BayrittoWatch is presently over twenty-four SF burritos deep in its survey of the local breakfast food stable… with many more left to try — and tier.
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Growing up in North Texas, and then later migrating south to Austin after I attempted college (as any wayward queer person in the Lone Star State does at some point), breakfast tacos have always been a rotating morning delicacy in my life. Pillowy tortillas enveloping faultlessly cooked eggs, well-browned potatoes, and crisp bacon, more often than not also accompanied by slices of ripened avocado and capsaicin-rich pico de gallo, offered sustenance and comfort, simultaneously. Even the worst breakfast tacos were superior to anything sandwiched between an English muffin.
While breakfast tacos do, indeed, have their place and respectable lore in San Francisco, breakfast burritos rank supreme. But as with any popular stable food, their commercial dynamism means sifting through dozens — likely more than a hundred, as is the case with San Francisco breakfast burritos — to find iterations worthy of your caloric intake can be tedious, though necessary. And unlike other foods, breakfast burritos truly are a case of not judging a book (read: enveloped morsel) by its cover; what’s inside often trumps the off-beige blankets that wrap the ingredients.
Thankfully for us, the San Francisco-based foodie and Asana tech lead Matt Zaso, who runs the Instagram account [at]BayrittoWatch and the like-named website, is helping break through the sheer volume of breakfast burritos in the seven-by-seven. Why? Well, for one, consuming a breakfast burrito after a libation-heavy night out can do wonders for the morning grogginess.
“Breakfast burritos, in my opinion, are the perfect hangover food,” Zaso tells Underscore in an email. During the pandemic, a friend of Zaso noticed he’d picked up a certain draw toward the cylindrical food, and the said friend had some recommendations for him. Fast forward a couple of weekend mornings later, and what began as merely a curiosity had evolved into a methodical endeavor to taste (and rank!) San Francisco’s best breakfast burritos, complete with a dedicated website; a hella elaborate rubric; individual pictures of each burrito; and a ranking system that (fairly, logistically, spiritually) places some of our local favorites in top-tier positions.
Being the curious wordsmiths we are, we were curious to catch up with Zaso on more of BayrittoWatch’s origin story, his favorites (thus far), and any additional plans for the hobby-turned-hyperlocal-touchstone.
Matt Charnock: When did your love of breakfast burritos begin — do you have a core memory?
Matt Zaso: After dedicating a couple of weekend mornings to hop around the city to try some burrito places that were high on my list or recommended to me, the activity turned into a fun little adventure during a time when there wasn’t as much going on in the city. It was surprisingly hard to find new places to try on Google, so I thought I could help out others who might be looking and posting my findings.
MC: The grading system is brilliant — how did you come up with it and how did you settle on those criteria?
MZ: The inspiration here came from one of my favorite YouTube food series “Alex Eats It All,” where former Bon Appetit editor, Alex Delany, goes to a new city and tries their signature food at several locations. He always started the episodes by describing what his perfect version of that particular dish would be. To me, it added credibility, but also served as a reminder that taste is subjective!
MC: Not to put you in a proverbial corner, what’s your favorite “Best of the Best”?
MZ: It’s gotta be Cielito Lindo in the Outer Richmond. The chorizo in that burrito is perfectly seasoned and the tortilla has this flakiness that makes it taste almost like it’s wrapped in a pasty. May not be the most central location, but it’s always worth the trip.
MC: What burrito has pleasantly surprised you the most?
MZ: Two come to mind for separate reasons: The first is Tastebuds and their deep-fried breakfast burrito. It’s such a unique concept to create something that can only best be described as a breakfast chimichanga of sorts. It’s wild but delicious. I’d also give a shoutout to Heist and their “Captain Crunch” breakfast burrito. I had seen some pictures on Yelp and assumed that it would just be average, but I was dead wrong. It might not have fancy ingredients or a sexy cross-section but it’s packed with flavor and has zero weaknesses.
MC: Where do you see this going… like, how many more stops do you have/do you have a list of all of the ones in the city?
MZ: I have about nine more breakfast burritos on my list that I’m looking forward to. It’s been great when people reach out as well to let me know about the ones I’ve missed so I can keep that list growing instead of shrinking. Beyond that, I truthfully don’t know what the future holds for BayrritoWatch! Some friends have asked for a similar breakfast sandwich list and I think it would also be cool to expand beyond SF and try some of the other places across the bridge.
Above all else, Zaso tells us that he’s just “having fun trying new food,” all while supporting some local businesses.
“I like interacting with people who find the page useful,” he writes in closing. “And I’m always open to any suggestions that I haven’t tried yet!”
Feature image: Courtesy of Matt Zaso
