Baja Fresh was blowing up around the time I graduated from college. I had the one near my mom’s house in my phone for a while and I set up a number of dinners for pick up on the way home from my job. Then the quality of their food went south so I stopped going. Fast-forward to this past week when I see a billboard for a new Nacho Burrito at Baja Fresh.
I decided that I must have this new burrito. I finally got around to trying it out this afternoon, so here’s a quick review of the new offering from Baja Fresh.
First, you should know that Baja Fresh was bought by Wendy’s in 2002 for 245 million dollars. I graduated in 2003, so the timing makes sense given the hype around the company. However, in only a few years the business has become increasingly less valuable to the point where it was bought from Wendy’s for a song–David Kim of Anaheim, CA led a group of investors to buy Baja Fresh for only $31 million.
After closing a few stores, Kim has supposedly launched some initiatives to reduce wait times and refresh the menu with some new items. The Nacho Burrito is a part of this effort.
First, after I ordered the burrito I was offered some chips to munch on while I waited for the my food. I gladly accepted, even though it was only a small portion of chips. It did make me hit the salsa bar up earlier than usual. Anyhow, the burrito became ready and it was big. I’d say the nacho burrito is roughly the size of an adult hamster, only flatter. To my dismay, it did not come with chips. This meant I was picking through the small little bits I had left from my “wait chips.”
My expectations for a nacho burrito were different than what I experienced. When I saw the billboard, I was thinking that I would run into a lot of chips or crunchy parts while eating it. However, there were only a few small chip things in there. A bit of a let down, as crunch textures go well with burritos, (hence the need for chips). Unexpectedly, there was a strong hint of nacho cheese in the burrito.
How might this be unexpected? I don’t eat nachos. They are gross. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting nacho cheese there it was. You couldn’t really see it, just taste it. I ate the whole thing and wasn’t grossed out but was way too full and the walk home was slow and plodding.
So I give the new Nacho Burrito at Baja Fresh a C+ because it had few chips inside, no chips outside and (admittedly my fault for not thinking this through) a strong helping of easy processed yucky cheese taste.
Man, thanks for the review.
My favorite part is the part about the hamster…only flatter. That’s lame about the chips.
Good thing there is that tasty burrito place near your new apartment!
I got my nacho burrito. Outside the foil wrapping had the circular, purple Nacho label sticker. I opened it up, took a few bites, and noticed there was no yellow whatsoever for the tortilla strips and nacho cheese. I figured they skimped on the tortilla strips. After all, same thing happened with the tomatoes for my Pesto Burrito at California Tortilla. Halfway through this tortilla, it was clear they forgot the nacho cheese. The flimsy argument for the tortilla strips could’ve been they skimped here. You could list tomatoes in a pesto burrito and get away with only including 4 diced ones. You can only include 4 tortilla strips in a nacho burrito. Even a small amount of nacho cheese would be found halfway through a burrito. I called them up, and the lady said I could use her name as reference that I called about this for a free replacement nacho burrito.
We’ll see if they get it right this time.
I’m trying my first Nacho burrito as I type this. First let me say, the idea of the burrito looked so incredibly scrumtrulescent, I nearly ‘O-faced’ just reading the ingredients in line. My expectations were high, to say the least. Just had my first bite and I’m caught off guard. Not at all what I was expecting… don’t see any queso fundido (don’t know whay the hell that is, and I’m pretty sure fundido isn’t a real word, but I don’t see anything even queso-like) Second bite and same thing. Only pinto and black beans with rice and chicken. It’s like a BRC burrito from El Pollo Loco, but 3 times the price.
Oh shit! Just caught a huge chunk of jalapeno… alright… not sure I liked that… hot.
Ok… it cut through the rest of the bland burrito.. but still caught me off guard. Half way done and still no cheese… what the F is a burrito calling itself a Nacho Burrito… without any cheese? No fundido.. no salsa crema… I’d have to say at this point the burrito is probably 60% black bean slurry. I just tore the last of the burrito apart to see if there was some golden treasure trove of delicious cheese waiting for me at the bottom… no dice.
I honestly think that El Pollo Loco sells this piece of garbage on the dollar menu. Thanks for ruining my fucking dreams Baja Fresh.
My thoughts on the idea of this burrito still stand… If you were to take a spicy nacho cheese fondu (I assumed fundido has something to do with fondu and I’m sure I shouldn’t have) throw is some chicken and SMALL peices of jalapeno… pour that over some rice and beans (pinto beans… seriously fuck this ridiculous black bean shit) then throw in some crunchy tortilla strips… you’d have your self a quality fucking ‘rito. Add some tasty salsa crema on the side to dip… you’d be changing your depends afterward.
haven’t had baja fresh in ages, but it was the nearest thing to the bank, so i order me up a nacho burrito, and upon getting half way through feel the need to google and comment on a post 3 years old…cuz, still no cheese. the warning of “it’s spicy” on the menu means nothing, other than it being chalk feull of jalepenos.
i am disappoint.