El Metate has one in every of San Francisco’s greatest burritos
Editor’s note: In this monthly column, San Francisco singer and artist La Doña will celebrate the city’s vibrant Mexican food scene by reviewing a different burrito each month from taquerias across town. You can find a Spanish language version of this story here.
My name is Cecilia Cassandra Peña-Govea aka La Doña, and I am an educator, music analyst and artist born and raised in San Francisco. The music I make is a sweltering blend of regional Mexican styles, American roots music, cumbia and reggaeton, wrapped up in a concise tortilla of salsa instrumentation and arrangement, and topped with a blistering bath of furious and hyphy-ass feminism. I am amped to occupy space here at SFGATE and in your beautiful brains as the new head of the burrito bureau, the interrogatah of flavah, the goddess of gastronomy, the one and only Doña 415, as I take you down the hyphy brick road that leads to my favorite burrito spots.
El Metate on Bryant Street in San Francisco’s Mission District, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
Growing up as a child in San Francisco is like being a ferocious guard dog on a short chain who has no teeth. One rabidly and obsessively takes account of who comes and goes from the hood, which establishments and families are displaced, and which ones come to occupy their places. We might bark at unwanted visitors, but we’re toothlessly tethered to the stake of ageism, capitalism and developer-led gentrification. (I by no means want to compare activists to snarling dogs. Hell no! I just wish to depict the helplessness a child feels living in such a contested neighborhood).
For this reason, when El Metate opened on Bryant in 2002, the Mission breathed a collective sigh of relief. At only 9 years old, I was already in the midst of my first-wave-gentrification-fueled heartbroken love affair with San Francisco. At the turn of the century, Bernal Heights was already deep in the throes of dot-com colonization, and I felt determined to act against the same wave crashing down upon the mission, where I went to school and played music with my family.
Cooks prepare food inside El Metate, on Bryant Street in San Francisco, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
In my young warrior brain, El Metate, owned and run by SF local Francisco Hernandez, represented prospects for a healthful and brown vivification of the Mission (I was not yet concerned with “gentefication” and peripheral gentrification and other very real complications of the “ Buy Brown” ideology). I was excited by their colorful facade and loved the way they spelled Bryant “Brayant” on their merch. I always ordered a super veggie burrito and “yee yee’d” at their crunchy, crunchy chips.
I found it only right to bring out the whole Peña-Govea crew for this review. It was our first time together in a couple of weeks and it happened to be my nephew Diego’s birthday, so everyone felt super excited to get together. The dinner also fell two days after my youngest cousin, Ema Govea, broke a 2-week-long hunger strike outside of the White House in support of climate initiatives with the group Hunger Strike 4 Climate Justice.
Cecilia Peña-Govea eats with her family in the dining room of El Metate, in San Francisco’s Mission District, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
The Goveas have a very deep history of activism and organizing and we have always strategized and mobilized over the dinner table. It was in my grandmother’s kitchen in Bakersfield, California, that Cesar Chavez, the Goveas and the Rosses held their first Community Service Organization meetings and imagined the boycotts and strikes that would grow into the United Farm Workers movement. The Goveas hold the belief that the beauty and pain of the movement can be shared over a home-cooked meal, whether it’s beans and tacos de sal at a union house or the much more elaborate offerings of a restaurant like El Metate.
The salsa rack in the dining room of El Metate, on Bryant Street in the Mission District of San Francisco, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
On this night, we were the only ones occupying El Metate’s side dining room, making ourselves comfortable as we would have over my grandma Margaret’s table. The decor inside El Metate matches its bright facade, inspiring levity on even the dreamiest days. The yellow walls covered with beautifully hand-painted talavera pottery from Mexico reminds us to honor and appreciate even the most mundane household objects.
Among my 10 family members, we tried burritos of carnitas, pollo en salsa roja, chile relleno, chorizo, carnitas/chicharron, chicken mole and some veggies. We also ordered one of each of the aguas frescas (piña, fresa and horchata).
Carnitas tacos prepared at El Metate on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
An El Metate burrito is hefty, long and skinny — true bullet of a meal. The density and consistency of these burritos are almost the opposite of those of La Taqueria. While La Taq’s become squishy and drippy from saucy pollo and the lack of rice, El Metate’s burritos are packed with more rice, making them dense and drip-free.
The meat selections were excellent; the red meats were appropriately lean and spiced and my partner Esai said the carnitas were the best he has had since he left LA. The pollo en salsa offered tender and well marinated meat but could have yielded more sauce. According to my Tia Cata, the chicken mole was yummy but might have worked better as a plate (please note that she did, however, order the burrito without rice, which could have impacted the form).
SFGATE’s burrito reviewer Cecilia Peña-Govea cuts open the pollo en salsa burrito at El Metate in San Francisco, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
Because I grew up in a vegetarian household and got many requests to review veggie burritos, I ordered the chile relleno and the super veggie. The chile relleno was my favorite dish that I tasted. The chile was fresh, not overstuffed, and had very fluffy breading, not dense and greasy as can sometimes be the case. The veggie burrito boasts all the basics plus real vegetables like broccoli, zucchini and carrots.
The aguas were delicious, especially the horchata, which was creamy and thick but not gritty or grainy at all. The green and red salsas were also great, though pretty mild. The darker chipotle flavor really showed through in the red salsa and I definitely took some home for the week’s meals. I definitely missed the full salsa bar that I remembered from my youth, but I imagine it was discontinued because of COVID-19 safety regulations, so I can appreciate that attention to health.
Cecilia Peña-Govea cuts open a chile relleno burrito at El Metate in San Francisco, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
The Goveas rated their dishes between six and nine, with the most salient feedback being that there was too much rice, so I will give the final score of eight, which is consistent with how I would have rated the burritos as a child. I definitely enjoyed the burritos but I would love to return to try the platos fuertes like the pork tamal or the chicken mole.
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Cecilia Peña-Govea eats with her family in the dining room of El Metate, in San Francisco’s Mission District, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE
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SFGATE’s burrito reviewer Cecilia Peña-Govea looks over the menu at El Metate, on Thursday, Nov. 3.
Adam Pardee/Special to SFGATE3of3
Stay tuned for my next review where we will probably keep exploring the hot topic of BURRITO RICE. Should there be rice? Is there too much rice? Is the rice dry? Are there peas in the rice? Until then, do yourselves a favor and gather your own family around a table at El Metate.
You can catch La Doña’s upcoming shows at Amoeba Records on Nov. 12 for her vinyl release party and KQED on Nov. 17.