EE Burritos in Saskatoon

This weekend, I finally got a chance to go back to EE Burritos. M & I went there in February, before I was diagnosed, and I haven't managed to get back since. I remember loving the food, but I had no idea how they were for gluten-free.

EE Burritos is this little restaurant on the corner of Ave P & 22nd St. It's not exactly a nice area, and as far as I understand, Ave P has quite the reputation. The restaurant is in a strip mall, and entering it is a little weird. They also host a small Latin American grocery store, so you enter into that, and the restaurant itself is to your left. The dining room is large, with several tables and a bar, and enough room to easily maneuver between the tables.


The tables are covered in bright colourful table cloths and plastic covers. The menus are brightly coloured pieces of paper that have been laminated. The walls are dotted with an eclectic mix of paintings and pictures, mostly Latin American in subject or style.

The menu offers a splendid variety of Latin American food. I would have happily called it Mexican food, but my husband informs me there is a difference, and this is not it. It is authentic, and delicious, but it's not Mexican. M tells me that one of the big differences is that Mexico uses corn tortillas, almost exclusively, and other countries will use wheat tortillas. As such, I asked the waitress right away what my options were, and she easily walked me through the menu, and when a question came up, she ran to the kitchen to double check. She was very helpful and knowledgeable.

I ordered a combo of two tacos. Taco options are aplenty, with your choice in hard or soft shell, beef, chicken, or pork, and your choice in two sides. I asked for one hard shell, one soft shell, one chicken, one beef, and surprise me which is which. I ordered beans and rice for the side.

Soft shell chicken taco and a hard shell beef taco

I got a beef hard shell, and a chicken soft shell. Let me just say, both were amazing. If I had to order this again, and pick only one option, I couldn't. I wouldn't.

The beef hard shell taco was filled with slow roasted shredded beef and was just mildly spicy. I found the shell rather thick, and the stuffing thin, which meant that most of every bite tasted like corn tortilla foremost.

The chicken soft shell taco was very full, which meant that every bite was stuffed with chicken, cheese and veggies. The taco itself was moist, but held up and didn't crumble or break apart. The chicken was very mildly flavoured, and the tomatoes were lightly spiced. In my opinion, the combination made for taco perfection.

The rice was well cooked, and flavourful, filled with mixed veggies and spices. The beans were smooth, and very heavy in flavour. They were warm, without being too hot. When I mixed the two together, as I am learning to do, I had a delicious combination of flavour and texture.

In my opinion, my food wasn't really hot enough. M insists it was perfect, that if it was hotter, things would have been ruined. I'll take his word for it, but I wasn't totally satisfied.

Burrito with nacho chips and refried beans

M ordered a burrito, since that's what the restaurant is named for. He enjoyed his food well enough, but was mildly disappointed the first time we went, because he was expecting Mexican food and got Latin American food.

I would recommend, but not it's not for everyone. If you haven't enjoyed Mexican food before, pass this one up. If you are ultra-paranoid about gluten contamination, don't bother. I wasn't guaranteed about contamination protection, and I've heard-tell that they grill everything together. I wasn't affected, so my food was perfectly safe, but I wouldn't say that everyone's would be. However, the staff did seem to know how about gluten allergies!

As I mentioned before, this place also boasts a little grocery store. I do mean little, so don't get too excited. They carry drinks, spices, sugar, and other oddities that you can't easily buy this far North. M loves going here, sometimes just to smell things and remember his grandmother's kitchen. They sell bags of corn tortillas, which are fairly inexpensive and gluten-free, so I stocked up. We also bought a small package of Mexican Saffron, with was incredibly cheap compared to what you find at the health food store. And we of course bought a couple bottles of pop. Ever since my week stay in rural Mexico, I can not pass up a glass-bottled Coke made with cane sugar. I'm not a big pop-drinker, but that stuff is gold.