Mi Burrito II

Last Saturday night, I made my first trip to the new Mi Burrito in Sherwood. It's in the old Mazzio's building near the Neighborhood market, if you're not familiar. Apparently it's not the first "Mi Burrito" as their sign actually reads "Mi Burrito II". I couldn't tell if the "II" was Roman numerals for 2 or an 11, so there is somewhere between one and ten other Mi Burritos somewhere out there.

When we got there around 7:30 on Saturday, there were only about four other groups of people seated, although one group had 6 people in it. I was surprised to see so few people on a Saturday night.

Decor/Layout: The walls had been painted bright colors, in glorious contrast to the white ceiling and trim. It was lively without being garish. There is a small bar area in one corner and booths all around the outside walls. The entire center is tables with no partitions or half-walls to break up the area. The booth I sat in had a big lump in the middle of the seat, so I sat a little to the side. The tile floors are no doubt easy to clean, but when the person bussing tables came through with a push-cart, the sound of the dishes rattling as the cart bumped along the tile was distracting.

Prices: I thought the prices were about average. I didn't notice the lunch menu, but my Chimichanga dinner was $7.25. I can't find a menu online, but two dinners (One chimchanga and one Mi Burrito) plus two frozen margaritas came to a total of $28 before tip.

Food: I tend to judge Mexican restaurants on two criteria: 1) Rice and beans 2) Chimichanga. I realize this may be neither scientific or fair, but the Chimi is almost always what I order when going to a Mexican restaurant for the first time. As for the rice and beans, those are the staple sides, so if they can't get those right, it doesn't bode well for the rest of the meal. At Mi Burrito, the rice was good, but the beans were a little runny. The flavor on both was good, but I would have preferred the beans to be more substantial. I got the chicken chimi and it was very good. It was cooked to a perfect golden brown and was just crispy enough. My companion had the Mi Burrito dinner and had no complaints. The chips and salsa were tasty, but we only got one bowl between us, so we kept bumping chips.

Bar: We didn't sit at the bar, but the drink page on the dinner menu had lots of varieties of frozen and mixed drinks. We both ordered a frozen margarita. I got peach and my dinner companion got a specialty one whose name I can't recall. Mine didn't have a very noticeable peachy flavor. The specialty one had some sort of extra alcohol added and ended up being MUCH stronger than my peach one was. I'm not sure what the price for each one was since the ticket was hand written with no breakout on prices, but the total for both drinks and two dinners was $28 before tax.

Overall impression: The food was good and the atmosphere was agreeable. It's convenient location may be enough to get me back for another day, but with the wealth of excellent Mexican restaurants around town, if I had my choice, I'd probably head to El Porton or end my long hiatus at Casa Mexicana.