Los Gallos

Los Gallos has been around a while, but since it's up on Mission and De La Vina next to the Daily Grind, an area of town I pretty much never go to....well.....I pretty much never go here. It also represents a style of Mexican food that I not-so-lovingly refer to as 'Fresh Mex". It's a standard type of fare, the kind of food that those shitty Mexican chain restaurants (Baja Fresh, Chipotle, Rubio's) rip off from decent local joints like this one. That said, I don't think I've ever seen a person of Hispanic descent eating here. Deb absolutely loves it. That right there tells you a lot of what you need to know about the food.

Speaking of Deb, she ate here a couple days ago and was stark raving mad over the veggie burrito she had. I didn't even get to have a bite of it, so I can't tell you if she was on crack or not, but it had mushrooms in it, so I probably would've hated it. Anyways, I was coming through this part of town tonight I decided to stop by and check it out again, since it's probably been a year since I've been here.

Stepped inside, looked around at a scattering of white people eating at the tables (BTW there is a fantastic "Mexican streetcorner" mural on one wall), ordered up a chicken burrito ($7.95 - and NOT a super) and then hit the salsa bar, which is fairly extensive and excellent (including an avocado/tomatillo salsa that's outstanding). I remember back when this place opened up they used to charge you for tortilla chips if you ate inside...always thought that was lame. I don't know if they still charge for chips on dine-in, but now they only give you two cups for salsa and charge you for extras. Also lame. If salsa theft is a big deal, then do what El Buen Gusto does and put the cups behind the counter: you get two with your meal, but you can ask for more...only gratis.

The burrito was good. The grilled chicken was very nice. But there wasn't a lot of action in the filling (for a definitive definition of what action is in a burrito, go to fucking Cuca's). Basically it was fresh Mex, so you already know what it tasted like. We shared and Deb absolutely loved it.