Anna’s Taqueria’s Burrito Named One of The Best…Again

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Earlier this month, we reported on statistician Nate Silver’s Burrito Bracket, which he implemented on his polling aggregation website FiveThirtyEight. One of the tools Silver used to whittle down the field of burrito contenders was the crowd-sourcing site Yelp. From that accumulated data, Silver then set forth a “Burrito Selection Committee,” which included Momofuku chef David Chang, to further narrow down the competition to 64 examples, which were placed in an NCAA-style bracket.

That apparently didn’t sit well with the food website The Daily Meal and its editor Colman Andrews, former editor-in-chief of Saveur. Like most foodie outlets, they’re not big fans of Yelp. But neither is David Chang apparently, who admitted on FiveThirtyEight:

But I’m just going to come out and say: Most of the Yelp reviews are wrong. They just are. Yelp is great for finding information if you forgot the address of a place. You Google it, you say, “Yes, that’s where it is,” and then maybe you spend some time reading reviews when you’re already on your way to the restaurant. And that’s useful. But for the most part, no chef is going to take a Yelper’s review seriously, even though they might read them.

To counter this faulty methodology, Daily Meal editor Dan Myers pored through pre-existing burrito rankings and blogs and then assembled his own Culinary Council to eat their way through the candidates. Myers’ team mainly consisted of food journalists who preferred to remain anonymous, but also included James Beard nominated chefs such as Jonathan Waxman and Cesare Casella.

“We really canvassed the country for all the best burritos we could find out there using everything from pre-existing rankings in all the major cities to burrito fan sites, which actually exist,” Myers says. “Using that we were able to compile a survey we were able to compile a list of over 100 burritos, not just burrito shops, but individual burritos. We separated that into regions and then sent that out to burrito experts in each part of the country. These included bloggers, our city editors, and a whole host of chefs.”

After much deliberation, The Daily Meal put together a ranking of The 35 Best Burritos in America, which was revealed this week. As expected, most of the selections came from California (10), home to much of the nation’s best Mexican food. But there was one lone representative from New England, Anna’s Taqueria, who also appeared on Silvers’ FiveThirtyEight’s bracket. The company’s grilled vegetable burrito was lauded for its “fresh, hot tortillas” and its medley of “seasoned onions, broccoli, corn, zucchini, squash, eggplant, red onions, sweet potatoes, and seasonal offerings like Brussels sprouts.” Below are some of results. For a full recap, please visit The Daily Meal.

35 Best Burritos in America

1) La Azteca Tortilleria
Los Angeles: Chile Relleno Burrito

2) La Taqueria
San Francisco: Carnitas

3) The Shed
Santa Fe, N.M.: Green Chile Burrito

4) Papalote Mexican Grill
San Francisco: Carne Asada

5) L’Patron
Chicago: Carne Asada

6) Gordo Taqueria
Albany, Calif.: Carnitas

7) La Tapatia
San Francisco: Al Pastor

8) King Burrito
Portland, Ore.: King Burrito

9) La Camaronera
Miami: Camaronera Burrito

10) Dos Toros Taqueria
New York City: Carnitas

11) El Farolito
San Francisco: Carne Asada

12) Cabo Bob’s Burritos
Austin: Pork Burrito

13) Illegal Pete’s
Denver, Boulder: Pork Carnitas

14) La Perla Cocina Mexicana
San Diego: Carne Asada

15) Taqueria Tepango
Brooklyn, N.Y.: Tinga

30) Changos Taqueria
Austin, Texas: Maximo

31) Anna’s Taqueria
Boston: Grilled Vegetables

32) Puebla
New York City: Chicken Mole

33) Black Bear Burritos
Morgantown, WV: Sergeant Pepper’s

34) La Pasadita
Chicago: Super Lomo

35) Taco Surf Taco Shop
San Diego: Carne Asada