El Burrito

Mexican
Fitzrovia

Mestizo has been a favourite Mexican restaurant of ours for a while: a great venue serving delicious dishes, but until now, we had never tried their sister venue, El Burrito. If it was going to be even half as tasty as Mestizo then we would be impressed, so we were very excited about our visit to their restaurant in Charlotte Place.

Whereas Mestizo is a sit down restaurant, El Burrito is a more informal eatery. Similar to Chipotle, Chilango, Benito's Hat and numerous other burrito bars that have appeared in London in recent years, it has a counter at which your burrito can be made to order with any number of ingredients. There is however one key difference and that is the scale of the menu. Other similar casual restaurants mainly stick to burritos and tacos with a choice of fillings, but El Burrito offers a large range of food to eat in or take away.

We sampled the burrito packed with beef tinga; a huge wrap of beef, beans, rice, spicy salsa and sour cream. This was no light meal as the portion size is certainly on the large side. The tinga sauce was smoky and had a light barbecue taste. We also sampled the chicken mole; a rich traditional Mexican sauce containing 20 different ingredients including chocolate. From the tapas menu we also tasted the vegetarian enchiladas; shredded potato and cheese wrapped in two tortillas and coated in tomato salsa. The veggie option complemented the meat dishes well. We'd certainly recommend ordering this as a side dish.

To complete the meal, we also ordered nachos with salsa roja, salsa verde and guacamole. And, of course, it wouldn't be a proper Mexican without a margarita and the frozen classic margaritas here are a treat. Fruity and punchy, they were refreshing and zesty, but be warned - one too many of these and you may feel it in the morning!

The service at El Burrito is great, with friendly service from enthusiastic staff. We visited on a relatively quiet Monday evening, but we hear it gets very busy at lunchtimes so get here early if you want a seat. If you're more of a night owl, then they are open until 10pm for post-pub snackers.

Overall, it's great to see a burrito bar that offer such a wide variety of choice, tacos, burritos, and quesadillas with eight different potential fillings, plus the tapas menu. El Burrito is certainly a worthy stablemate of Mestizo, and lives up to its reputation.

5 Charlotte Place, W1T 1SF
www.facebook.com/elburritolondon
twitter.com/elburritolondon

Average price for meal: £5.50
Average price for cocktail: £5
Food/Drink: 4/5
Service: 5/5
Value: 5/5

WEBSITE / MAP / MENU