Los Originales Mexican Bar and Grill
23630 Newhall Ave #1, Newhall, CA 91321

Twenty burritos.

Twenty scorecards.

And one final contender.

After nineteen carne asada investigations, the Burrito Belt headed to Los Originales Mexican Bar and Grill for the last new entry in the competition.

And for contender number 20, we decided to do something a little different.

A wet burrito.

A large tub of green salsa.

And absolutely no chance of eating this one neatly.

I ordered the burrito to go, but there was a steady stream of customers coming through while I waited.

Los Originales feels more like a sit-down Mexican restaurant than some of our previous Burrito Belt stops.

So instead of ordering another standard carne asada burrito wrapped in foil, I went with the Carne Asada Burrito Mojado.

After doing this twenty times, it felt right to finish with something that changed the formula.

The burrito came filled with carne asada, rice, beans, onion and cilantro, with panela cheese on top of the wrap.

It also came with a large tub of green salsa.

Naturally, I poured it over the burrito.

Contender number 20 was officially underway.

Was this exactly the same kind of burrito as some of the earlier contenders?

No.

But after twenty entries, that has become part of the Burrito Belt story.

Some restaurants serve tightly wrapped, grab-and-go burritos.

Others serve wet, saucy restaurant burritos that feel like a completely different meal.

Los Originales landed firmly in the second category.

This was not a burrito you could casually pick up with your hands.

It needed a plate.

It needed a fork.

And it probably needed more napkins than I had prepared.

A wet burrito presents a very different challenge for the wrap.

Once the green salsa went over the top, the tortilla had plenty working against it.

Still, it held up reasonably well.

It wasn’t designed to be picked up and eaten neatly, but it did enough to keep everything together while I worked my way through it.

Considering the amount of sauce involved, 7/10 felt like a solid result.

The carne asada was good.

It had plenty of flavour and worked particularly well with the green salsa.

The meat didn’t completely take over the burrito, but it made a strong enough impression to earn 7/10.

A respectable performance from the final contender.

But the strongest part of this burrito was still waiting on top.

After twenty burritos, we have learned that rice distribution matters.

A lot.

When the carne asada, rice, beans and other ingredients are balanced properly, every bite works together.

When the rice gathers in one section, the entire burrito changes.

Los Originales had that problem.

The rice wasn’t evenly spread throughout the filling, leaving some parts with noticeably more than others.

Nothing catastrophic.

But enough to affect the balance and bring the Rice Crime score down to 6/10.

Even the final contender couldn’t escape the investigation.

This was the star of the burrito.

The green salsa worked extremely well with the carne asada and lifted the flavour of the entire meal.

There was plenty of it, too.

Enough to cover the burrito.

Enough to make the reheat messy.

And enough to earn the highest score on the card.

The Secret Sauce: 8/10.

Sometimes the name of the category tells you exactly what happened.

The burrito held up well enough when reheated and still tasted good.

The green salsa continued to work with the carne asada, and the flavour survived the overnight test.

Was it any easier to eat the second time?

Absolutely not.

The final Burrito Belt contender remained just as wet and messy on the reheat.

But flavour-wise, it went the distance.

The Last Burrito: 7/10.

Los Originales finishes with a respectable 35/50.

The carne asada had good flavour.

The wrap held up reasonably well under difficult circumstances.

And the green salsa delivered the strongest performance of the entire burrito.

The uneven rice distribution stopped it from scoring higher, but I’m glad we didn’t finish with another standard burrito wrapped in foil.

We finished with something wet.

Something messy.

Something covered in green salsa.

And something slightly different from everything that came before it.

That feels like a fitting way to close contender number 20.

BURRITO BELT LEADERBOARD

This is it.

Twenty Burrito Belt contenders.

For now, there will be no more new entries.

The next step is to go back through the entire field, review the scores and look at everything we have learned along the way.

Because one thing has become clear.

We haven’t always been comparing the same style of burrito.

Some were tightly wrapped and built to be eaten by hand.

Others arrived covered in sauce and required a fork.

Before we crown the final winner, we need to decide how those different styles should be judged and make sure every contender gets a fair review.

The tasting is over.

The investigation is not.

Twenty burritos down. Now it’s time to decide who really deserves the belt.