, this was the first time I had ever been to Burrito Joint as a burrito joint.

Burrito Joint has a few unique offerings, and they are the only place right now with chorizo as a possible filling.  I had a Jimmy's Burrito which is less beans and rice, chorizo and steak, plus jalepeños and hot sauce.  It was quite good, although the chorizo was alarmingly bright red which is not normal in my limited experience cooking chorizo.  There are a number of other interesting choices, so I will have to try some more before seeing how Burrito Joint fits in to my local burrito rankings.

I wrote above that Qdoba was my personal Ann Arbor burrito revival and the only game in town for a while, but truthfully Panchero's has been there all along.  I don't normally consider Panchero's because of it's location down town which can be inconvenient to get to with respect to parking.  However, for this burrito journey I am on, it only seemed fair to give them a try.

The main feature of Panchero's is fresh made tortillas.  Whereas the other places steam a pre-made tortilla, Panchero's has a bunch of dough balls sitting around that they flatten and then grill when you order.  The burrito I had this day was with black beans and pork (not really carnitas, more like grilled pork pieces) with cheese and hot salsa.  The fresh made tortilla was good, although it had a certain chewy-ness to it that made we wonder if it shouldn't have been grilled just a bit longer.  This was a good burrito to be sure, but like Burrito Joint I'll have to try it again to see if it outranks any of my usual burrito destinations.

With Tio's I'm starting to stray from what I would consider a burrito show, but they are an Ann Arbor institution and do sell burritos, so to Tio's I went.  My history with Tio's goes back to high school, which was just a block or two away with an open campus lunch policy.  I don't get to Tio's much lately, but they were a mainstay of a large portion of my growing up life.  They have good milkshakes, too.

I had a chicken burrito, dry, not wet, with extra hot salsa on the side.  A Tio's burrito is not a finger food like all the other burritos I've had so far in this experiment.  The burrito, though, is very good.  The chicken is shredded instead of chunked, and the insides include gooey refried beans and cheese.  The extra hot salsa at Tio's is also the best of any of these places.

After 7 days of burritos, my favorites remain Chipotle and Moe's, but each place I've visited has given me reasons to return again (and again).  Will tomorrow bring more burrito or have all burrito resources been used up?  Tune in next time to find out...