Last week, Mission Loc@l and SFGate.com readers told us who makes their favorite burrito in the neighborhood. The graphic above shows the results of the poll we took, with El Farolito and Taqueria Cancun overwhelmingly taking the top spots.
The poll was inspired by last Friday’s #Burritup, a tweet-up that drew friends and strangers to Taqueria Cancun, La Corneta, El Farolito and El Buen Sabor for burrito taste tests. Participants ranked the taquerias for their use of salsa, consistency of meat and quality of wrap jobs, among other things. While El Farolito came out the winner on our poll, Taqueria Cancun came out the winner of the Burritup’s contest after receiving a last-minute tie-breaking vote from an eater.
Mission burritos are renowned for their size and the amount of ingredients, and have even inspired a style that is replicated by national chains like Chipotle.
The origin of the Mission-style burrito is as nebulous as the origin of the burrito itself.
Some claim that El Faro served the first “super burrito” in 1961. Others say it first appeared in 1961 at La Cumbre. Whoever made the first one, it’s clear that the burrito has had a long and hefty history in the Mission.
Mariachi’s Rules! Can’t believe it not even in the poll. Try it you will love it. Located right across the street from La Cumbre between 16th and 17th and Valencia. Clean, inexpensive, delectable food and great folks to boot!
Favorite burrito places will always be debatable.
Martin Holden’s comment sounding like a pretentious dick, NOT DEBATABLE.
Hey Martin, we actually hosted a poll on our site, and the tallies included write-in votes from SF Gate, our site as well as Facebook. While we didn’t quite reach the level of recreating the Census, we tried to sample more people than just from Twitter. Cheers!
Elsa’s on Mission near 25th has my favorite deal, just $3.25 for a vegetarian burrito.
I spent three winters traveling all over Mexico in the 80’s when burritos were already popular here and never saw one down there. I like the constancy of Mexico, they stick with what they like and never adopted the American invention of burritos because they were satisfied with their food as it was. Now I suppose they sell them in border towns, but not further south.
El Faro on 20th has always been my favorite too. I know it’s not really technically a traditional burrito, but their acapulco has fresh shrimp and imitation crab meat with onions and peppers. love it!
The best Mission Burrito is and always will be the original mission burrito from El Faro.
There are many imitators and they have “played” with recipe, but in the end you’ll all return to the best.
A carnitas Happy Burrito with a few jalapenos stuffed inside is food from the gods. On your knees you unworthy souls and pray you get to taste one!
they all suck compared to san diego. =(
A noble attempt to apply the scientific method in the public interest! Noble, but deeply flawed. First, I would point out that the the sampling cohort was restricted to
Twitterers; not necessarily a broad demographic. Second, the assumption that the the “Mission- (or Super-) Burrito” is the sine qua non of burritodom is not necessarily true. It’s more an example of American excess, like Denny’s “Grand Slam” breakfast. Third, as is usual in these polls, the oldest, biggest, most centrally-located places always seem to garner the laurels. That implies a lack of serious ground-truthing. As they always say in science, “More work is needed!”