La Catrina Taqueria

Details:

• Rating: 6.78
• Order: Deluxe Burrito - $11.00
• Meat: Al Pastor - 7.5
• Beans: Pinto - 4
• Rice: 8
• Guacamole: 7
• Crema: 3
• Salsa: 8.5
• Tortilla: 6
• Cheese: 7
• Size: 7
• Taste: 7.5

Description:

La Catrina AKA "The Purple Taco Truck" sits right outside the Grocery Outlet parking lot. The location may be a bit weird, the completely faded illegible prices are also quite weird, but The Purple Taco Truck has a surprisingly good burrito.

I know, I broke my own rule and got al pastor, but I also had a few bites of carne asada and I've had it before. Trust me, the al pastor is the way to go. It was super flavorful and extremely greasy...just as it should be. The flavor filled the rice and the rest of the burrito. It was equally very sweet and very savory. The rice was pretty good on its own, but was elevated with the meat drippings. The carne asada is ok, but doesn't help the purple truck out compared to the pastor. Unfortunately the beans were pretty bad, but the pico de gallo in the burrito made up for it. I prefer guacamole instead of avocado, but I can't really fault them for that. Crema was almost non-existent. So sad. The green salsa it comes with is great and the red one is pretty spicy and smoky, but not my favorite. Cheese is shredded cheddar which is a bit different and nice if melted but some parts were still cold. The tortilla was decent and the size was normal to large.

Overall I was very happy with the burrito, but the price is a pretty big downside. Not sure how you get away charging $11 from a truck, but I guess I still bought it.

Other Notes:

No chips, red and green salsa, pickled jalapeños.

Taqueria La Cumbre

Details:

• Rating: 6.62
• Order: Deluxe Burrito - $11.72
• Meat: Skirt Steak Asada - 6.5
• Beans: Refried - 8
• Rice: 3
• Guacamole: 8
• Crema: Basically None
• Salsa: 9
• Tortilla: 6
• Cheese: 5
• Size: 7
• Taste: 7.5

Description:

La Cumbre claims to be "The Birthplace of The Mission-Style Burrito." That's a pretty cool claim to hold, but they only back it up with decent burritos.

As most of the burritos on this list from The Mission, La Cumbre is that burrito that satisfies your need for a big burrito, but nothing more. It also comes with the high price tag that a lot of taquerias are now adopting (so sad). Basically this burrito had very tender but rather flavorless asada, flavorful but way under-cooked rice, very good beans and guac, basically no crema so I didn't even rate it, normal cheese and tortilla, and a plentiful salsa bar.

That's about all there is to say. I guess it didn't come with chips which sucks, but it didn't have a line at all (like the crazy mobs at Pancho Villa around the corner). The salsa bar was pretty great, but overall this was your standard Mission burrito. I would recommend it over most of the taquerias near 16th Bart, but it's nothing to write home about.

Other Notes:

No chips, no line.