Chilango, Islington, London

This place is the fucking bomb! Love it!

Cheap, cheerful and delicious! Go there every couple of weeks.

Dropped in there tonight as I was in Islington for work reasons – very glad I did. Had a very nice, good sized veggie burrito, with hot salsa and extra hot sauce – and was pleasantly surprised that it was actually really good and spicy.
Very smiley staff too – which makes a difference.

Tried this Mexxy takaway and its not for me, more for the Mcdonald generation who can put up with terrible level of food YUK YUK never agian
As an update went back there to try anoher wrap [at someone else’s insistance and expense} and this one tasted marginally better, but still not
up to my standards,but not as bad as the first one
Tip
give the thing some heat

A craze for burritos is sweeping through London town. 2010 may have been the year of the underground burrito (albeit with numerous front page articles about how underground and unknown it all was) but 2011 is the year when the masses will gobble up burritos like they were kebabs.

Anyway, my burrito order: Chicken please (cheapest at just below £7), salsa, no guacamole(yuck) and both cheese and sour cream (of course). Wrapped up and plonked rather unceremoniously into a paper lined plastic basket, it didn't stun me with its size, as I was expecting from other's comments.

However, once I started unwrapping my prize from its foil coverings I realised why it was known as a beast. Almost too big to fit my mouth around, I think it may well be impossible to eat without making a mess. But if you can ignore the rice and beans landing on your dry clean only dress at regular intervals, then the burrito itself isn't too bad. But, when the focus is on devouring food without causing some kind of structural fault to occur, the foods flavour itself becomes a sideshow.

I went for the mildest option, which hopefully explains the lack of strong flavour from any part of the burrito. The chicken was nice, as were the beans. The tortilla was warm and moist. In all it was very nice. Nice of course, being a word which damns with faint praise. It hasn't put me off burritos for life, but, combined with a rather steep price for what is essentially a wrap wrapped in foil, I wouldn't make the journey to Upper Street purely for it. I have been since to the new Chancery Lane Chilangos, and had a steak burrito, which was better, but I still don't think it's worth the price.

'Fresh Mex' you say?
Yes, Chilango is fresh mexican rather than dodgy deep-fried tack-fests. It's a refreshing change to enjoy 'proper food' from a type of Taco Bell-Chiquito fast food theme-monster of a restaurant. Ditch the dodgy theme cantina with cheap sombreros and get to a Chilango to eat proper fresh, great quality food that can be eaten in a hurry (or sometimes enjoyed with a chilled cerveza).

The burritos here are spectacular, especially the chicken and steak. Also the staff are surprisingly joyous which is a nice treat as you queue school-dinners style to pick out your dream burrito combo.

The Chilango guys who run things seem to be really into their customers and I went down to one of their 'tasting' nights which was a genuine opportunity to try a new recipe for their tacos. I sat at the table last May and tried 12cm and 15cm corn tacos (these guys are very precise about getting it just right). They had some proper old-school Mexicans grind up corn (not flour) to make these special soft tortillas by going through a traditional production process called 'nixtamalization'. Here's a pic from wikipedia of the production process involved http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/Tortil...
Yeah, nixtamalization hombre, stick that in your taco!

The corn tacos were fab, as have been the standard flour tortillas that i've eaten at Chilango since (quite a lot). I'm also a massive fan of their guacamole that they mash-up fresh every few hours (It's even better than mine: that makes me mad).

The Chilango guys are always doing crazy stuff and keep entertaining things going on their little corners of the web, in fact they introduced me to a mariachi cover song that I sometimes finish my DJ sets with. Seems appropriate for you to listen to at the end of my review of Chilango: the burrito champions.

Delicious food, great service. Good prices. Not a bad word to say about it.

This is what we need more of in London. Chilango is the ultimate fast food place for grown ups. Instead of slush puppies they have frozen maragarita, and instead of really junky food they have burritos, which is much better for you than a burger. It’s a complete meal in a roll, and pimp it up with some salsa and guacamole and you’re laughing!

Chilango is the perfect place to go to with a bunch of friends and have a few drinks whilst being able to eat somewhere really cheap. The prices are rock bottom and you are paying for really nice food. Nothing is deep fried and swimming in oil which for cheap eats is pretty hard. I think Chilango is going to prove a hard act to follow.

I've been going to Chilango since it first opened as Mucho Mas, but I rarely go there any more. The main reason is that the price they charge for a pretty small buritto is too high. Also the quality of the food has slipped slightly.

When in need of a buritto whilst in Islington these days I tend to go to Tortilla, as they are better value for money, whilst being (almost) as tasty.

