(Burrito with extras £6.45 and Jarritos Mexican Cola £2.50)
Founded by Jan and Sharon Rasmussen, Mission Burrito is a small string of independant burrito shops around England. Now having crept over the border to Wales, the new Mission Burrito shop in The Friary (you know, where Live Lounge is) becomes their sixth addition to the family. When you walk in it strikes a lovely balance between the professionalism of a chain and the feel of an independent. Clearly now this is a polished enterprise.
The food is simple what it says on the tin type stuff. They make a burrito and they make it well. A four step ordering process makes it simple - you choose the dish, then the filling, then the extras, then the salsa. I plucked for a burrito with a carnitas (pulled pork to you and me) filling, with added lettuce, sour cream, monteray jack cheese and guacamole topped off with chipotle salsa. Not much to say apart from it worked. Infact, looking at the menu you get a feeling any combination would work easily, taking any strain out of ordering. The burrito itself was a brick. Deceptive in size, it took far more eating than most lunches around town. Every bite revealed a new combination of the contents. A surprise though for real winner of the day came from the Jarritos Mexican Soda range. At £2.50 each for a bottle, the fruity tasting cola was a real find. I'd be tempted to pop in to buy a bottle even if i wasnt stopping for food. It was that good.
Sadly there is a downside... Mission Burrito might be good, but it straddles an awkward gap in the market. Something that is neither lunch nor dinner. Or is both lunch and dinner, depending on how you look at it. I've went ahead and catogorised this as a lunching establishment, but you can if you prefer also nip in for dinner. Apart from it feels just too much like lunch. Which is fine because with the number of offices etc in town there is always room for new places to pick up gourmet fast food on your break - but wait! Mission Burrito comes in at a minimum cost of £5.45. Or, if like me you have a couple of extra sauces and then a bottle of the excellent Jarritos cola, it can cost you a whopping £8.95. Now, £8.95 isnt a lot of money really. But it's a hell of a lot more than a Tesco meal deal or a sandwich from a sandwich bar. Not many people fancy spening nine pounds on their lunch break often.
Therein lies the issue - Mission Burrito makes an excellent product to fit a gap in the market that, well, doesnt really exist. Too expensive for lunch but not a proper dining out experience for dinner it falls somewhere in between. It seems they were so busy thinking that creating an outlet to sell a burrito was the gap in the market that they forgot to decide which meal of the day to cater for.
- File under impulse buy.
- File under once in a while.
- File under that great place you loved but didnt really go back to often.
I really hope there is a place for Mission Burrito in Cardiff because it was cracking. The service was fast, the venue was quirky, and the taste was authentic. Hopefully it wins enough people over that it's still there in a few months time when i begin to fancy another - as although i know why i'd go back, i just dont know when.
- Food: 8/10
- Service: 3/5
- Value: 2/5
- Setting: 3/5
- Overall Rating: 16/25
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