This was supposed to be a Dueling Dishes post on shrimp burritos between Del Taco and Taco Bell. But it turns out Taco Bell's Pacific Shrimp Burrito already sleeps with the fishes. It was their Lenten special last year. This year, the company is a little more than preoccupied with that whole Doritos shell game.
So who to pick as the shrimp burrito stand-in? Baja Fresh. Why? Because I said so. But it does seem appropriate: Baja Fresh, like Taco Bell, is headquartered in Irvine. And Del Taco is based in Lake Forest…so there's that.
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But truthfully, Baja Fresh's shrimp burritos and Del Taco are
different beasts from entirely different species. First of all, Baja
Fresh's shrimp are griddled from raw, not battered and fried from frozen
as Del Taco's obviously are.
And the burritos themselves are more
expensive at Baja Fresh–$7.29 compared to Del Taco's $3.79. They're
also twice as big as Del Taco's, which doesn't have the shape of a
burrito as it merely resembles a hastily wrapped crepe. There's also the
fact that Baja Fresh actually has four different burrito variations to
choose from.
They do, however, advertise their Diablo Shrimp Burrito on their website
above all other shrimp burrito iterations you might come up on your
own. So that's the one I'm comparing to Del Taco's Baja Shrimp Burrito.
Baja Fresh's contender is certainly a gut-filling specimen, quietly
spicy with a slowly building smoked chipotle salsa that's as dark as the
black beans, and matches its earthiness. The problem is that all else
is silenced in the presence of both. The rice practically disappeared,
and if the shrimp weren't plump and plentiful, they would've been
drowned out too.
Del Taco's burrito has a zing to it. But also crunch thanks to
cabbage and the pebbly breading on the shrimp. You don't taste the
shrimp as much as you taste that which covers it. The rice was still
fluffy; and a tangy, mayo-like sauce with a slight chile sting provided
most of the flavor, but it was enough to make the whole thing sing.
The shrimp is of a better quality at Baja Fresh, but I am surprised to
report that I actually liked the Del Taco burrito better. I remain
curious on what Taco Bell's shrimp burrito was like…but perhaps in
this case, ignorance is bliss.
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.