Mission Burrito

62 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5JN. Tel: 0117 927 3339

Husband and wife Jan and Sharon Rasmussen fell in love with Mexican food, and burritos especially, when they lived in San Francisco.

When they returned to Britain, they were confident that British people would embrace this style of cuisine so they opened their first restaurant in Oxford in 2008.

They sold 800 burritos from the 24-seat restaurant in the first week alone and within a year that number had risen to 3,000.

The couple subsequently opened their second premises in Oxford in July 2009 and then a San Francisco- based friend invested in the company, which facilitated the opening of their third restaurant in Reading.

Inspired by the taquerias of San Francisco's Mission District, the restaurants' Californian-Mexican food has certainly picked up a following, as well as favourable reviews in the press. Last week, the Rasmussens launched their fourth restaurant in Park Street, Bristol.

On the first day, they gave away 700 burritos to get the Mission Burrito name out there to curious Bristolians.

The new Mission Burrito is a deep restaurant with a counter at the far end.

The room itself is warm and relaxed with exposed wooden beams, terracotta-painted walls dotted with black and white photos of the Mission District and chunky wood tables and benches that encourage large parties and sharing.

The staff are dressed in red Mission Burrito T-shirts and they all seemed friendly, if a little rabbits-in-the-headlights in the first few days of business.

The food is available to eat-in or takeaway and everybody queues at the counter, working their way from left to right as each stage of the burrito is created.

There are other things on the menu, too – salad boxes, rice boxes and tacos (three smaller tortillas with the same fillings) – but most people seemed to be ordering the burritos and the fajita burritos (the same as the burrito but with sauteed mixed peppers and red onions instead of beans). Are you keeping up, at the back?

For those unfamiliar with burritos, they are 12-inch flour tortillas filled with rice, beans (usually pinto) and a main filling – pork, steak, chicken or vegetarian.

On top of this, you can add salsas of varying degrees of fieriness, shredded romaine lettuce, grated Monterey Jack cheese, sour cream or guacamole.

Once assembled, the tortilla and its fillings is rolled and fashioned into a neat parcel before being wrapped in foil to keep its contents inside the wrap and not spilling down your shirt.

For added safety, the foil wraps are placed in small red plastic baskets that look like a laundry basket for a toddler's dolly.

Making the perfect burrito is clearly an art and not for those of a nervous disposition, as customers virtually stand over the staff as they put on their surgical plastic gloves, heat the tortillas and scoop each filling from the school dining hall-style metal hot boxes.

I visited Mission Burrito twice in the first week – once with friends for lunch, a second time on my own on another evening. Whilst the food on both occasions was tasty enough and generous, the meals were by no means faultless.

I ordered a carnitas burrito (£5.45) on one occasion and a steak fajita burrito (£5.95) the next. They were both made by different staff but I got the impression they were still very much wearing L-plates when it came to making wraps.

The carnitas filling is essentially finely shredded pork, which has been slow-cooked "for hours" and marinated with thyme, orange zest and bay leaves. Not that I could taste any of these aromatics once it had been smothered with sour cream, Cheddar cheese, guacamole and salsa verde. It all became one big anonymous flavour rather than individual pockets of taste.

On my return visit, the marinated steak in chipotle sauce was, again, masked by the other fillings.

On both occasions, the tortillas were barely warm and bordering on cold. They were also slimy and claggy rather than toasted, warm and comforting.

Although the "wrapping" on the first visit was neat and tidy, the second one was a mess. The poor girl struggled to get the filling into a neat enough shape as she pummeled it and massaged it. She ended up handing me what can only be described as a fat roll of carpet that was virtually impossible to eat without a visit to the dry cleaners. I know I have a big mouth, but I'm not Jaws.

Surprisingly for a high-profile new business, the drinks licence wasn't in place last week so I couldn't drown my sorrows with the promised Sol, Corona, Modelo Especial or Negra Modelo. Diet Coke in a plastic bottle isn't quite the same.

OK, it's the first week, but I gave Mission Burrito two chances to impress and it was under par on both occasions, which is a shame as it's a good concept and one which could catch on.

I got the impression that the staff weren't quite up-to-speed or confident enough with the core product but once they address these teething problems – as well as basics such as ensuring the food is piping hot when the customer gets it – it may well be as successful as its previous three restaurants and a hit with the hundreds of students passing the door every day.

In the meantime, I will head to the excellent Real Wrap Company on The Triangle when I need my next burrito fix.

Wheelchair access: Yes

Food: Main dishes from £5.45; extra toppings from 30p; side dishes from 50p

Food: 5

Atmosphere: 5

Service: 5

Value: 6

Overall: 5