| Burritos as big as you head, and a nice college location. |
Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 10/31/2006
Rating: 7.5
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Iguanas re-opened its door this month and we made the trek to SJSU for a visit. I've never been here before but I'm sure countless students can tell me tales of late night binges after a drunken celebration. Since I can't get loaded at work like the good ol-college days, I'll just have to visit in a boring sober self.
I ordered a regular carnitas burrito with guac and a free water. The cup for the free water is a joke. If you look at picture 7, it's a size of a double shot glass. It probably holds 2 oz so you basically sit at the counter and take 4-5 drinks, go to your table, drink 1 cup, walk back up to the counter, sit there for 4-5 drinks, repeat. GET RID OF THOSE ANNOYING ASSHAT CUPS.
The meal came out to under $6 which is somewhat the norm these days for burritos in the bay area. The tortilla was mildly grilled and although I didn't see them steam it, it tasted like it was finished with the dreaded steam bath. Quite honestly, I didn't seem to mind this time.
The fixings of most bay area burritos will be filled with the likes of rice (kinda dry but had the tomato-chicken-broth flavor), beans (mine were refried, just the way I like them), salsa (could barely taste any), guac (so-so, I'm happy if they just throw a slice or two of avocado), and last but not least, carnitas - not the crispy-crunchy kind, its the limp version and on the salty side. Iguanas puts plenty of meat so I gotta give props for that.
The burrito is average to below with a rating between 6.5 to 7. Now the thing is, when you pour the hot sauce on top, it jumps another 1/2 or so. The orange-reddish colored hot sauce is a blistering 8. It's addicting and had to put sauce in every bite.
Here's the deal, Iguana's is known for a couple of things.
- cheap food, large portions. They have this monstrous burrito called the Burritozilla, $15, 5lbs, bragging rights if you finish. Cheap thrills menu coming soon, we're talking $1 items!
- orange/reddish sauce, holy moly, it's pretty damm hot
- late night dining - From what I'm told, Iguanas will stay open to 3AM on certain nights Fri-Sat?, nearly 1 hour later than the competition around the corner (if anyone knows the real hours, shoot us an email or post a quickie).
I'd say the food is somewhere in the 7's but if I was drinking and hungry at 2AM and ate a burrito at Iguanas, we're talking 8's for sure.
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Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 724
Reviewed: 10/28/2006
Rating: 7.5
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A burrito has to be pretty bad for me to rate it bad. And when they are big burritos, its even harder. I get more disappointed with a small burrito, even a pretty good one, than I do with a large mediocre one.
That being said, I was very pleased to see the good sized (not monstrous) but good sized Iguanas super veggie burrito. (also note, that I did not go with their monstrous $15 5-lb Burritozilla)
My impressions: I found the refriend beans to be tasty, but just not enough of them in my burrito. The rice was just OK. Kind of bland actually, and they put too much. The rest of the ingredients however were solid, especially the sour cream and guac. Perfect combination of them. The tortilla had a healthier feel to it, didn't have the greasiness in it. It was a bit dry but did have the cracks in it like it had been grilled a bit. Just needed to put some more butter or oil in that tortilla!
I did NOT try the orange sauce they have here that is supposed to be similar to La Vic's - but after finding out that they use pork in the LaVic sauce, I didn't want to risk it. If I was to return, I would probably try to hunt down some other salsa here to go with my burrito, as it was a bit dry.
Probably good for fortifying stomachs after a night of drinking, but in the hotly contested bay area burrito scene, Iguanas is good, but not legendary.
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Reviewer: Stevetacular
Total Reviews: 25
Reviewed: 11/1/2006
Rating: 8
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After I was done with classes for the day, my friend and I decided to drop by Iguana's to see what it was like. Inside the place looks very much cleaner than La Vic's. In-fact there were several things that made Iguana's different than La Vic's:
- There's a second room for dining, quite large and spacious.
- Cashier spoke fluent English.
- Only one chef (at the time).
- Less meat selection than La Vic's (I counted only 6?)
- More items on the menu (Fries, burgers, etc.)
- All the food was prepared within eye view.
- Prices a dollar or so more than La Vic's.
My friend ordered a Super Burrito with Carne Asada, and even though I was tempted to see if I could finish a 5 lb. burrito, I decided against getting a $15.98 burrito. Instead I got a regular burrito with Chile Verde. While waiting we noticed someone grab a basket of fries with all sorts of good stuff like guacamole and sour cream in there. I must try this some time. Anyways, despite having only one (visible) chef there the food came out in less than 5 minutes. Nice.
When I first bit into my burrito the first thing I noticed was, A. I did not seem to bite into any piece of meat, and B. The rice, bean, and salsa mixture was quite good. I mean compared to La Vic's without the orange sauce, this burrito is a clear winner in the taste category. I finally fished out a piece of meat. DISAPPOINTING. It was bland as hell, and I found myself enjoying the beans and rice more than I did the meat. These guys sure love to pack their burritos with beans and rice. My friend said he liked the Carne Asada, and said it had a nice charred flavor to it. What I noticed when he first opened his burrito wrapper was that sour cream was oozing out. Nice.
Anyways my burrito personally I would have to rate it a 7.5, BUT because it's so close to campus this score goes up a whole half point. Hell maybe if I try a different kind of meat or try Burrito-zilla the score will go up. However, Burrito-zilla better not be 90% rice & beans like my regualar burrito.
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Reviewer: wchane
Total Reviews: 141
Reviewed: 5/2/2007
Rating: 8.5
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You have La Vic's fans and you have Iguana's fans, I am an Iguana's fan. Although I would say La Vic's is more authentic, they've definitely win the 'orange sauce' competition but Iguana's has more flavor, fresher ingredients, and bottom line builds a better burrito, quesidilla, taquito and what have you.
You don't need orange sauce to eat Iguana's, you must have orange sauce for La Vic's. Doesn't get any simpler then that.
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