Vivian T.
Yelp
TL;DR --
Customer service: 1/10
Food: 5/10
Customer service is slow and pickup system is confusing. The only COVID precaution enforced is mask wearing: some staff handling food were not wearing gloves, staff handles money and do not sanitize afterwards. Food is definitely quantity over quality (items I ordered were not fresh, overly salty or not seasoned).
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I had a huge craving for Mexican food this week so I decided to stop by El Burrito Express, a location that has been in this area for years. I was glad to see this spot still around and I was surprised that their prices had not gone up that much over the years. I made an order online through Yelp/GrubHub for two beef avocado tostadas, a Meat el Burrito with carne asade, a two beef enchiladas plate and a churro.
When I finally reached the location, there was already a line out the door and a few people waiting inside. I saw previous posts and photos on Yelp where there was a dedicated system to pick up orders (tapping on glass?), but did not see this sign up anymore after I walked around the perimeter of the restaurant. Since there were already the max amount of folks inside, I opted to wait in line... for over 30 minutes. People entered the restaurant as they pleased (I'm assuming for pickups?), ignoring the maximum capacity set for COVID. I understand that it was a Friday night, so staff was slammed, but they seemed to take their sweet time assembling food. It was my mistake that I waited in line instead of skipping it since I had already made an order for pickup, but the pickup system was so confusing and there were already so many people waiting inside. As for COVID precautions, they do require staff and customers to wear masks and there is plexiglass separating patrons from staff. However, I did see some staff that were assembling food without gloves and they are NOT strictly contactless, as there were customers that paid in cash and staff did not sanitize afterwards. Customer service was extremely slow. When I finally got to the counter, I was not helped until maybe 5 minutes later.
As for the food... we received a huge bag of free chips with the order, but most of it tasted like it was fried in old oil (?). The beef avocado tostada was nothing special and the avocados did not taste fresh. The Meat el Burrito was great value for the size, but was under seasoned. The two enchiladas plate was massive, but was very salty. The churro was denser that what I am used to and also did not taste fresh.
There are unfortunately not many great Mexican places in this area, but I will definitely go out of my way to make a trip to the Mission instead of visiting EBX again.