Farolito Oakland & Guadalajara Truck - Repeat visits

Farolito:

• Rating: 8.12
• Order: Super Burrito - $9.01
• Meat: Carne Asada - 9
• Beans: Pinto - 6
• Rice: 8
• Guacamole: 8
• Crema: 9
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 8
• Cheese: 8
• Size: 9
• Taste: 8.5

Guadalajara:

• Rating: 7.81
• Order: Burrito - $12.00
• Meat: Carne Asada - 8.5
• Beans: Pinto - 7
• Rice: 7
• Guacamole: 9
  
• Crema: 8
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 8
• Cheese: None
• Size: 8
• Taste: 8.25

Description:

Battle of the beasts. Side to side taste test of two top 5s ended with Farolito taking over the number 2 overall spot, while Guadalara dropped to number 7. We're splitting hairs with some of the best burritos in The Bay, but it's as simple as the fact that Farolito tasted better. Plus it's still only $8.25 and enormous. About as good as it gets.

For the first review of Farolito, see here.

For the first review of Guadalajara, see here.

La Hacienda

Details:

• Rating: 5.36
• Order: Burrito - $11.99
• Meat: Carne Asada - 5
• Beans: Pinto - 3
• Rice: 6
• Guacamole: 5
  
• Crema: 7
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 4
• Cheese: None
• Size: 7.5
• Taste: 5.5

Description:

Nooooot great. Not terrible. Highlights were the salsas for sure. That's about it now that I think back. Lowlights were the beans, red sauce, and heavy rice filling. That's about all there is to say. There are plenty of other places to go to instead.

Other Notes:

N/A

Doña

Details:

• Rating: 6.66
• Order: Burrito - $10.00
• Meat: Barbacoa - 7
• Beans: Refried Black - 10
• Rice: 4
• Guacamole: None
  
• Crema: None
• Salsa: 7
• Tortilla: 7
• Cheese: 9
• Size: 4
• Taste: 7

Description:

This burrito was a pleasant surprise stemming from low expectations. That's a rare one for me, obviously, the guy with the burrito blog who rates each individual ingredient. But maybe I should try it out more often because it made me enjoy a middle of the pack burrito more than I would have otherwise. However, as always, middle of the pack around these parts is still a very good burrito.

This one wasn't your typical Mission Style, but still have some very nice flavors. It lacked the wow factor that many of the superior burritos have but also had its own best attributes. The menu doesn't say so, but the black beans are refried and were super good. Meat was good, but not your typical barbacoa or carnitas. They included some different spices that I liked but also wasn't what I was expecting. Other people might not like it as much. The rice was a white rice with cilantro. No guac or crema is disappointing but that's just life sometimes.

I'll give Doña some uncounted bonus points for the large outdoor seating, which is very covid friendly, and for their awesome fish taco.

Other Notes:

No chips or salsa bar

Taqueria El Castillito (Livermore)

Details:

• Rating: 6.36
• Order: Super Burrito - $10.00
• Meat: Carne Asada - 5
• Beans: Refried - 6
• Rice: 5
• Guacamole: 6
  
• Crema: 7
• Salsa: 4
• Tortilla: 4
• Cheese: 8
• Size: 9
• Taste: 6.5

Description:

I don't really feel like writing too much about this one. It was very mushy and soft. It was also really big, so that was a tough combo because it was pretty hard to eat. As far as Bay Area burritos go, this wasn't one that inspired too much beyond a filling lunch. But I got it to fill my tummy during lunch, and that's just what it did. It was fine, you wouldn't be sad if you go here. It won't be life changing either.

Other Notes:

N/A

Taco Negris - Repeat Visit

Details:

• Rating: 7.59
• Order: Super Burrito - $11.00
• Meat: Carne Asada - 8.5
• Beans: Refried - 7
• Rice: 5
• Guacamole: 8
  
• Crema: 9
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 8
• Cheese: 8
• Size: 7
• Taste: 8

Description:

Take two for previous #2 ranked Taco Negris. I'll keep this short. It was still really good, but not as good as I remember and not deserving of second best. Plus, it was more than 50% more expensive. This rating would place it at #13 which is still a world-class burrito. Averaged out, it still breaks the top 5.

