Swish: tortilla (9); vegetables (9); sauciness (9); spiciness (9); temperature (9); burstage abatement (9); meat (8); rice (8); cheese (8); ingredient mix (8)
Shrug: size (7); beans (7)
Clang: no elements clanged
Intangibility bonus: 2 (of 2)

Where in the hell did that come from? From approaching Baja Fresh's front door cautiously after hoping the place had closed its doors, to emerging contentedly in the wake of a truly delicious foiled meal, our panel’s first trip here in a really long time spanned some range of emotion. Our lunch arrived strangely flattish, but otherwise OK dimensionally, and its brutally grilled tortilla sure was a sight to behold. But the real star here was the burrito itself, which represented ensemble playing of, if not the highest order, at least on its way up there. Along the way, we encountered nicely brittle red and green bell pepper, robustly spicy salsa roja, and jalapeño slices that helped take things to the next level. The all-melted Jack/cheddar blend made its mark, while the chicken certainly benefited from all the charbroiling and saucy accompaniment. So what if a few drips occurred two-thirds of the way in? Or if the ingredient mix, solid as it was, could have vertically integrated things a bit better? Or if the pinto beans were merely happy to be invited? No temperature dips occurred despite the heavy vegetable involvement, and anyway, we got hella onions. Baja Fresh. Big comeback. Who knew?

One of the strangest slab-devouring episodes on Burritoeater record, and certainly the most beltbusting in that we essentially ate two burritos. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, since given how much Baja Fresh’s friendly, yet severely brain-cramped counter staff muffed our order, it’s a small wonder we weren’t served a dish of lobster thermadore with a side of slaw by mistake. We expected the Dos Manos burrito to be huge, but not so huge that, when foil-wrapped at our request, it had to be sliced in two just to fit into the serving basket. Truthfully, most everything in this burrito (these burritos?) - aside from the stark pinto beans - tasted very good to great, particularly the nicely done carnitas, thorough pummeling of grilled vegetables, and preponderance of pepper. Problem was, we were left completely high and dry on rice (an advertised ingredient in the Dos Manos) and avocado (added by request), while the extra-minimal cheese made virtually no impact. And just as we appreciated their acquiescence to our foil-wrap request, each hefty half of this mega-blimp was wrapped so loosely, they may as well have saved their Reynolds Wrap; a total mess was unavoidable. As it stood, individual category ratings were all over the scale, from one 10 (size) and four 9s (meat, vegetables, spiciness, ingredient mix), down to a 3 (burstage abatement), a lowly 1 (cheese), and of course a 0 for the fully absent rice. At least Baja Fresh’s napkins were among the most substantial in town.

Not quite big enough and flavorful enough to reach the promised land of The Recommended, but more respectable than many other Downtown burrito shops. We wish we had more to report.