I love burritos. I love nearly all types of Mexican food in general, but my love for carne asada burritos makes it difficult to try anything other than that on the menu.
I’ve long felt that Taqueria Santa Cruz had the best burritos in town but today Yarina and I decided to see if anyone could take them down. Taco Roco on Broad Street makes a good burrito so we decided to order one from Taqueria Santa Cruz and one from Taco Roco and to split both of them. Here’s what we learned:
Tale of the tape:
Weight: 576 grams for Santa Cruz, 526 for Taco Roco. Advantage: Santa Cruz
Meat content: advantage Santa Cruz. The Roco burrito is called a ‘steak burrito’ but there’s not as much meat.
Flavor: small advantage Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz uses whole beans and more cilantro while Taco Roco uses refried beans and more rice. Roco was good, but Santa Cruz sits on the Iron Throne for a reason.
Price: Santa Cruz ($7.56), Taco Roco ($8.92), advantage Santa Cruz
Distance from my house: Santa Cruz 9 min drive, 21 minute bike. Taco Roco 11 min drive, 23 minute bike ride. Small advantage Santa Cruz
Crowds: 4 people in line at Santa Cruz. 1 person at Taco Roco. Advantage: Taco Roco. It’s hard to be great and empty, this tends to be an area that you want to lose. That said, if you are going somewhere with a group, it’s hard to get a table at Santa Cruz but easy in Taco Roco.
Conclusion: Upon further review, despite liking Taco Roco’s carne asada burritos, there’s no real reason to ever go there instead of Taqueria Santa Cruz.
TLDR: Taqueria Santa Cruz makes better carne asada burritos than Taco Roco but more testing is needed.
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Taqueria Santa Cruz is the best I’ve had in SLO. It will be interesting to see if you find anyone close. You should try Taco King.
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More data is needed…