The Best Burrito in Vancouver - Day 3

posted at 10:00 pm
on Oct. 15, 2008

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Another day, another burrito.  I was warned several times about Dona Cata.  Not that it would be bad—just the opposite.  I was told, it would be delicious, but ONLY if I ordered the tacos.

“But I’m a Burrito Scientist,” I said.  I can’t order something other than a burrito, or the results might be horribly skewed.  This mostly fostered laughter, perhaps a little disbelief.

However, I knew my mission, and headed out.  I arrived at Dona Cata and found it to be full of surprises.  For one thing, the waitress sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish and had the most gorgeous singing voice you could imaging. Another waitress later told us the first sung in choir every week for 11 years.

The waitress knew it was my birthday because of an even bigger surprise: My sister Virginia, who lives in Calgary, had flown out for my birthday complete unbeknownst to me. She was waiting in the restaurant as I arrived, and was wearing the festive green bow my mom had adorned her with.

Fine fine, but what about the burrito?

OK, impatient-pants.  Well, like La Casita, they don’t do pork burritos here—which I found all the more irritating because they did pork tacos.  Just scoop it into a different tortilla, would you? No, they would not deviate from the menu—though I don’t dock them friendliness points, because they were wonderful throughout the meal.

They also said they didn’t serve wet burritos. This means I had to apply my own salsa (luckily, from the copious selection nearby), and there would be no melted cheese on top. *el sigh*.

The menu text tried to point out that the burrito was actually a California invention, which Wikipedia and I know isn’t true, though there is a California-style burrito.  I think that was just their way of saying, “Hey, gringo, order the tacos.”

And they’d be right.  My burrito, was clearly a second-class citizen in this establishment.  It was tasty mostly because of the meat, a tender mix of mostly beef and a little beans, with Mexican rice on the side.  The sauce I put on it was a chile sauce, low on the spicy scale for the restaurant, but just right on the Travis-likes-it-just-over-medium scale.

But the lack of pork, the lack of melted cheese, the lack of side dishes like beans to eat and salad to ignore, and the nearby tacos of deliciousness all served to drain my enthusiasm for Dona Cata.  I totally recommend the joint, but for burritos, I’m giving it a 7/10.

Dona Cata Mexican Foods
5076 Victoria Drive, Vancouver
604-236-2232

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