Taste Tampa Bay

Back in April the local papers reported that Burrito Bros. Taco Co., the fresh-mex hole-in-the-wall across from the UF campus in Gainesville, was opening its first ever franchise location in Carrollwood. There is reportedly also plans to open another location in South Tampa. While I haven't eaten yet at the new Carollwood location, I did have a chance this past week to eat at the original Burrito Bros. - well sort of. It turns out that Burrito Bros is currently operating out of a temporary location, while the building that has housed the restaurant for nearly 30 years is renovated. I was curious if the food was really as good as former UF students rave about or if their passion for Burrito Bros. was more of a nostalgia "memory lane" thing. My lunch experience last week (granted this was at the temporary location) suggests the latter.

The food was simply good, certainly not great. I ordered three crunchy tacos (two beef, one chicken), my bride-to-be Traci had a chicken burrito and we split an order of corn chips and guacamole. While the guacamole was some of the best I've ever had, the tacos were only average. I had a bite of Traci's burrito and thought it was fairly average, too. While I normally go with independents over chains, I'd choose Chipotle next time over Burrito Bros. I've eaten at multiple Chipotle locations well over a dozen times, and while I have my occasional gripes, the food is always tasty. I hope the new Burrito Bros location in Carrollwood does well, but I think they're in for a tough fight with Chipotle, Tijuana Flats, Moe's et al popping up everywhere.

As a side note, we also ate at Satchel's Pizza and Newberry's Backyard Bar-B-Q (Newberry is a 20 minute drive from Gainesville) while we were in town. Satchel's was worth the 40 minute wait- their house salad was delicious and their thin crust pizza was a winner. There is also a cool "junk store" behind the restaurant. As for Backyard Bar-BQ, I love good barbecue and this place is now definitely on my list of favorite down-home barbecue joints.

Bottom-line: I'll cut Burrito Bros. some slack because they're in a temporary location right now, but I still don't see what all the fuss is about. The food was good, but not great. There's other independent taquerias (TQ's in Hyde Park comes to mind) they can take lessons from.

Inspection Scorecard: Last inspection: April 2005 violations - Critical (8), Non-Critical (2).