I have yet to try a California burrito that I liked. California burritos, should the term be unfamiliar to you, have all the standard burrito fillings — some form of animal protein, beans, cheese, aromatics — then they go and spoil it all by adding something stupid like fries.
Don’t get me wrong. I like fries as well as the next fellow, but they have their place. And inside a burrito is not one of them.
If you beg to differ — and evidently plenty of hungry New Yorkers do judging from the lines that snake around the block — then head over to Electric Burrito, a newcomer to the East Village.
When you finally reach the counter where you place your order, you are confronted with two choices, the California burrito or “conga” burrito (crema instead of fries), plus three basic fillings: carne asada, pollo asada, or carnitas.
There are also a few variants such as the breakfast burrito (eggs, beans, and cheese), the lunch burrito (add bacon and fries to the breakfast burrito), and a quartet of items under the heading “specialty burritos” in which the fries are swapped out for rice.
The menu advises that you can add fries to any of these for an additional two bucks. Sometimes there’s just no winning.
Electric Burrito, 81 Saint Marks Place, 646-870-0104.
