When I found out we were heading out to Sharky’s in Burbank for lunch, I was first a little confused. You see, for me, “Sharkeez” is the name of a college-style bar down in the South Bay, and they aren’t known for their food so much as they are for their happy hours. Little did I realize the difference in spelling, but as soon as we arrived, I knew we weren’t in for some drinking. Instead, I found myself at a counter with a bunch of different Mexican food to order. Sharky’s calls itself a Woodfired Mexican Grill, which is kind of strange to me because I really only think of pizza as being woodfired. But hey, if it can work for pizza, I’m sure it can work for Mexican. In addition to the wood fires, they also attempt to distance themselves from other Mexican food chains by claiming completely natural meats, non-GMO veggies and everything else you can think of that is associated with good old-fashioned food.
Because of this, the prices are slightly higher than you average Mexican counter restaurant, but the price difference is hardly noticeable. I stared down the menu for a while, but finally ended up ordering the first burrito on the list, called the Fiesta Burrito. At 7.29, it came with rice, beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa verde. Plus, it came with the choice of chicken, Angus Steak or organic tofu. I was a bit bothered by this tofu option, but went ahead and ordered the steak. Then, even though it came with a salsa verde, I walked over to the salsa bar to grab a couple cupfulls of other salsas to try out.
The burrito was brought out sliced in half, which was kind of strange to me, but I just rolled with it and started eating. It ended up being a damn good burrito, with just the right amount of steak to go along with all of the other ingredients. The steak was nice and juicy and although I have no idea whether this had to do with being woodfired or just cooked correctly, it was a nice change from the dry steak you often find in burritos like this.
Even though I was quite happy with the burrito, I found one major issue. The guacamole they used had tomatoes in it. This is always a risk when ordering guac, but I had hoped Sharky’s would do better. Fortunately, the tomatoes slices they used were quite big and easy to pick out. In fact, in the whole burrito I think I only pulled out 3 tomato bits, which was a pain, but ultimately not as bad as it could have been.
So if you’re into avoiding antibiotics, GMO and other things hippies don’t like, Sharky’s is a great choice. Their steak was nice and juicy and although it wasn’t the best burrito I’d ever eaten, it did a nice job of combining “healthy” ingredients into a reasonable Mexican meal.