When I told my vegan buddy Stromile that I was going to come out to LA for a trip, he said “We should grab some vegan food sometime.”  However, by the time that I did go out there, he was observing some religious holiday, so he couldn’t eat out (I won’t say what holiday, because it’ll date when I actually went to LA).  While he couldn’t eat with me, he did give me a load of good food recommendations.  Most of the recommendations were places that were vegetarian/vegan friendly.  He told me to check out Real Food Daily because it was a great place to celeb watch.  And I had been in LA for a few days and hadn’t seen a single celebrity (I’m not counting a guy that looked like Colin Farrell that drove past me in a vintage Land Rover).  So, Real Food Daily I went!

Real Food Daily is a vegan restaurant that is committed to the vegan lifestyle and promoting healthy eating, balance with nature, and all that other crap that you thought died out with the hippie. Don’t believe me? Instead of salt or pepper, they have “sesame seeds” for seasoning!  This is the kind of thing that makes people hate Californians.

The first thing I noticed when looking through the menu was that everything was ridiculously expensive.  I had such sticker shock that I didn’t have any idea what to order.  The waitress recommended the RFD burger and the Supreme Burrito with ranchero sauce on the side.  I am not a fan of tempeh (which the burger was made from), so I ordered the burrito with ranchero sauce on the side and taco mix included.  I think the burrito would have been tastier without the taco mix, as the taco mix was either tempeh or some dried-out meat substitute which tasted awful.  I was intrigued by the concept of cashew cheese, but I could barely taste it with all the other flavors that were happening.  The burrito overall was actually quite underwhelming, though filling.  I have had much tastier burritos that had no fake meat or fake cheese, and were much cheaper.

Even though I was pretty full from the burrito and all that sesame seed seasoning, the waitress conned me into getting German Chocolate Cake.  Admittedly it wasn’t a hard feat to accomplish, as it’s a lethal equation: Cute Waitress + My Gluttony = Ordering Cake.  Despite being $7, I found it very underwhelming.  One of my favorite parts of German Chocolate Cake is the coconut, and you would think that vegan recipes would include a lot of coconut, but I could barely taste it!  The cake was very heavy, and the cake to icing ratio was scant, which was disappointing, because that was what the waitress recommended also.

It is possible that the waitress’ recommendations for me were just terrible, but I did not really like the food at Real Food Daily.  I think it’s great and all to cater to vegans and emphasize local food, but I would argue that all that fake meat and processed fake cheese cannot be good for you.  If you’re going to be a vegan restaurant, I would much rather have simple natural food (like just vegetables, beans, etc.) with the odd tofu or seitan dish, rather than being completely fake food with the odd natural dish.  I suppose that is the great irony of Real Food Daily, it’s pretty fake, and not very good.  And the worst part of it all (not my bill for $22!) was that I didn’t even see a celebrity.  Next time I’ll just dine at the Ivy.  I’ll give RFD three cheese sandwiches, as they cater to vegans and celiacs, but serve substandard food.

Real Food Daily
414 North La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048 
(310) 289-9910

With the improved weather, comes more trips down to the South End for lunch.  I really enjoy walking in the South End because I love pretending that I live in wealthy neighborhoods.  Sam, Vernon and I decided one day to go to Masa (actually we wanted to go to Picco, but it was packed).  Since Sam’s girlfriend has been in town for a while, they’ve been trying to eat at nice restaurants once a week, and he told me that Masa makes a very good brunch.  We weren’t going for brunch, but from his description it sounded like a good choice.

Unlike Picco, nobody was eating at Masa.  I guess nobody else had heard about the brunch.  We got a nice table by the window and out came the pain gratis (this is my neologism for the year (last year was “primanocht”, you’re welcome America).  The pain gratis was an assortment of corn and crusty breads.

