The Unvegan

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Komodo Heads Indoors

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Some prep kitchen.

A long long time ago, I managed to get myself into the Komodo Truck launch party. It was a good time for all, and apparently the truck has been pretty successful. So successful, in fact, that they recently opened a storefront at Pico-Robertson. I wasn’t there for the debut of this one, which may be a good thing. While the debut of the truck was plagued with long lines, when I walked into the restaurant I found myself the only patron. The friendly cashier made sure to tell me that although things seemed pretty grim, the restaurant doubled as a prep kitchen for the truck. So although I was the only one giving money to the restaurant that night, the place was indirectly earning them some money wherever the truck may be.

Now when I went to the truck they were only offering tacos, but the restaurant had themselves burritos modeled after those tacos. At 8 bucks, they were a little pricey, but the ingredients looked awesome. Although I was a little disappointed by the lack of actual komodo dragon meat (yes I would eat dragon), the Asian Marinated Chicken burrito looked great. Filled with the chicken, jalapeno stir-fried rice and mandarin oranges, it was fit for an unvegan. Although the place seems set up for some sort of a Chipotle-style assembly line, I was happy to see my food cooked fresh on the griddle rather than sitting in a tray for hours.

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This is no small burrito.

And when finished, the burrito was massive. By weight it was certainly worth the 8 bucks, and I hoped it would retain this value in taste. It did. The chicken was really flavorful and although the rice was the biggest component of the burrito, it had a nice flavor to it that didn’t make it feel like filler. The mandarin oranges were an awesome addition and added a nice burst of flavor at random bites. I actually wouldn’t have minded a bit more of the mandarin oranges, but then I may not have appreciated those random bursts of citric sweetness as much. The tortilla was a bit thick, but did a great job of keeping the onslaught of food at bay as a ravished the burrito.

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No rice overkill.

I also had an opportunity to taste the Komodo 2.0 burrito, which was filled with skirt steak, jalapeno aioli and corn salad. I actually found this one to be light on flavor and was glad I had gone with the chicken instead.

So the Komodo restaurant has done a good job of carrying on the name of the Komodo truck by providing unique burritos. The only unfortunate thing is that they haven’t really expanded their menu. With the availability of a full kitchen, I would like to see them experiment a bit more with ingredients. A simple menu at a truck is ideal, but people expect a bit more from a restaurant and hopefully they can grow their menu and really make the restaurant work.