Burrito Quest - The Breakfast Club

A couple of Fridays ago Priya had a half day from work and she invited me to come downtown to have lunch with her and some of her coworkers. I love having lunch with Priya so it was an easy decision for me to go, even though I was a little worried because I had been having numerous seizures the previous couple of days and I knew I might have another one while I was out. Still I couldn't let that stop me from going to hang out with my wife and thankfully that didn't end up happening. I got downtown about an hour before I actually needed to be there so what could I do? Well I could walk around, like I often do or I could do what I chose to do which is go to Burger King and buy a soda. While it may sound silly to most I just can’t help it I love having a nice, cold and most importantly refillable soda and Burger King is one of the only places that is possible around here. I knew no matter where we ended up going to lunch it wouldn't likely be a place where I could get more than a can of coke so I went ahead and stocked up while I could. I sat in Burger King for about half an hour enjoying my refillable coke and listening to my iPod. Finally it was time to go and I went down to meet up with Priya and her friends. We met at Embankment Station and took the Circle line over to Liverpool Street station. From there we went to a restaurant nearby called The Breakfast Club.

When I saw the menu at The Breakfast Club I admit I was pretty surprised because it read like an average American menu at this type of place. Based on the name I was expecting a place that served breakfast and lunch food but I thought it would be a more British version of them. Now don’t get me wrong they had British dishes but I was just surprised to find out how many non-British dishes they had. These included items like Huevos Rancheros, chorizo, a breakfast burrito and yes a real burrito. (You may have noticed that all the things I listed are items associated with Mexican food, I point those out because they are quite common on an American menu but very rare here. There were other items that seemed American as well but they just didn't matter as much to me). Now it was almost 2 pm but the restaurant served their breakfast menu all day so everything on the menu was in play. I was examining the menu quite closely until I saw that they had a breakfast burrito. I almost stopped there and ordered but luckily I looked over at the lunch foods and saw they also had a real burrito and right then I knew what I was going for. Everyone else got breakfast food but I just couldn't do it not when a real burrito was sitting there just asking me to eat it.

Now there was only one burrito on the menu and it’s called the Big Bad Burrito. You can get chicken, pulled pork or roasted vegetables with rice, refried beans, salsa, jalapenos, cheddar, guacamole, sour cream and spicy pepper sauce. I went for the chicken version of this burrito. I also removed the guacamole and sour cream. Now before I go on let me recap how I judge the burritos. I do it based on eight categories. First is the quantity of available options on the menu. Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Third is the ratio of those ingredients in the burrito basically how much of each ingredient is there. Forth is the strength and execution of the wrap, does the tortilla tear easily or fall apart in my hand? Fifth is the size of the burrito bigger is usually better. Sixth is the overall taste of the burrito. Seventh is the price of the burrito. I’m willing to pay for quality. Eighth and lastly is what I call the two hour tummy factor. Meaning how does the burrito makes me feel a few hours later because it can be great in your mouth but not so great in your digestive system especially if you are walking home, which I almost always am. Now the other variable that is much harder to take into account is that of the individual server who is helping you. Often when a burrito is made it is difficult to know if the ratios of each ingredient given to you are those that the restaurant wants or just those that the server feels like giving. Similarly when it comes to the strength of the wrap it often comes down to the skill and experience of the person wrapping the burrito rather than just the quality of the tortilla. Due to this is can be hard to properly judge a place without going there a few times unless the food is just horrible than what’s the point, right? So I try to be fair to all the places I go especially the first time and focus more on the food rather than the service.

So first the quantity of choices. When looking at the quantity of available choices one can see that the selection is quite limited. You can have chicken, pork or veggies but beyond that they fill all their burritos with the same ingredients. Obviously you can tell them to subtract any of the other ingredients listed that you wouldn't like but the fact remains the choices are pretty limited. There are no options on beans, rice or salsa you just got what they had. With the salsa they don’t even tell you what kind it is on the menu. Not surprisingly it turns out to be a red tomato based salsa that is a bit spicier than a normal pico de gallo salsa but not much. Now this restaurant was not a Mexican restaurant so the surprise was not that their burrito options were limited but the fact that they actually had a burrito to begin with so I won’t hold their limitations against them that much.

