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Business & Tech

Extending Summer at Tito's Burritos

Washington Street eatery offers surfer vibe and diverse menu, but SoCal-style Mexican food falls short of the real thing.

Cooler temperatures in the air should have me running for hearty Irish stews, a plate of German sausages or a comforting bowl of chicken soup. But still in denial, I am putting comfort food on hold until the day I pull out my winter coat. In the meantime, I headed to Tito's Burritos for another breath of summer air.

Located on Washington Street, just around the corner from the Green and the county courthouse, Tito's Burritos has been serving Morristown residents "Cal-Mex" food for almost two years. With the slogan "it's all good," reggae music piped through the speakers and tables along the windows shaped like surfboards, it's always summer here.

I am a longtime fan of beer-battered fish tacos, Baja style, with shredded cabbage and a white cilantro sauce, wrapped in a corn tortilla and garnished with a fresh lime wedge. Now living on the East Coast, I find my fish taco fix at the shore—at Surf Taco. Similar to Tito's, the 5-year-old, 8-store chain has the slogan "Good food, good people, good vibe." No Saturday trip down the shore is complete without a Baja Surf Taco.

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With shore season wrapping up, I hoped to get my fix here in Morristown.

Entering Tito's is a challenge, as the entrance is at the back of the store, off Schuyler Place. Inside, between the surfboards, the neon saguaro cactus and the red and green Christmas lights, I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be in Hawaii or the Sonoran desert, but according to its website, Tito's draws its inspiration from the beach, whether it be the Baja peninsula, the north shore of Oahu or the coast of Panama.

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The specials seemed to draw their inspiration from an even wider variety of sources. This week, they included:

  • Chicken parm burrito, filled with chicken tender pieces, marinara, Jack cheese, yellow rice and scallions.

  • California salmon burrito, salmon, California chili powder, wild rice, brown rice, cheese, chunky avocado salsa and cilantro lime sauce, wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla.
  • Looking for a more traditional Mexican meal, I ordered three tacos, a "flight." Each is served inside a double shell–a crunchy tortilla on the inside, a soft flour tortilla on the outside. This assembly is hardly authentic, but it wasn't bad either.

    Orders all start with a bowl of tortilla chips, which can be enjoyed with one of five selections from the salsa bar—a fresh diced pico de gallo, a tomatillo-based salsa verde, pickled jalapenos, and tomato-based hot and mild red salsas. The salsas were fresh and flavorful, as they should be at this time of year, and the jalapenos were hot enough to burn my mouth, without being excruciating.

    As for the tacos, my flight consisted of the following:

    • Steak Taco–grilled marinated steak, served with "Tito's cheeses," shredded lettuce and pico de gallo ($4.50). The tiny cubes of steak were tender, but lacked the freshly grilled flavor one expects from a good carne asada. The cheese, like the crunchy shell, is a guilty pleasure and saves this taco from being a real disappointment.

    • Fish Taco–Lightly battered and fried white fish, served with shredded cabbage, cilantro/lime sauce and pico de gallo ($3.95). With all of the ingredients of a Baja fish taco (except the cabbage should be green, not red), this should come close, but it falls short. The one long strip of fish is soft and dense, not light and flaky. The cabbage is thick and bulky, not subtle. A lime wedge would help.

    • "Shark" Taco–Grilled Swordfish, served with shredded cabbage, pico de gallo and cilantro/lime sauce ($4.25). Tito's menu notes that Mako sharks are endangered, so it uses swordfish instead. This taco has a bite to it, but the seasonings on the swordfish (and the steak, too) have a packaged taste to them–and that is my biggest complaint here.

    Tito's menu also includes a large selection of burritos, filled with anything from battered fish to blackened chicken. Salads, quesadillas, nachos and wings are also available. The drink menu even includes a frozen, non-alcoholic margarita (you supply the tequila).

    Though the vibe here is anything but cookie-cutter, the food tastes pre-prepared, as if it were mass-produced by a large chain. The menu may come alive with a long glossary of Tito's beach-speak, but the tacos don't come alive with freshness or flavor. Like making a copy of a copy of a copy, Tito's falls short of a real beach meal.

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