sloppy’s burritos / hillcrest – san diego, ca

Sloppy’s Burritos is a new Mexican restaurant in Hillcrest with a focus on serving sustainable, local and healthy ingredients. I was invited recently to come in and try out the food at their new restaurant located on University in the heart of Hillcrest (just across the street from Bread & Cie).

We quickly met up with the co-owner, Matt (aka Sloppy), who introduced us to the restaurant and gave us a quick tour of the menu.

Everything served here is organic, sustainable, non-GMO, and local – the freshest stuff you can get! Matt told us that the avocados they get are dropped off from the local farmers before they head over to the farmer’s market. Jake and I were impressed to hear their dedication to serving food with no extra “stuff” in it, helping to produce a higher quality end product.

You get a choice of either doing a burrito, a bowl or salad. The protein that you choose ends up declaring the price point for your meal – no other charges for your basic food. You can add anything you want for no extra charge, which is really nice.

Lots of their items are gluten-free and it’s easy to go vegetarian or vegan here.

After you pick all of your items (there’s plenty of choices, too – from the type of rice and beans you want, to the kind of tortilla or salsa) they start assembling your burrito.

For the proteins, they use a flash-grilling process to cook the meat. This technique is adapted from Japanese cooking methods and quickly cooks the meats.

They also steam your tortilla right when you order it so things are as fresh as possible before it gets into your mouth.

At this point I stopped photographing the workers and went to wait for the foods to arrive.

The other really cool thing? All Boylan sodas! Boylan sodas are made with cane sugar and are much more richer in flavor and taste than those other sodas. I thought it was really great to see a non-Coke or non-Pepsi beverage machine. I stuck with the Diet CaneCola myself which still had a really nice cola flavor.

I had a sip of the Root Beer which, I kid you not, tasted exactly like cotton candy. Hello, sugar rush!

I kinda wish they had Boylan’s Birch Beer on tap, but let’s not get too crazy and just be happy with what we got, eh?

They brought us out some chips and salsa to munch on while we waited for our burritos. At Sloppy’s they serve Cabo Chips which are made with non-GMO ingredients.

We feasted on the chips with the guacamole, a chiptole salsa, a salsa verde and a pico de gallo.

The chiptole is a 15 chile salsa which brings on the spice and heat. It can be added into a burrito or item for you, or be on the side like above. Jake said that the chiptole was very spicy and accentuated the food but that it wasn’t an overpowering or lingering heat.

This is my “green” burrito which was made with a spinach tortilla. I love how bright it is! I did not notice a particularly “spinach” taste – it still just tasted like a tortilla to me.

I filled up my burrito with: brown rice, black beans, a mixture of free-range chicken and grass-fed steak, lettuce, melted jack cheese, sour cream and guacamole.

Of the two meats, I slightly preferred the steak which was juicy and very flavorful. Much tastier than anything that’s been sitting out in a vat all day waiting to join forces with other ingredients to create a meal.

All together the ingredients tasted so fresh and the flavors just all melded together. In the future I’d probably opt out on the beans, but that’s just because I’m not a big fan of beans in general with their weirdly squishy texture. I really liked that I could pick and choose just what I wanted to go into it so that I knew it was tailor made just for me and my belly.

This turned out to be a pretty hefty burrito and I wasn’t able to finish all of it in one sitting. I did try though, due to it’s highly delicious nature.

This is Jake’s burrito. He stuffed his full with: a jalapeno cilantro tortilla, chicken and beef (I actually copied him, I’m a copycat), black beans, cilantro white rice, cheese, lettuce, roast verde salsa and sour cream.

Not too far off the mark from mine, just a few swaps in there and he added salsa to his (which I opted to forgo since I don’t love salsa in my food). Jake thought the steak was “plump, juicy and very flavorful” in his burrito. We both didn’t get much chicken in our burritos – maybe that’s why we ended up preferring the beef?

T was also with us and this is his burrito monster creation: steak, cheese, cilantro, cilantro white rice, guacamole, and sour cream. Apparently lettuce is evil him.

It’s probably bad of me to not have tried the other items (a bowl, or a salad) but a burrito just sounded so awesome to all of us that day – and it turned out to be awesome (I like it when I’m right). If you’re in the area and are chomping at the bit for a freshly made, health conscious and socially conscious food then be sure check out Sloppy’s Burritos.

Sloppy’s Burritos
3884 4th Avenue
San Diego, CA
(619) 269-2697
Open 7 days a week, 11am-10pm
Free parking in front of the eatery with a Pet-Friendly Patio

Disclaimer: I was invited to dine at Sloppy’s Burritos and our meal was complimentary. I was not paid for this review and all opinions voiced here are my own (or Jake’s!).