I actually got converted to Chilangos during a taster session for their new steak marinade. The guys behind it seem to really care about the quality and sourcing of their ingredients hence the slightly higher prices. They also do the most fabulous frozen margaritas ever, I'm sold!! The nice thing about the tasting session was I got to find out about lots of ways to customize your burrito e.g. did you know that you can have half and half of the different fillings such as half chicken and half pork. And that you can mix the salsas together so you can get the fresh tang of the mild with its chunky tomatoes plus an extra hit of heat from the hot? It's hard to not just pick from the available options when you can feel the death rays from the rest of the queue boring into the back of your head but I'm assured there will be secret off menu items coming soon so don't forget to ask next time you're in but shh don't say I told you!

Grabbed dinner here last night. Its expensive (£6.30 for a chicken burritto, another £1 for guacamole) and as others have mentioned, the portions are pretty tightly controlled. That said it does still taste good.

I much prefer going to Tortilla down the road as its cheaper and the portions are better. Plus you can have cheese and sour cream without having to pay extra.

It's like a Subway - except the food actually tastes fresh and they sell Jose Cuervo margerita slushes!

The burritos are huge and very tasty - with meat and spice intensity options on offer. However if you're low on pennies, watch out, they charge an extra £1 for guacamole...

There's alot of hype about this place, but after all the heightened expectations, I was disappointed: this is just a mexican burrito takeaway place.

While their burritos are good, and much better than what you will get from a street vendor and using very tasty ingredients, the price is quite high considering it really is fast food, served to you McDonalds style on a plastic tray, with the burrito wrapped in kitchen foil. The Aqua Fresca as well was somewhat artificial tasting, reminding me of a regular sugar laden colouring saturated drink.

Whilst they've occupied a niche market for themselves (how many fast food burrito places in London do you see?) they're somewhat exploiting the hype of something new by not really giving much for charging quite a bit for it. I'm hoping more competitors open up to provide some more choice in London!

Reviewed by
The London Insider
http://www.london-insider.co.uk/2009/08/chilango-mexican-...

I'm torn between three and four stars for Chilango. On the one hand the burritos are nice, the restaurant itself is rather lovely and the staff can wrap a burrito pretty speedily.

I do think it's a little pricey though. I've had bigger burritos that taste just as good in central London for less. And once you get a drink (albeit bottomless, but there's only so much coke you're going to drink in one sitting) it comes to around £7. Oh, and they charge extra for guacamole.

I think I'll have to familiarise myself with London's other Mexican places before I can compare. Chilango is good, but I doubt it'll be the best.

Good burritos but better can be had elsewhere. The meat is really good but not a fan of whatever they put in the rice... Also, 80p for guacamole makes a chicken burrito over six quid which is a little pricey for regular lunchtime. Impressed with how fast they make the burritos!

I'm a huge fan of Chilango, but sadly live right at the opposite end of London so rarely get to visit. Having tried brands like Chipotle in the US it was about time that the UK got an equivalent.

Chilango does amazing burritos made with fresh ingredients. Walking down a conveyor belt system, you get to choose how your burrito is made from the type of chilli sauce, to whether you want added extras like guacamole. The burritos are stuffed full and eating them can get quite messy, but then that's all part of the fun! The place is licensed so you can choose to have Mexican beer and margaritas with you meal, but the bottomless hibiscus juice is equally tempting.

Think of this as the Subway of Tex-Mex. You pick the ingredients you want in your burrito/taco, and people make it for you. It's a production line type deal.

That said, Chilango probably make the best burrito I've had in London. I like how they've got the multiple flavour thing going on in their food, what with the marinated meat (veggie options too), choices of beans (pinto or black), salsas (mild ->hot), options of salads and guacamole (how can you not include it?).

They are licensed so you get to have your Modelo Especial with your meal, which is pretty cool, I thought. They've designed the place quite interestingly. Kind of "hip" Mexican, playing off that wrestling type theme.

I should stress that this is doesn't compare to the likes of Mestizo or Mercado, two proper Mexican restaurants (where you'd better NOT be ordering a burrito!), but it does Tex-Mex fantastically.

Pros
- great tasting food
- licensed
- nicely designed
- better than Mexi-Cali to my tastebuds

Cons
- is a chain store (so much for supporting independent stores)
- bit more pricey than similar type Tex-Mex's (Mexicali)

Portion control at this place is tight. Prices high for what you get. And the staff kind of unhelpful. Nothing as good as daddy donkey. In fact, its not nearly as good as they seem to think they are. I would not go here again unless there is nowhere else to go.

Prices are a little higher than at the other burrito places I've been to - 5.90 for a pork burrito, and an extra 80p for guacamole, but the burrito is definitely the biggest one I've had in London (probably about the size of one from Chipotle in the US?) Rice is cooked through but looks like basmati, and I chose black beans rather than pinto. Very tasty - ranks up there with Luardos and Benito's Hat, I think - good if you are really really hungry and want to be really really full after eating.

The best burritos in London, no question. And I've done Crazy Hombres, Tortilla, Daddy D's and anywhere else I've been able to find them. The carnitos is the best... and the service and hot sauce, yum.