The breads came with a sampler of chipotle hummus (left), maple butter (middle), and red pepper cream cheese (right).  As good as the bread was, the sampler of dips/spreads was much better.  I really enjoyed the maple butter and red pepper hummus, mostly because I’ve grown weary of the chipotlification of modern cuisine (making a “chipotle-” something has become cliche in fine dining). 

There were not a lot of vegetarian dishes on the lunch menu, but what was available did seem interesting.  I ordered the fall vegetable vegetable burrito, which was filled with carrots, parsnips, and other boring vegetables.  I should probably go back in spring (i.e. now), as spring vegetables are way tastier than fall vegetables.  However, the biggest disappointment of the burrito is the deconstruction of it.  All the flavor (i.e. guacamole and salsa) was on the corn leaf, rather than in the burrito!  So, I had to unwieldily dip the burrito into the guacamole/salsa to make it flavorful.

Sam ordered the butternut squash soup and salad combination, and I actually enjoyed primanochting his soup, which was very flavorful, with a faint glimpse of spiciness.

However, nothing could match the chile dusted fries for taste and flavor.  I don’t think you can go wrong with spicy fries (outside of them being oversalted, which these were not).

Masa’s menu is very vegetarian unfriendly (with only one dish being a dedicated vegetarian option).  This is particularly surprising for a southwestern themed restaurant.  From my brief excursions into the southwest, there are plenty of dishes that are vegetarian friendly (or can be made vegetarian friendly).  However, the food at Masa is very tasty.  However, no matter how good the sides and pain gratis is, I can’t promote dining at a place that doesn’t really want vegetarians to eat there (as evidenced by having only one dish that is not particularly great).  So, I’ll give Masa two cheese sandwiches, also for the fact that their website commits ALL the cardinal sins of stupid web design (flash intro, music playing without you wanting it to, having to download PDFs just to read the menu, etc.).  Go with meat eating friends and just fill up on the bread.

Masa
439 Tremont Street
Boston, MA 02116 
(617) 338-8884

Burritoriums are Boston’s equivalent to New York Pizzerias, as there is a burrito shop within three blocks of any location in Boston (I haven’t proven this empirically, but I think this statement holds up for the most part).  One of my favorite Mexican restaurants in general (in Boston especially) is Olé Mexican Grill, which has a cheaper cousin across the street in Inman Square called Olecito.

Olecito has a selection of really interesting vegetarian options, including two different veggie tortas (one cheesy torta, and one veggie torta), but the yardstick for any burritorium is how good is their burrito.  So, I ordered their burrito which was rice, beans, guacamole, sour cream, cheese and grilled vegetables for $5.50.  A very reasonably priced burrito, though it was filled with carrots and squash mostly.  I tried to get some hot sauce on it, but it was not very spicy, and there were no other condiment options available to make it spicier, which is probably the weak point of Olecito as a burritorium.

The bonus points go to the free chips and salsa that come with the burrito, though the chips were a bit stale and the salsa was pretty bland.  Nevertheless, I appreciate free stuff, so I won’t complain too much.

Probably the coolest aspect of Olecito is that they have Boylan’s sodas on tap, which is nice if you like the taste of cane sugar sodas.  But, for my liking, Boylan sodas are not as good as drinking regular Coke from other countries.  I think it’s not just the usage of real sugar, it’s the formulation that’s a little more carbonated water than usual which I prefer.

Overall, Olecito is a pretty good burritorium, and though I didn’t have the best items on the menu, their burrito holds up to its competitors (Herrera’s and Qdoba).  The service wasn’t the friendliest, and it is not a place that you can sit and eat a meal, but otherwise I liked it a lot and will give it four cheese sandwiches.

Olecito
12 Springfield Street
Cambridge, MA 02139-1330 
(617) 876-1374

When I first visited Charles in DC two years ago, he took me to a great Mexicali style restaurant called Surfside Grill, which serves standard Mexican fare, but sexes it up so it can charge $2 more per dish.  Charles technically doesn’t live in Georgetown, but he does live close enough that meal price inflation affects him.  I was still trolling the streets while he was at work, so I decided to stop by Surfside to get lunch.

