User Review
Don Jose's Mexican Restaurant (Castro Valley, CA)
Score: 8 / 10 Reviewed by: burritobabe
Burritobabe is back and boy, is she stuffed.
Don Jose's is a full-service, sit-down Mexican restaurant with a bar. The decor is pleasant and cheery, and the menus advertise that Don Jose's has been in Castro Valley since 1979. It's a nice suburban restaurant.
On this visit, Burritobabe ordered a Super Chicken Burrito ($7.95), to go. About three minutes after the order was placed, the tiny hostess returned from the kitchen groaning under the weight of an enormous brown paper bag. The bag contained an aluminum takeout container sheltering a massive burrito, sides of guacamole and sour cream, a generous take-out cup of tasty medium-hot salsa, and a good-sized sack of tortilla chips.
It was tempting to weigh the burrito to quantify the heft of this sucker. However, as the burrito was not foil-wrapped, Burritobabe was not about to sacrifice her meal to science by plopping it down on a scale. However, she did conduct a post-meal measurement of the dimensions of the takeout compartment filled by the burrito (4" x 8" x 1.5").
The burrito was hot, fresh, and largely well-integrated (with glaring exceptions noted below.) It included generous amounts of shredded chicken, refried beans, Spanish rice, and cheese, wrapped in an extra-large steamed flour tortilla. Because of the takeout container, it was not foil-wrapped. The only defects are in the integration: the guacamole, sour cream and salsa were served *outside* the burrito. A little "fork-forced" integration solved the problem, but Don Jose should really put all of the ingredients inside the tortilla. The guacamole was slightly overprocessed, but still avocado-y.
Don Jose's rates an 8. The burrito was very good, notwithstanding the misguided segregation of ingredients (a fork-curable defect), and Don Jose should get credit for the sheer volume of tasty food provided for the price.
