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cityweekend

For all who miss the late-night runs to Taco Bell, here is your chance to taste a California-style burrito. This fluorescently lit Tex-Mex place has a decent selection of grub on the menu including burritos, quesadillas, chili and chips and salsa. You can add cheese, sour cream, guacamole or salsa to your order for only Y8, and get a choice of black or kidney beans and yellow or red rice for your burrito. We started off with the Fried Corn Chips (Y23) and dipped it into the mildly spicy salsa, then moved on to a delicious 10-inch Chicken Fillet Burrito (Y38). For those with healthy appetites, we advise upgrading your burrito to 12 inches or trying their quesadillas; the Original Formula Chicken Fillet quesadilla (Y38) with extra cheese was surprisingly mouth-watering and quite possibly the highlight of our meal. It's not fine dining, but for a fast-food fix of hearty Mexican-style classics, this place is a good option. -Hana Ilic

 

jonesluo

Finally! Authentic burritos from California have arrived……Complete ingredients! open flame broiled meat! genuine taste! great atmosphere and reasonable price……

 

1 year, 9 months ago

terryhsu

I tried the Cal kitchen burritos few days ago,it's realy original California great taste.the price is very reasonable,I would like to try again their other stuff such as chip & salsa and corn dog.

1 year, 7 months ago

frankyang920

Best burritos in town! You don't want to miss it!

1 year, 7 months ago

urbanjunkie

I had steak and chicken burritos with refried beans and yellow rice,they were both pretty good,taste exactly like the ones in San Francisco. It's got all the basic ingredients:meat,beans,spanish rice,guacamole,salsa,sour cream,what's not to like?! I'd be grateful to have a bite of such genuine burritos in China! And the flan is highly recommendable as well,a must-eat at Cal Kitchen.

 

1 year, 7 months ago

madisonave

Cal Kitchen is great for what it is - a low-key, Tex Mex place, perfect for a late night run with your pals. It has good quesadillas that are even better with extra cheese, and all of the main ingredients for burritos such as sour cream, guacamole, salsa, cheese, rice, and beans. The guacamole is not as good as we had hoped, but then again China in general lacks the great chunky guacamole that we can get anywhere in America. a 10 inch burrito will stuff you up just enough to try some corn chips and whatever your friend is having.

 

1 year, 7 months ago

greg26

Yes, it's good for what it is. Grab a very casual burrito from the counter. Good enough to meet the craving, not good enough to write home about. Some silly pricing ... the extras are seriously expensive.

1 year, 3 months ago

zimbu

Cal Kitchen: Visited this place for the first time today on Da Gu Road (near Shi Men Yi Road). I tried to go when they first opened a couple of months back, but each time there was a sign posted claiming some problem with "the equipment". My guess is that their business licenses were not in order and they got caught up in the ridiculous/typical sweep of restaurants by the inspectors at that time.

Basically it is a build-your-own burrito place similar to Freebirds (located in college towns in several cities in the USA) or Chipotle (fast food chain...for some strange reason, it is disturbing to know that Chipotle is owned by McDonalds!).

I had stayed away from this place for a while since I had read some very so so reviews in the expat mags. They all seemed to hint that this place was bad or completely unauthentic or whatever. Maybe the reviewers were Europeans looking for goose liver paste finger sandwiches or maybe they did not receive the proper "grease" (ad placements) from the restaurant owner?

Score: If this place was located in California, I would give it a 7 (so so). But since it is located in Shanghai, I give it an extra 1.5 points for good effort against all odds, for a total score of 8.5 out of 10! That is surprisingly good in my book.

Get out your calculator and follow along with me as I reveal the complex Zimbu Scoring Matrix that was used (Copyright 2008, Zimbu Ltd. Co., please do not use without permission and royalty payment agreements in advance):

1 point for nice sign outside -1 point for too many flies flying around 1 point for nice brochure/menu 1 point for nice lean beef choice -1 for using chicken leg meat instead of chicken breast -1 point for not offering "beef chili" as a burrito filling option even though it is sitting right there in the same warming table 1 point for authentic tortillas 1 point for two sizes, 10 inch and 12 inch 1 point for authentic corn tortilla chips -0.5 points for so so salsa. It needs some chilli peppers to give it at least a tiny bit of zing -2 points for green mystery mayo sauce being called "guacamole" 1 point for nice red rice 1 point for nice yellow rice 1 point for nice black beans, red beans, and refried beans -1 for no lettuce inside burritos -1 for all of the meat choices being too dried out. A little broth left in the warming pans would be a big improvement 1 point for offering Diet Coke 1 point for awesome clean bathrooms and hand-wash sink 1 point for professionally equipped and clean kitchen 0.5 points for ok decoration (not great, but ok) 1 point for nice jallepeno peppers -1 point for only one salsa choice 1 point for friendly staff -0.5 points for slow speed of preparation

OK, now take the sum of the above points, divide by 4, then again divide by 3, then multiply by 2 and again multiply by 6.

Now throw out that number and then starting at zero, add 8.5 points because Zimbu said this is the score for this place.

 

1 year, 2 months ago

jameslin

got it delivered and the chicken burrito tasted pretty good, but it looked liked an enchilada. What happened to the burritos where you have to hold on to with both hands. Supersize it!

 

11 months, 4 weeks ago

fatcow

The corndog is good, but not worth the trip in itself. Burritos and quesadillas were nothing special and service was distracted at best.

 

9 months, 3 weeks ago

greg26

Let's be serious. These are not good burritos. The flavors are just off. You may still want a burrito because you miss them, but these are not what you find in the States.

4 months, 3 weeks ago

kamapuaa

These are the only authentic burritos in Shanghai. Rice, beans, salsa, meat, you know what I'm talking about. Nothing Chinese-ee or bad-wannabe-Taco-Bell about it.

OK true it really isn't all that great, it costs a little much, and the new location really sucks. But when I'm jonesing for a Mission-style burrito this is the only place that even resembles the real thing, and yes I have tried all the others.

1 week, 6 days ago