Surfside is built on a “make it your way” style menu, where there are multiple cards for you to construct the burrito, quesadilla, tacos, or salad of your choice.  There are regular menu items, but these are almost universally meat-containing.  I decided to order a burrito, and thought I’d get some chips and salsa with it.  I had apparently forgotten that the chips and salsa were enough to be my lunch on their own.  The price inflation of Georgetown made me think that $3.99 for a small chips and salsa is fine by Georgetown standards.  I didn’t think I’d really get $4 worth of chips and salsa, which is almost more than a human is fit to eat, unless they’re central American.

After trying to make a small dent into my chips and salsa, I started on my behemoth of a burrito, which was a veggie burrito.  The nice thing about Surfside is that if you make a veggie burrito, you get three options of multiple different veggie options to put into your burrito.  I chose spinach, poblano and onions, and zucchini.  Yes, I know portobello mushrooms is a better companion, but I wanted to eat something quasi-healthy today, as hanging out with Charles usually leads me to having meals of Kit Kats or gum.  He doesn’t cook or like to go out to eat much.  I think he may have an eating disorder.  I topped up my burrito with a cucumber cilantro yoghurt sauce and queso fresco cheese and rice and beans, making a pretty tasty burrito.

Overall, the food at Surfside is really tasty, the salsa is great, and it is more or less an overpriced Qdoba/Chipotle style burritorium.  But I can’t really fault it in that respect, as its not Surfside’s fault it decided to operate out of Georgetown.  So, I’ll give it four cheese sandwiches for an outstanding quality burrito and great chips and salsa.

Surfside Grill
2444 Wisconsin Avenue Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20007-1845 
(202) 337-0004

There was a fire in the Fenway area a few years ago that destroyed several restaurants in the area, and I recall the universal response to the fire was: “There’s no more El Pelón?”  That bothered me for multiple reasons, one everyone who said “no more El Pelón?” said it in the douchiest Spanish accent ever, and also, there were 130 disabled and elderly people were made homeless!  So, El Pelón (picture me saying this every time like a douchebag Spaniard) and I started off an a bad foot, even though it wasn’t El Pelón’s fault.

Universally acclaimed by all long-term Bostonians that I’ve known, El Pelón Taqueria was rebuilt in the Boston College area, much to the pleasure of their former fans. I should say that I enter highly acclaimed taquerias in Boston with a skeptical attitude (because Bostonians have zero taste in burritos – as evidenced by the popularity of Anna’s taqueria and Qdoba in Porter Square closing down).  Nevertheless, despite the multiple strikes against it, I came into El Pelón with an open mind.

I was pleased to see that there was quite a few different options available for vegetarians when entering El Pelón, but I thought the most fair assessment of the place would involve an evaluation of its veggie burrito. The vegetables were fried and since they were mostly squash-based, they were very mushy. I asked for a bit of the hot sauce, but was dismayed by my inability to augment the flavor with a salsa bar. Notwithstanding, I did enjoy the burrito, but didn’t find anything that merited my trek to Boston College for it.  Despite the hype around El Pelón, and the many strikes against it, I really do think it holds up pretty well under scrutiny, and you should definitely go if you’re in the area. Otherwise, save yourself a trip, and go to Qdoba, Boloco, or Chipotle (in that order). If you feel that supporting local business is more important, feel free to tack on an extra half a cheese sandwich and compare to my burrito metareview.  I would like to mention, though that they make an outstanding horchata (probably the best of all the taquerias in Boston), which is very cinnamon-y and pleasant do drink on both cold and hot days (I’d imagine – the temperature was 77 degrees with a breeze, so it was neither hot or cold that day). Thus, I’ll give El Pelón Taqueria three and a half cheese sandwiches.

El Pelón Taqueria
2197 Commonwealth Avenue
Brighton, MA 02135-3853 
(617) 779-9090