Taco Negris has very high quality ingredients, that's obvious. Every single thing in it was fresh, flavorful, and well made. The only reason this visit doesn't deserve a top spot is that it was missing the wow factor. Top 10 burritos just make you say wow over and over again. As good as each ingredient was, it was just missing a little something. Maybe I'll have to try it again to see if it wows me next time, but for now this will drop Taco Negris out of the highly coveted #2 spot. Sad day, but go give it a try because this is still an amazing burrito.

For the first review, see here.

Other Notes:

No chips or salsa, just jalapeños.

Taqueria La Mordida

Details:

• Rating: 6.75
• Order: Super Burrito - $9.79
• Meat: Carne Asada - 89.5
• Beans: Refried - 3
• Rice: 4
• Guacamole: 5
  
• Crema: 5
• Salsa: 6
• Tortilla: 6
• Cheese: 6
• Size: 7
• Taste: 7.5

Description:

Oh man, that first bite was gooood. I haven't had al pastor this good in a long time. What a pleasant surprise for a random taqueria stop in Half Moon Bay.

The meat was savory, juicy, flavorful, just the right amount of sweetness, and beautifully charred. Good stuff. Too bad that pretty much everything else in the burrito was subpar. As I got further into the burrito, that first amazing bite faded into a memory. The rice was really tomatoey and... not that good. The beans were very scarce, but unpleasant when they appeared. Crema, guac, and cheese were almost nonexistent but were yummy. Unfortunate, because I was really excited after that first bite. But in the end, amazing meat can take a burrito a long way, so the ranking is still decent.

Other Notes:

Came with chips, red salsa, green salsa

Taqueria Don Chepe

Details:

• Rating: 6.76
• Order: Super Burrito - $11.58
• Meat: Carne Asada - 8.5
• Beans: Refried - 7
• Rice: 8
• Guacamole: 5
  
• Crema: 5
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 7
• Cheese: 5
• Size: 6
• Taste: 7.5

Description:

This burrito was good! Ok, it didn't jump out to me at first with an amazing first bite, but everything about it was good. The meat actually had a really nice char and flavor, it just could have been a little greasier to flavor the rest of the burrito. There honestly isn't much to say about this burrito besides that it was good. Everything in it was good. Nothing was superb (although the meat was close). Nothing was subpar. Can't complain about that...

Other Notes:

N/A

Taqueria Los Pericos (Dublin)

Details:

• Rating: 6.68
• Order: Super Burrito - $11.72
• Meat: Carne Asada - 7
• Beans: Refried - 7
• Rice: 8
• Guacamole: 3
  
• Crema: 4
• Salsa: 8
• Tortilla: 9
• Cheese: 7
• Size: 7
• Taste: 7.5

Description:

Is there a better way to kick off the new year than with a burrito? 2021 is already looking stronger than last year with a solid burrito showing.

This is the fourth Los Pericos location I've been to. I still have no idea if/how they're connected, but they're all pretty good. I'll start with the bad on this one, and it's a very common calamity: not enough guac or crema! Luckily, that was really the only bad part. And good thing for Los Pericos that their most heavy fillings (meat, rice, beans) were all quite good. So yeah, more of the juicy fillings would've been nice, but at least they shored that up by making sure the other ingredients were quality.

The meat could have been a little more flavorful and oily, but no issues there. The pico de gallo was really good and their other salsas definitely did the job. This wasn't a massive "stuffed for two days" type of burrito, but it was on the hefty side. I was stuffed for the rest of the night at least. Solid showing from yet another Los Pericos.

Other Notes:

Comes with chips, red salsa, green salsa, pico de gallo.