Patrons Mexican Bar & Grill
28281 Newhall Ranch Road, Valencia, CA 91355

This one surprised me.

I walked into Patrons Mexican Bar & Grill for our usual carne asada burrito.

I walked out with a new Burrito Belt leader.

I was greeted by a really nice lady when I walked in.

Patrons feels more like a sit-down Mexican bar and grill than some of the other Burrito Belt stops.

There’s a bar at the back with TVs above it, where people were sitting and watching baseball.

Mexican artwork covers the restaurant, while groups of families and friends filled the tables.

It wasn’t packed.

But there were enough people inside to give the place a good atmosphere.

Then came the burrito.

And Patrons immediately did something different.

At most Burrito Belt stops, everything gets packed inside the tortilla.

Meat.

Rice.

Beans.

Salsa.

Patrons had another idea.

The carne asada burrito arrived in a foil tray, but the burrito itself was packed almost entirely with carne asada.

The rice sat on one side.

Beans and cheese sat on the other.

Salsa and chips completed the tray.

I didn’t ask for any extras.

I didn’t request any modifications.

This is simply how it came.

And I really liked the approach.

Instead of allowing the rice and beans to take over the burrito, Patrons let you add as much or as little as you wanted with each bite.

The traditional sides were still there.

They just weren’t getting in the way of the main event.

The tortilla opened the scoring with 7 points.

A solid start.

But the real story was what Patrons decided to put inside it.

The meat was the star.

There was a generous amount of carne asada inside, and it tasted great.

This didn’t feel like a burrito being bulked out with cheaper ingredients.

Patrons put the carne asada front and center.

Exactly where it belonged.

This is where things got interesting.

There were no clumps of rice hiding inside the burrito.

No sections where rice suddenly took over the entire bite.

No Rice Crime waiting to be investigated.

Patrons avoided the problem entirely by keeping the rice outside the tortilla.

You could add a little.

Add a lot.

Or leave it on the sidelines.

It was a simple decision that solved one of the biggest problems we’ve repeatedly encountered throughout the Burrito Belt Championship.

The salsa came on the side with the chips.

That suited the way Patrons served the entire meal.

Nothing was forced inside the tortilla where it could distract from the carne asada.

You could add as much or as little as you wanted with each bite while keeping the meat at the center of the burrito.

Patrons finished the scorecard with another strong result.

Eight points in The Last Burrito.

That brought Patrons to 39/50.

Two points ahead of the previous Burrito Belt leaders.

Not just a strong finish.

A finish that takes Patrons straight to the top.

Patrons didn’t take the lead by making the biggest or most overloaded burrito in the competition.

It did something slightly different.

It put the carne asada front and center.

Then it let the rice and beans stay on the sidelines.

The result was a proper meat-filled burrito with none of the uneven rice distribution that has hurt so many contenders before it.

And with 39 points, Patrons has knocked the previous leaders off the top.

We finally have a new Burrito Belt leader.

Patrons may have changed the formula, but the result is clear:

Sometimes breaking the Burrito Belt rules is exactly how you reach the top.