Alexandra K.
Yelp
I've been curious about Jackass Burritos ever since hearing about its addition to the Stephen Starr empire in Philadelphia a few months ago. I've been a fan of Starr's restaurants for 15 years, and I love a good vegetarian burrito, so I was excited to try (especially given all the glowing reviews). So I'm sad to say this is probably the first time I was disappointed by a Stephen Starr experience. Not that the burrito WASN'T good - I got the grilled vegetable mission style burrito with salsa verde and corn & poblano, and it was good, but...that's it. It was decently spicy, but nothing crazy (my partner's burrito with habanero salsa, on the other hand, was very intense). The level of cheese and crema verged on decadence - not a negative, because I don't deny myself culinary indulgences, but more an observation. The effect of a heavier level of dairy will mute some of the other flavors and spice though. The flavors in the lime cilantro rice, for example, were so subtle that I honestly would have thought it was regular white rice if you didn't tell me otherwise. The beans, pico de gallo and guacamole were all okay, but the grilled vegetables mostly seemed to consist of onions (and not all of those grilled all that well through either). It was generally underwhelming relative to my expectations.
It's not that I wouldn't eat a Jackass burrito again, but if I did, I'd get habanero sauce as the only topping. And really, I've had vegetarian burritos as good and better in my West Philly neighborhood, so I wouldn't travel into CC just for this. Since I haven't seen other reviews for the grilled vegetable burrito, I figure that their meat-based options are superior (not that I'll ever know for sure). So to all vegetarians- skip the jackass ghost kitchen, and just get the vegetarian tacos from El Rey. It's been two years since I've had them, but I still remember thinking that they were the best tacos I've ever had.