There is a hot debate among hungry burqueños over which local chain has the best breakfast burrito in town. Yes, there are great deal of places that make breakfast burritos in Albuquerque. In fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that basically every restaurant in town serves a breakfast burrito of some kind. However, Blake’s, Golden Pride, and Twisters are the most commercially successful and well-known burrito places in town so you can say I’m on a quest to find la creme du la creme of burritos.
I asked friends, family, and looked at some reviews online for specific locations with the best reviews from each chain to make it as fair as possible. I also tried to order a similar burrito from each place. I chose whichever one had Bacon and green chile and asked for NOT smothered and no modifications.
BLAKE’S LOTABURGER Montgomery and Wyoming
#1 Bacon Burrito
People love this location because they serve breakfast all day. I asked the cashier which was their most popular burrito and she said it was easily the #1 Bacon Burrito. I watched them make it. They had the eggs pre-beaten in a container and freshly cooked them on the flat grill next to the hash browns. They heated up the tortillas in a waffle-iron-type of contraption which heats them in less than 10 seconds! Cheese went on the tortilla, followed by the hash browns, eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, and then topped with chopped green chile. By this point, I had waited more than 10 minutes but I was so excited by the smells and from watching them make my food that I didn’t care. First thing I noticed was the size of this thing. I only paid $3.91 or something for it and it was almost the size of my foot! I took the first bite and loved the way everything was so fresh and hot. The hash browns were cooked very well and just the right amount of salty. However, the green chile was quite mild and looked like the canned green chile that you get for 60 cents a can. The bacon was in the middle point between crispy and soft so my first bite of bacon was also my last. However, the cheese was nice and melty and applied very generously. A very large burrito for less than four dollars means a full stomach and a full wallet.
GOLDEN PRIDE Lomas and University
#9
Apparently, this Golden Pride location is always packed so I waited in line for more than 5 minutes but they pre-make the burritos ahead of time so it takes less than a minute to get it after you order. The total came out to $4.18 and it was only a third of the size of the Blake’s burrito! I unwrapped it and caught a whiff of some roasted green chile and it made my mouth water instantly. The first bite was mostly tortilla but, honestly, it was the most delicious and fluffy tortilla I ever put in my mouth. The hash browns were delightfully browned so that not every bite was soft or crunchy but rather a random/delicious combination of both textures and it looked like the cheese was melted into the hash browns so that was awesome too. The bacon was a single strip of crispy-fried bacon which tasted very recently made. The green chile was spicy the way all green chile is supposed to be and it was clearly a whole pepper with the recognizable orange spots that you only get with properly roasted chile. It was a legit hatch chile. The eggs were the only downfall. I couldn’t see them make the eggs but I could tell they were eggbeaters and not real eggs which might be a turn off for some people. The texture is simply not the same.
TWISTERS GRILL Jefferson and Masthead
#8 Supreme
This location closes at 3 pm but had raving reviews about their customer service and food so I made it in there early in the morning just to see it for myself. I ordered and although I couldn’t watch them make it, I could tell it was made fresh because as soon as they sent the order back, the cook began working on it. I got my food in under 10 minutes and the total was $4.81. It was decently sized but not as big as the Blake’s burrito. I noticed that the bacon burrito came with beans included and it was the only breakfast burrito on the menu that came with beans by default which I thought was interesting. First thing that stood out was the lack of hash browns, instead they use panfryed potatoes in their burritos which makes for a very crunchy experience and I loved it. They also use green chile sauce which is different from the other two places. However, it looked like the canned green chile from Blake’s only this was in sauce form. The bacon was crumbled up and a little too crispy in some spots but the sauce softened it up after a while which made for a few delicious last bites. The cheese was not melted all the way through and the beans tasted a tad old.
It is hard to mess up a breakfast burrito and I think these fast food chains use that to their advantage. Golden pride has the better tasting burritos with better ingredients but they are too small to fill you up with just one and too expensive to get two. Twisters has unique ingredients which puts it in a category of its own and maybe the beans needed to be remade but it is overpriced in my opinion. Considering price, size, flavor, and ingredients, I would choose Blake’s as the best of all three.