Fresh Mex Sweet Pork Burritos

The Preface

Several years ago a new craze hit Utah. It started in St. George with a restaurant called Cafe Rio that served Mexican food made with fresh ingredients that wasn't very spicy and wasn't very greasy. Especially popular were their Sweet Pork Burritos and Sweet Pork Salad. They soon expanded and opened new restaurants and along with that came competition. New companies wanted to join in on this new style of Mexican food, dubbed "Fresh Mex", and soon new franchises started popping up all over Utah. Today, there are four Fresh Mex establishments within one mile of our house. Three of these offer Sweet Pork Burritos (Rubio's being the only one that doesn't), making it imperative to find out: 

WHO HAS THE BEST SWEET PORK BURRITO?

(from left to right) Bajio, Costa Vida, Cafe Rio

The Competitors

Cafe Rio

Bajio

Costa Vida

The Participants

Andrew

Jen

Kris

The Methodology

We got one burrito from each restaurant, each with sweet rice and black beans (at Bajio you can choose between Sweet or Mexican rice and between Black, Pinto or Refried beans. The other two only allow you to choose which beans you want, Black or Pinto). We cut each burrito into three pieces and ate them one at a time. As we ate, we discussed and graded each on its pork, tortilla, toppings/sauce, and overall. 

The Results

Cafe Rio - Pork: 7.76; Tortilla: 7.33; Toppings/Sauce: 5.33; Overall: 7.33; Cost: $6.95 + $.95 for smothered (they call it "enchilada style").

As mentioned, it's Cafe Rio's sweet pork that made them famous. It was quite tasty, and very sweet, but one thing that we noticed is that it tastes more like "sweet" than it does "pork". The sweetness just overwhelmed any actual pork taste. Kris said he could even specifically taste the coke that they marinate the pork in. 

This was everyone's favorite tortilla. The sauce was quite overwhelming and detracted from the rest of the burrito, but it did help to mellow out the sweetness of the pork, which was good. The lettuce seemed a bit dry, and the pico didn't add any flavor at all. The beans were also dry and tasted very "beany", like they hadn't been cooked enough, or something. But overall, this was a good burrito. 

Bajio - Pork: 4.33; Tortilla: 5; Toppings/Sauce: 6; Overall: 5.67; Cost: $6.50 

Bajio's burrito comes with a sad story. They used to be great, even being voted "Best Mexican Restaurant in Utah Valley" in 2009. They had the biggest variety of dishes, the best ingredients, and a deep fryer that made the tastiest Chimichangas you've ever had. In late 2009, however, the owners were bought out, and everything went downhill. They jacked up their prices, dropped several of their dishes, went skimpy on the ingredients and took away their loyalty card. This taste test just helped accentuate their fall even further.

The pork seemed ok.... if you actually got any. There was almost no pork in the burrito at all, making it difficult to even grade it. Instead of pork, they packed it full of rice and beans, which were actually very, very good. In fact, their rice and beans were the best out of the three, but we ordered a Sweet PORK Burrito, and don't feel we actually got that. 

The tortilla was good, though a tad chewy. This may have been because it was the first burrito we ordered, and therefore had time to absorb the sauce that was added. Speaking of the sauce, it was good, but perhaps a bit too much, as its flavor overpowered some of the others. They have really great sour cream, but no lettuce and the pico was just so-so (but better than Cafe Rio's). One positive is that this was basically smothered with the extra sauce and cheese, but they didn't charge extra for it! So this ended up being the cheapest of the three. They could probably afford this as they didn't include much meat, and they normally also offer rice and beans on the side and charge extra for that (but most people don't know that you don't have to get the rice and beans and it makes it cheaper). 

In the end, the lack of pork doomed the burrito, because despite having great beans and rice and pretty good toppings, we just couldn't give it a very good overall score.

Costa Vida - Pork: 8; Tortilla: 5; Toppings/Sauce:8.33; Overall: 7; Cost: $6.79 + $.99 for smothered.

The Costa Vida burrito was very, very good. It had a lot of pork, which was very sweet and very juicy, and unlike the Cafe Rio, still maintained a nice pork flavor to it. It had the best overall pork score, with Jen even giving it a 9.

The tortilla was a bit too thick and a bit chewy. Also, the rice was not good. The kernels were very big, and not tasty. 

