What To Expect From Midtown’s New Baja Fresh
Actually, maybe I should rename this “what I expect from Midtown’s Baja Fresh”. When I passed through L.A. this past week, I took the liberty of enjoying a Baja Chicken Burrito from Baja Fresh, rekindling my excitement and raising my expectations for the branch of the chain we are getting on Lexington btw. 45+46th. I’ve heard that the Jersey locations are not that good, and quite frankly I will accept nothing less than a perfectly executed West Coast version of Baja Fresh, at the top of its game.
Example: the photo you see above is a salsa bar. More importantly, it’s a FREE salsa bar. And it doesn’t just have pico de gallo, salsa verde and two other kinds of salsa. It also has cilantro, limes, pepperoncinis, and sliced jalapenos. Take what you want… as much as you like! They better not pull any “this is NYC, we can’t afford a free salsa bar” shenanigans.
Oh, and that goes for the free chips as well.
That’s right. Free chips with every order, poured into your bag (or in a little container on your tray.) That’s another thing the West coast has over the East coast. At a burrito place, you shouldn’t have to pay for chips. And that goes for the Midtown location of Baja Fresh. No… freakin’… shenanigans!
And that’s pretty much it. And it’s important to keep in mind that my love of Baja Fresh only extends to the Baja Chicken Burrito. Is it Mexican food? No. Is it a gut busting, super flavorful, fat packing machine? No. But I’ll admit that sometimes I need a “clean” lunch (read: semi healthy), and I don’t do salads- so this is as good as it gets. Tortilla, cheese, grilled chicken, pico de gallo, and guacamole. Simple. Perfect. I could eat one every day without killing myself (something I don’t think I could say about that Bay Area burrito from Los Charros.)
Baja Fresh, you’ve been warned. Don’t F this up.
Posted by Zach Brooks at 2:00 pm, March 4th, 2009 under Baja Fresh.
32 Comments | RSS comments feed for this post
32 Comments
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Looks like a crappier version of Green Cactus.
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I was going to say a crappier version of Sierra Grill (similar chain up in CT)
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After having Baja in DC a couple of times, I can only assume that there must be something very different on this coast. The food is firmly in the “meh” category.
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that some of the supposed west-coast magic happens in NYC, though I think it’s long odds.
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Green Cactus needs to be in more locations.
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Actually, the sad thing is that Baja Fresh isn’t very healthy. That chicken burrito is probably fairly close to the Big Mac combo meal in terms of calories, fat, etc.
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Prepare to be disappointed…..
Can you imagine what the salsa bar would be like during a midtown lunch rush? Look at the line for Chipotle (a block away) and ponder that question.
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^ Never a concern for Midtown Lunchers lol
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All of your Chipotle bashing has been called into question with your support of Baja Fresh.
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HEY ZACH: You left off the comment macro/code from your midtown breakfast post earlier today. (And there was a request for favorite breakfast spots, so I assume you wanted to field comments for that post.)
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Yaknow, I was curious and took a look… the Baja Chicken Burrito has 790 calories, 38 grams of fat (15g saturated) and 2140 mgs of sodium. That’s far worse than a Big Mac (540 calories, 29 grams of fat (10g saturated), 1040 mgs sodium).
Just because it says “Fresh”, doesn’t mean it’s healthy…
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Hey can you add that salad bar to the list of places to eat free lunch in NYC?
BYOC…bring your own chips -
Zach, you should have gotten that burrito (or any burrito from Baja Fresh) “enchilada style”…well worth the upcharge.
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Those toms look like steak tartar…and that aint right.
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There’s been a Baja Fresh in my town in New Jersey for years. Man this place is horrible. I would get the steak burrito and every week they would put less and less meat, until it was basically just rice. Then they stopped putting as much rice, and the burrito just looked deflated. I would ask the manager why I would pay close to 9 bucks for a burrito without meat and he would just yell at me. There 0 chance that the NY one would be better, I’d say it’d be worse.
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Btw, for a chicken burrito that weighs in at more than a Big Mac, where’s the chicken in that photo? That’s exactly what I’m talking about.
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Buritoville had a salsa bar at their branch by grandcentral. Its wasn’t the -most- disgusting thing….of course the’yre closed now…
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The Baja Fresh in New Hyde Park (Long Island) is excellent. That being said, I have eaten in excellent Chipotles and lousy ones (Empire State Building). I echo Zach’s sentiments in that it is Baja’s opportunity to succeed or fail. I sure hope they succeed because their burritos can be awesome.
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I want a bite.
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Zach, we need a baby for scale to judge the size of that thing
It’s all fun and games until a tomato kills someone. Looks like a Listeria day parade float..