EDIT: This location is closed, but that’s just Manhattan Beach for you. You can find more Qdobas wherever, man.
On the fringes of the Mexican fast food world lies a restaurant chain called Qdoba, which I’m pretty sure is pronounced queue-doh-ba. Qdoba functions in an assembly-line vein similar to Chipotle and the food itself tastes pretty similar except for one special thing: queso. For those who understand the language Spanish, queso simply means cheese and it would be no surprise to you that cheese is on the menu of a Mexican restaurant. But, for those of you who are well-versed in the language of Qdoba, queso means so much more.
At Qdoba, the queso still means cheese, but instead of regular cheese it’s a cheese sauce. It comes on the queso burrito, along with pretty much any burrito topping you’d like. I ordered mine with pinto beans, rice, chicken, medium salsa and some additional cheese. All rolled up, the burrito looked like little edible baby that I was ready to eat. This thing was so stuffed I even grabbed a fork in preparation of my burrito baby overflowing.
When I dug in, my mouth was met with a ton of rice. And not so much in a good way, because rice is a bit of a burrito filler. However, the best way to make rice taste better is by adding cheese and the queso sauce was just delicious. The chicken tasted pretty good and just about everything came together nicely, but the rice was truly overwhelming. I would have preferred a smaller burrito with less rice just so the rest of the insides would have had stronger flavor not washed out by rice.
The queso sauce was a great twist on the burrito and really helped my burrito baby along. However, when it came to size, I would have preferred a bit more quality over quantity. Rice is good and all, but it shouldn’t be the centerpiece of a burrito.
