Breakfast Burritos

My GF has a serious breakfast burrito addiction. Being a good enabler, I was wondering where people thought the best breakfast burritos in the city are. She needs to get the best fix she can. Suggestions?

Man, I almost hate to give this one up...oh well.....David's Grill

NW Corner of Cermak & Halsted. Ham & egg or chorizo & egg. Three bucks. With salsa verde and a cup of coffee, gets you going at 7AM.

Seriously good. Darn good tortas too.

Breakfast burrito's are one of the originated-in-the-USA Mexican foods, IIRC, so don't look too hard for something authentically Mexican (as in how it's typically prepared in Mexico). I don't often eat these, but when I do I like the ones offered at Burrito Beach at Ogilvie Transportation Center (there are additional locations Downtown). The Burrito Beach tacos are pretty good, also (but I have them for lunch, not breakfast).

Brett's Cafe Americain and Lula Cafe both have outstanding Breakfast Burritos. Fresh ingredients, good sauce, nice size

Brett's Cafe Americain
2011 W. Roscoe
Chicago, IL
(773) 248 - 0999
http://brettscafe.com/

Lula
2537 N. Kedzie Boulevard
Chicago, IL 60647
(773) 489-9554
www.lulacafe.com

I like the breakfast burritos at Tweet - they are made w/fresh organic ingredients and quite large. IIRC, they offer quite a few choices. Most "trendy" brunch spots have at least 1 breakfast burrito on their menus these days.

Agreed about the trendy places. But I will say most trendy places fall short because all they do is put scrambled eggs, some sausage, maybe some peppers and maybe some salsa into a tortilla.

A breakfast burrito can be soooo muchh mmooorree..

jpeac2 wrote:Agreed about the trendy places. But I will say most trendy places fall short because all they do is put scrambled eggs, some sausage, maybe some peppers and maybe some salsa into a tortilla.

A breakfast burrito can be soooo muchh mmooorree..

Precisely why I want to find the best.

Victory's Banner makes a WICKED breakfast burrito.

Victory's Banner
2100 W Roscoe
Chicago

This is a far way to travel, but if you're ever in Urbana, Illinois, the Courier Cafe has the best breakfast burrito I've ever had in my life.

On a side note, my wife and keep teasing that if Chipotle ever started to make breakfast burritos that we'd be the fattest couple in Chicago.

breakfast burrito can be soooo muchh mmooorree..

Since the breakfast burrito is a relatively new addition to the menu - and not really a traditional Mexican food item (someone correct me if I'm mistaken on this point) - there are no standards to point to as to what one might expect, or compare against (Oaxaca style breakfast burrito, Yucatacan, etc., etc.); what's "best" or not will be a very subjective determination. What constitutes "soooo muchh mmooorree.." to you?

Bill wrote:

breakfast burrito can be soooo muchh mmooorree..

Since the breakfast burrito is a relatively new addition to the menu - and not really a traditional Mexican food item (someone correct me if I'm mistaken on this point)

No argument there.

"The burrito, meaning literally little burro or donkey, became irreversibly linked to the tortilla-rolled packages. Burrito lovers David Thomsen and Derek Wilson believe that the modern burrito originated "in the dusty borderlands between Tucson and Los Angeles." The word burrito first saw print in America in 1934. It was sold at Los Angeles's famed El Cholo Spanish CafÚ during the 1930s. Burritos entered Mexican-American cuisine in other parts of the Southwest around the 1950s and went nationwide a decade later."

There's more about the history of Mexican-American cooking at http://food.oregonstate.edu/ref/culture/mexico_smith.html

Bill wrote:

breakfast burrito can be soooo muchh mmooorree..

Since the breakfast burrito is a relatively new addition to the menu - and not really a traditional Mexican food item (someone correct me if I'm mistaken on this point) - there are no standards to point to as to what one might expect, or compare against (Oaxaca style breakfast burrito, Yucatacan, etc., etc.); what's "best" or not will be a very subjective determination. What constitutes "soooo muchh mmooorree.." to you?

Good point.

To me a lot of the problems come from breakfast places buying tortillas, putting scrambled eggs in, some beans, and then maybe sausage and salsa and calling it a day without really thinking the flavors and the actual ingredients through. Sometimes these flavors will overpower each other and make the burrito tasting like one item while the others lay dormant in the background. Other times they use lousy ingredients that do not have much flavor or do not mesh with the overall concept.

In my opinion, there needs to be something that draws the flavors together. Sometimes this is attempted to be done with some sort of sauce. However, this is hit or miss to me as a lot of times there is too much sauce or it is too overpowering that blankets all of the other ingredient's individual flavors.

Ingredient-wise, I am a fan of beans, homemade tortillas, avocado, sausages, eggs, sauces, sour cream, cilantro, pretty much anything really.

But for me I guess one of the most important things is that there is good balance and great ingredients and to me that is when the burrito as a whole starts to give me that transcendental flavor/feeling.

Thanks for the excellent come-back. Breakfast isn't a very important meal to me, usually . . . and I can't get too excited here about the breakfast burrito. I've lived/worked in Mexico (Mexico City) and such a thing doesn't exist there, IIRC. I can't offer a suggestion as to where to find what you're looking fo here in Chicago. Now, if you wanted a sandwich of a tamale stuffed in a bolillo for breakfast (a "working man's breakfast). . . I'd suggest you head-up to Clark & Lunt in Rogers Park, or to any other enclave of Mexicans living in Chicagoland.