What sets Costa Vida apart, though, is how well they do the smothered style. Unlike both Bajio and Cafe Rio, their sauce didn't have an overwhelming flavor, but just made the burrito better. It also had the most, and tastiest cheese of the three. After adding the sauce and cheese, they send it through a little conveyor belt heater thingy to melt the cheese. This also seemed to help the sauce (which was very runny at first) to thicken up a bit, ensuring that it wasn't too watery. The pico was also very good and tasted very fresh and it didn't get lost in the rest of the flavors, but enhanced them instead. 

So, the winner is:

It was a close race, but with the best tortilla and good pork, Cafe Rio just edges out Costa Vida. In fact, if Costa had better rice they could have taken it, as the average overall scores were only a third of a point apart. 

With only 12 cents separating the cost of the Costa Vida and the Cafe Rio, one deciding factor may be crowds. The Cafe Rio in Provo is near BYU campus is almost always packed and it can take quite a while to get through a line and get your food. It's also noisy and hard to find a seat in the restaurant, and can be annoying when you look around and realize 90% of the people in there are kids on dates. If you really want their food I recommend ordering online ahead of time and then just going in to pick it up (you can do the same at Costa Vida, but their lines aren't normally as bad and it's usually not as big a deal). 

Regardless of where you go, you'll leave happy. Despite knowing what we now know, I think Jen and I will keep doing what we've been doing for years: When we want a burrito, we'll go to Costa Vida. When we want a salad, we'll go to Cafe Rio, and when we want a Chimichanga or Mexican Pizza, we'll go to Bajio (nobody else has a deep fryer, giving them a unique advantage and different menu options that the other two joints can't match). 

Mulligatawny Soup

The Preface

(This taste test was performed on April 17, 2010)

Mulligatawny is an Indian curry soup that actually means "pepper water". Legend has it Mulligatawny came about when the Brits controlled India and asked that their Indian cooks prepare them soup -- something that isn't traditionally a part of Indian cuisine. The cooks kind of watered down one of their traditional dishes, threw some other random ingredients into a pot and called it Mulligatawny. Just as the  history is unprecise, the recipe is as well. There are as many variations of the soup as there are restaurants that serve it. This makes doing a taste test difficult, but perhaps even that much more important. We need to know:

WHERE IN UTAH COUNTY CAN WE GET THE BEST MULLIGATAWNY?

The Competitors

Zupas

Guru's

Bombay House

The Participants

Andrew

Jen

The Methodology

When it came to doing the test, we were really just looking for one thing: which one did we like best? This wasn't a blind test, we just tried to figure out which soup tasted the best and why. In fact, we were too involved in trying to figure it out to even take a picture!

The Results

Zupas - Main ingredients: potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes, white (or maybe yellow) onion, brown sugar. Overall, this was a good soup, quite sweet, but they went a little too heavy on the peanuts. There are a couple of other problems with Zupas, though: first, they don't always have Mulligatawny. It's a seasonal thing that comes and goes. Second: each time they bring back, it's a little bit different. This was the second time I've had their Mulligatawny and it wasn't as good as the first time I had it (I had it again a couple months ago, and again it was different, and not as good as either of the other two times I'd had it). The fact that I can't go get a bowl whenever the mood strikes me is a negative, and the fact that I don't know what I'll be getting even if they do have it makes it hard to recommend Zupas. 

Guru's - Main ingredients: chicken, carrot, rice, red onion, apple, celery. This soup actually had the most curry flavor of the three. It was also sweet, though, and the apples added some sweet tartness to it that made it perfect. The rice added some nice substance but at the same time, it wasn't too heavy. 

Bombay House - Main ingredients: potatoes, lentils, celery, cilantro, white (or maybe yellow) onion. This soup, appropriately enough, was the most "Indian" tasting. It was actually quite spicy and reminded us a bit of a minestrone. It was a good soup, but was very different from the other two. 

In the end, we decided the best Mulligatawny soup in Utah County is:

This was just an amazing soup, blending a lot of different flavors, a nice consistency, amazing smell and nice color. It was also nice to get some meat, and the chicken is yummy. Now we have to get it every time we go to Guru's. 

