Local alternative spot for MYO Burritos and Tacos @ Tomatillo Taco Joint – Greenwich, CT

When you feel the need to feed your burrito greed, there’s not much you can do to ignore it.  See, it’s almost like a monster takes over and you become a singular, solitary force hellbent on finding that one perfect burrito or taco that is destined to make things better. Luckily, there are lots of burritos chains in the area you can hit up, but being good little local food bloggers, we’re always on the hunt for local joints vs. chains.

So, given that, we were thrilled to find that there was a local place on Seamless.com, Tomatillo Taco Joint, that delivered to our new place in Greenwich!  What’s great about the Seamless interface for ordering delivery is that you’re able to add whatever you’d like to the burrito or taco of your choice…oh, and we did.  Yes, we did.

For our first experience, we both ordered burritos with guac and chips.  Within about 20 minutes the food was at our door, piping hot.  The bag was pretty heavy so we knew that we were in for quite an experience. The burritos are immensely huge here.  We placed a can of Fireside Chat by 21st Ammendment Brewery next to it so you could get a nice comparison. As you can see, they are bigger than the ones you get at places like Chipotle, Sierra Grill or Moe’s.

Before you get started, you need to pick if you want a burrito, 3 tacos, a burrito bowl, or a taco salad (and can choose flour or corn).  Then, you’ll fill it, stuff it, then top it with all kinds of goodies.  The meat here had a nice flavor… a little more than Sierra Grill and Moe’s, more comparable to Chipotle, and the rice had more flavor too with lime and cilantro. Like other burrito joints, most of the toppings are free and the premium add-ons are extra like guac and sour cream.

Here’s Dan’s:  carnitas (Mexican pulled pork), cilantro & lime rice, double the filling ($2), black beans, pico de gallo, habanero chili sauce, chopped lettuce, fresh jalapeño, black olives, cilantro and chopped tomatoes.

It was bold, flavorful, and actually wasn’t too hard to keep together despite it being such a monster.  The addition of the chili sauce gave it a nice punch.  Overall, it was a solid burrito comparable with Chipotle in flavor. We would order these again for sure.

Here’s Kristien’s:  three soft corn tacos with Baja fish, black beans, pico de gallo, aji amarillo, chopped lettuce, cilantro, red onion, and sour cream.

The disadvantage of ordering the tacos is that you need to order all three with the same ingredients, you can’t vary it up.  You could run a side order for each taco, but that gets pretty annoying… and for the quality of the taco, it’s not worth the effort. The fish was just ok, a little too breaded and the corn taco shell was dry and stale.  It made the tacos almost unbearable to eat.  Do you know that dry, sticky taste you get when a shell has gone past its expiration?  Yeah. The fresh ingredients were just fine, but then again, it’s not hard to screw that up really. We will say though, that most burrito chains do really crappy tacos, so Tomatillo is no different.

The Guacamole and Chips

You might call us guac snobs because we’re pretty picky.  Sometimes the guac isn’t freshly made and starts browning, sometimes it’s just one texture, and sometimes it doesn’t have much other flavor besides avocado.  While we’ve seem some reviews that this happens at Tomatillo’s, we had a positive experience.  It’s chunky, filled up with fresh chopped tomatoes and red onions, giving a nice contrast to the silky texture of the avocado.  There is also a generous portion of cilantro, adding another nice contrast in flavors. We liked it. Chips we not stale thankfully too, as this can happen quite often at burrito chains.

Chipotle Brownies

Although the brownie was on the dry side and looked a couple days old, the flavor was nice. The smokiness of the chipotle was a nice contrast to the chocolate and it was hot enough that you noticed a slow burn on the back of your tongue. If this were more moist and fresh, it would’ve been awesome… too bad.

Churros

The churros had that nice crispiness on the outside, yet the soft breading on the inside.  They might have been from frozen, but they weren’t bad… kind of like the ones you get at a fair. And, rather than giving you a chocolate sauce, they gave a rich caramel sauce that was quickly devoured by our dipping.

Overall

We love the idea of having a local go-to delivery spot nearby that’s quick and gets us our burrito fix in minutes flat. While the food was a combo of good and bad, we would order burritos from here again for sure as an alternative to burrito chains… maybe not so much the tacos, though we are always willing to give a place a second chance.  The service has been fast and friendly too. Oh, and if you’re in New Haven, you’ll find them at 320 Elm Street.

Tomatillo Taco Joint

Noms:  3

Cost: $$

Address:  65 East Putnam Avenue

Cos Cob, CT 06807

Phone:  (203) 869-0928

Hours:  Mon 11am-8pm; Tues-Fri 11am-9pm; Sat 12pm-9pm; Sun 12pm-8pm

Delivery Hours:  Mon-Fri 11am-3pm and 5pm-8pm; Sat & Sun 5pm-8pm