Second is the quality of the individual ingredients. Here I can say the individual ingredients themselves were okay but certainly not the best for a burrito. The chicken was cooked well. It was soft and moist but it was also kind of flavorless. Clearly no spices had been added to the chicken. The rice was also bland. It lacked any flavor on its own it was just plain, wholegrain rice. The jalapenos were quite mild, which I’m sure some people would like but I wanted some that were a bit spicier. The salsa was actually served on the side rather than in the burrito, which I was not a big fan of. They gave me enough but I did not like having to put salsa onto my burrito before each bite. Another thing I didn't like about the salsa was that it was served cold, right out of a cooler or fridge. Obviously the inside of the burrito is hot and I prefer those temperatures to intact with each other inside the tortilla rather than having the extreme contrast of taking a bite into cold salsa followed by hot meat, rice and beans. The biggest problem with the salsa was the fact that it just was not very good. You could tell it was not made in the restaurant but rather came out of a can or bottle. Now the refried beans were quite good as was the cheddar cheese. Also what they called their pepper sauce was very good, it was one of my favorite parts of the burrito but it felt like the bad outweighed the good.

Third is ratio. As I just said they served the salsa on the outside of the burrito so that is a big strike against this burrito for me. The first few bites I had were dominated by chicken and I got a little worried that it was going to be too meaty but after those first few bites things evened out and were fine. The refried beans, rice and cheese mixed together well and they were the ingredients that dominated the burrito. Their pepper sauce, while delicious was used far too sparingly. If I have this burrito again I will definitely be asking for more of the pepper sauce. Also the jalapenos were too rare if they had included more of those it would certainly have helped add more flavor to the burrito.

Forth, the wrap. This was one of the burrito’s greatest strengths. When I received the burrito I was a little worried because one end was already opened pretty widely. At first I couldn't tell if the opening was actually intentional but I’m fairly sure it wasn't. Also they toasted the burrito leaving grill marks on it, which I don’t usually like because toasting often leads the tortilla to become very brittle and thus easy to break.  But as I ate the burrito I was very pleased to find that it stayed together very well and I made it all the way to the last two bites without having anything drip or spill onto my hands. Now I will say part of the reason for this was due to the fact that the salsa was served on the side and they used so little of their spicy sauce, this made for a fairly dry burrito on the inside, which of course tends to stay together better than a wetter burrito.

Fifth, the size of the burrito is a place where this burrito excelled. Of all the restaurants I've been to this was one of the largest and thickest burritos I have had. It was wide and long making for a very filling meal. If you want a large burrito in London this is definitely a place to check out.

Sixth is the overall taste. Overall I found the burrito to be good. In a way the whole burrito ended up being better than its individual parts. Despite the lack of flavor in some of the individual ingredients everything came together quite well and made for a very tasty burrito. Now I would call this a very Americanized burrito (yes I use that term even though I’m in the UK) in that a lot of the flavor was connected to the cheese and beans rather than the salsas or jalapenos. In a way it was kind of like a good sandwich rolled in a tortilla where if you took the tortilla out of the equation you might not even label what you were eating as Mexican food. Now while I wouldn't necessarily tell people to go out of their way to have this burrito I still liked it and would recommend it to anyone who is at this restaurant especially people who prefer mild flavors to spicy ones. 

When it comes to price, number seven, this place was on the expensive side. The burrito was just under 9 pounds add onto that any sort of drink and you are going to end up paying at least 11 pounds for your meal. Now that wasn't really a surprise given that it is a sit down type of restaurant rather than a fast food type of restaurant like most of the other places I've gone. So while it was more than I would like to spend on a burrito the price was comparable to everything else on the menu so I wouldn't complain about it being overpriced rather I would say it was worth having if you are already at that restaurant. 

Lastly is the two hour tummy factor. Here I gave the burrito a real test. Priya and I had some walking to do. After we left the restaurant we had to go over by London Bridge to pick up tickets for a Shakespeare play we went to see after which we went back up to Oxford Circus to do some shopping. For those unfamiliar with London that will obviously not mean much but overall we did 4 to 5 miles of walking after lunch. And going back to the size of the burrito I can say I was quite full when we finished, in fact I probably should have stopped a few bites short of finishing it. My walking speed certainly suffered due to this burrito but I will say that while I was extremely full I did not end up developing any sort of cramps or aches and I didn't have any bad experiences surrounding the bathroom. So I would rate this burrito pretty high when it comes to how it treats your digestive system. I’m sure the lack of spices has something to do with that. Still I gave the burrito plenty of chances to come back to haunt me but it didn't so that was a big plus for this place.

So overall I would give this burrito a 5 out of 10. That might seem a little low given what I've said about the burrito but the 5 is due to the fact that as far as burritos go this one is nothing special. Now just as a meal it was a very good meal and it was certainly something I would rather have than pancakes or an omelet or the other things on the menu. But again this burrito is just not tasty enough or spicy enough to get very high marks from me. As I've said already if you are in this restaurant and you like burritos than go ahead and give it a try but I wouldn't tell anyone to go out of their way to have this burrito. 

My burrito