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1552 Fillmorecross street: Geary
ph. 415/921-9900
Map Visits: 2
It’s on Fillmore. It’s a Mexican grill. It’s Fillmore Mexican Grill, and it opened to little fanfare in February 2008 amid this district’s attempted jazzification. What’s wrong? Burritos arrive on Styrofoam plates and ESPN obnoxiously blares from the television overhead. What’s right? The walls feature Picasso works and surfboard-shaped Corona ads alike, and the manager has been known to wear a cool hat. What's most important here? To us, the burritos — and they're totally underwhelming. Breakfast, bottled beer, pastrami sandwiches, and many many flavors of Venom energy drinks all available. Credit cards accepted.
Shrug: tortilla (7); meat (7); vegetables (7); cheese (6); spiciness (6); ingredient mix (6)
Clang: beans (5); sauciness (5)
Intangibility bonus: 1 (of 2)
For the first two-thirds of this hefty slab, we were pretty much convinced that salsa had been outlawed in Fillmore Mexican Grill’s kitchen. But along with some reasonably good guacamole and a weird patch of black beans, it showed up in the late moments — too little, too late, though. Parched moments characterized many bites here, and the lightly grilled tortilla came off mildly tough; now, if only the disappointing presence of whole pinto beans had been as vague as the burrito’s peripheral spice. In happier news, construction was faultless, and we enjoyed the plump grains of Spanish rice, even though there were too damn many of them on hand. The pico de gallo may have been extra-tangy, but the grates of cheddar couldn’t decide if they wanted to be melted or not. As you've surely gathered by now, there were ingredient mix issues here, and they were mostly troublesome. And the final bites were profoundly weird...like someone had slipped our panel a different burrito almost. Almost.
Shrug: rice (7); beans (7); sauciness (7); ingredient mix (7); tortilla (6); meat (6)
Clang: no elements clanged
Intangibility bonus: 1 (of 2)
One of the heavier burritos we’ve met on the San Francisco taqueria circuit, Fillmore Mexican Grill’s slabular stab at early mustachioed credibility was the portrait of serviceability. Hardly anything other than the basics – construction and heat – were nailed; by the same token, nothing here made our panel cringe in disgust, although the amount of cheddar used in the fully melted cheese blend did raise an eyebrow or two early on. We appreciated the avocado slices and chopped (purple) onion, as well as the spicy salsa that seemed to kick it up a notch with every ensuing bite. However, the ingredient mix allowed the otherwise harmless rice the freedom to run roughshod at times, and neither the tasty refried beans nor the too-soft carnitas maintained enough of a profile for membership in this burrito’s swish club. And the steamed tortilla was noticeably chewy. But as a whole, it marched through these mild shortcomings to notch a respectable, if dull place on the mantle of first efforts.
