It takes a big Mexican dinner
For me to have the strength to love my senorita
I always eat a big Mexican dinner
I love a big Mexican dinner
With beans and rice and hot chili-ners
I always eat a big Mexican dinner
I like beef birria tacos when can get them. But there’s a place in San Clemente, California called South of Nick’s that has beef fajitas made with filet mignon. That was next level.
A San Diego style burrito shouldn’t have most of that at all. What you’re describing is more of a Midwest burrito like the ones you would find in Chicago. A carne asada burrito in San Diego, for example, is just steak, guacamole, and pico de gallo. A beef burrito will be just shredded beef, with onion and tomato and bell pepper stewed in the same pot as the meat. There shouldn’t be lettuce unless it’s a veggie burrito. A fish burrito can have cabbage in it (and the fish should be battered and fried, not grilled.)
California burritos, which are carne asada with fries and some combination of sour cream, guacamole, pico, and cheddar cheese, have been a thing since at least the ‘90s.
I lived in San Diego from age 4 to 15, and that’s what burritos there had.
Cabbage, fish taco sauce, and a squeeze of lime. Avocado as desired. Battered vs. fried is a regional difference, but both are valid. I like both, but I prefer grilled. [Full disclosure: I never had grilled for a long time.]
Back in The Collage Days, we had Manny’s down at the end of The Row. Late night Beef Bean Onion and Cheese was the Go-To.
Stuffed poblano pepper, tamal, and a cerveza grande; usually works well for me.
Made a good thing better.
Must not have been a ‘Berto’s.
Salsa’s in Leonardtown, MD, has two entrees that are my go-to if I don’t feel like flipping thru the menu. My favorite is Pollo Fiesta (chicken, spinach, mushrooms, and onions served over rice with a cream sauce) and second choice is shrimp and rice (shrimp sauteed with onions, zucchini, and yellow squash served over rice.) Both are such large servings that I have enough to take home for lunch the next day. I’ll have some chips and salsa to start, but no room for dessert after.
Dang, now I want to go to Salsa’s.
I also spent my formative years in San Diego. My memories of Mexican in the 60s food are pretty much limited to taco night at home and dinners out at Casa Blanca in Old Town. In both cases I had hard shell beef tacos, rice and beans and guacamole and chips. Pretty generic stuff.
When I moved back to San Diego in 1996 my go-to spot was Fins, I loved the fish tacos and delicious salsa. For a special night out we go to El Agave, where my usual choice is sea bass ajo y achiote.
I thought a “California burrito” was a big overstuffed burrito with rice, beans, meat, and a bunch of fillings, like what you get at Chipotle (or a bunch of other places, but Chipotle is the one I can count on everyone recognizing).
None of the 'Berto’s served California Burritos until the 1980s. As a child of 1960-70’s Orange County, I was used to the same style of burritos @Johnny_L.A described. Even in California, Mexican food of that era was tailored to the unadventurous American palate.
That’s Mission or San Francisco style. The distinguishing feature of a California burrito is the French fries.
Must’ve changed by the late ‘80s, because I don’t ever remember lettuce and tomato being standard ingredients in San Diego, and most burritos didn’t come with cheese. A wet burrito or a chimichanga I would expect lettuce and tomato on top, but not inside.
Orange County may have been different - LA-style is certainly distinct from San Diego style even today.
A note - a California burrito is a type of San Diego burrito, but not all San Diego burritos are California burritos, nor are all burritos from California California burritos. This is what happens when you let stoned surfer bros invent fusion cuisine.
Up here in Canada, Mexican food is not the big deal that it is in the US, especially in the south. We do have Mexican restaurants but I don’t recall ever being to one. But I enjoy the usual stuff – frozen burritos from the microwave loaded up with chunky salsa and some sour cream on the side, tortilla chips with 7-layer dip or “Mad Mexican” brand roasted tomatillo & avocado dip. Also like the Mexican beef rice bowl from the local supermarket which is very much like a burrito filling and is nicely complemented with some big dollops of chunky salsa. Never had anything fancier than that, as far as I can recall.
That’s news to me. I spent most of the 1980-2000s traveling between the two (I lived in OC, worked in LA, and surfed in SD half a dozen times a month) The trends in Mexican food sweep California fairly quickly. Beyond being the first to add French fries to burritos (which didn’t take long to show up on menus north of Pendleton), I can’t think of what would differentiate San Diego from LA style.
Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about LA burritos;
The burrito of L.A. itself can take multiple forms, but is almost always dominated by some combination of: refried beans, meat (often stewed beef or chili), and cheese (usually cheddar), with rice and other ingredients typical of Mission burritos offered as add-ons, if at all.
The most basic version of this burrito consists of only beans and cheese; beyond this, there are the “green chile” and “red chile” burritos, which may simply mean the addition of chiles or a vegetarian chile sauce to the plain beans (as at Al & Bea’s), meat or cheese as well. Rice, again, is rarely included, which, along with the choice of chiles, is one of the style’s most defining traits.[54] The menu will then usually go on to list multiple other combinations, such as beef and bean, all-beef, a “special” with further ingredients, etc. If the restaurant also offers hamburgers and sandwiches, it may sell a burrito version of these, such as a “hot dog burrito”.
I think we can probably close the thread. You win.
I too am a product of mid 60s-70s OC. Born in '58, left in '76 for Los Angeles, then again in '81 for the rest of the world.
I truly don’t recall OC burritos being that unadventurous.
And the idea of a burrito containing FFs is pure Midwestern abomination. I refuse to accept that the label “California” could ever be applied to such rank heresy.
I have no recollection of any place named 'Bertos in OC.
Funny - when I posted in a Chicago subreddit last year about burritos there having lettuce and tomato in them, they thought the idea of putting fries in a burrito was heretical. 
The California burrito is definitely a San Diego invention - we basically took carne asada fries (another local innovation) and wrapped a tortilla around it.
Roberto’s is a San Diego-based chain with lots of copycats that tend to have similar names a la the many Original Famous Ray’s and Famous Original Ray’s in NYC. (Here in Olympia we have a knockoff called Aliberto’s.) Roberto’s also has locations in Vegas and Phoenix these days, but I’m not sure if they ever made it north of Camp Pendleton.