There have been a few new Indian restaurants that have opened up in Utah County since we did this test, and for as delicious and varied as this soup can be, we just might have to revisit this test sometime...

In-N-Out & Chadder's

The Preface:
(This taste test was performed on Jan 9, 2010)
I debated whether or not to even post this taste test because one of the establishments in question is now out of business. However, I decided to preserve the results of the test, so that all who may ever pose the question "Remember Chadders? How did they compare to In-N-Out?" will have an answer to their query.

For those who are unaware, Chadder's was a burger joint that had four locations in Utah and Idaho. They were basically a rip-off of In-N-Out, and copied their menu, colors, style, everything. This seemed like a fine idea at first: bring everyone's favorite west-coast burger joint to Utah County, give it a different name and rake in the dough. But then they got sued. And then, just to spite them, In-N-Out decided to open a new location half a mile away from every Chadder's location in Utah. And now Chadder's is gone (I've heard it wasn't directly because of In-N-Out, but was instead because of bad business management by the owner, but I'm sure the competition didn't help). (Also, we were originally going to make this a three-way taste test and include EZ Take Out Burger, which was a very similar type of burger joint, but they went out of business a couple weeks before we did this test...)

While they were both still around, however, I needed to know:

WHO IS BETTER? IN-N-OUT OR CHADDER'S?

The Competitors:
In-N-Out Double-Double Burger ($2.99) vs Chadder's Stubby-Double Burger ($3.65)
In-N-Out "Animal Style" Double-Double Burger ($2.99) vs Chadder's "Stubby Style" Stubby-Double Burger ($3.65)
In-N-Out  regular french fries ($1.29) vs Chadder's regular french fries ($1.99)
In-N-Out "Animal Style" fries ($3.19) vs Chadder's "Stubby Style" fries ($2.49)
In-N-Out Strawberry Milkshake ($1.85) vs Chadder's Strawberry Milkshake ($2.35)

The Participants:
Andrew
Jen
Jeff
Kat

The Methodology:
To make it a blind test (at least for three of us, Kat prepared each sample for us, so it wasn't blind for her) each food item was assigned a number. She then put each burger onto its own plate and cut it into four pieces. Each sample of fries was also assigned a number and put onto a plate. And each milkshake was transfered to a glass cup so we weren't able to tell which joint it came from.

Kat explaining the rules with the 8 sample plates awaiting us

When it was time to test, we tried a sample of the regular burger from one joint, then its competitor and decided which was better (at first we gave each sample a score from 1 to 10, but by the end we just did a simple "X is better than Y").

The Results:
In the Double-Double vs Stubby Double Burger match-up:
Andrew, Jeff and Kat preferred In-N-Out, while Jen preferred Chadder's. However, Jen's preference came because she didn't like In-N-Out's onions. Jeff hated the Chadder's burger, giving it a 2.

In the "Animal Style"vs "Stubby Style" Burger match-up:
Andrew and Kat felt they were equal, while Jen and Jeff both preferred In-N-Out. This was a closer fight, though.

In the regular fries match-up:
Chadder's actually won this battle. Everyone preferred the Chadder's.

In the "Animal Style" vs "Stubby Style" fries matchup:
This was a tie. Jen hated the cheese on the Chadder's fries, and Jeff said they were too oniony. We all thought the In-N-Out fries tasted burnt. The Chadder's had better sauce on it.

In the Strawberry Milkshake match-up:
In-N-Out wins, with only Jen liking Chadder's more. In-N-Out's was quite artificial tasting, though, and reminded us of Strawberry Quick.


The Chadder's bill was $14.13 (plus tax). The in-N-Out bill was $13.27 (plus tax).

So overall, In-N-Out won 3 of the 5 match-ups, Chadder's won 1, and 1 was a tie. So In-N-Out is the overall winner, though not by a landslide. And Jen and I both very much prefer Carl's Jr and Five Guys to either of these (and pretty much every other) burger place. When it comes down to it, here's my suggestion: If you're in Utah County and are looking for a really great burger, no matter the cost, go to Five Guys. If you're looking for a more fast-food style burger, go to Carl's Jr. If you're looking for fast-food style, but a less expensive option, go to In-N-Out (rather than Wendy's, McDonald's etc). But don't go to Chadder's. Because they're closed.