Burrito Battle Royale: 3 of the best spots for burritos in Vienna

We’re greeted by a gorilla head amidst the bushes next to the counter. The counter is from where the next greeting comes from – a girl with a purple hair, nose-ringed, tattooed kind of look. The first impressions tell loads about Gorilla Kitchen.

Here, you eat with your hands the street food served up with sassy sarcasm and punk individuality. The girl who greeted us is Lisa, one half of the Gorilla Kitchen duo that brought burritos to Vienna in a big way a while back. This was back in their nomadic days when they’d feed revellers at festivals their beefed-up burritos from their food stand.

Since then, the Gorillas are all grown up and have found a home, but by no means does this mean this magnificent concept has been caged. The burritos bulge with flavoursome ingredients, and you wonder if the beast will explode at any moment when it proves too much for the simple piece of white tortilla bread. If it did, we’d be eating it up off the floor. Without shame. For this is the kind of place you can wipe your mouth with your sleeve, and burp a tune while knowing you’re amongst company that would appreciate your special talent (ok, perhaps refrain from the beat burping).

Having worked up a mad hunger while watching the Gorilla Kitchen staff packing ingredients snug and tight into a burrito flat bread, we make a mess of their signature classic where Mexico meets the Irish – the Guinness Rindfleisch (beef) Burrito, filled with beans, rice and corned beef in a Guinness gravy. If you like to spice things up like us, order the classic version, which comes with jalapeños and coriander. The Pulled Pork Burrito has proven a favourite amongst Gorilla goers, and we understand why. It rocks the smokey and sweet caramelised complex flavours that any pulled pork should.
Check out our full review of Gorilla Kitchen, here. 

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These guys are loco … and so are their burritos! Recently having opened up another location on Vienna’s shopping street, Mariahilferstraße, there’s no questioning that they’re doing something right. Our visit to the 1st district version, and the original, Carlos plays a main role in the future success of Max & Benito. He’s a pro chef when it comes to tacos, burritos, and the Mexican cuisine, in general. And that’s why owners, Stephan and Markus, flew him in directly from Mexico. The mix of flavours in the burritos here is what it should be. We even have to close our eyes to take in the taste sensation unfolding – with the zesty lime rice, the beautifully smooth texture of the black bean paste, the crunch of the lettuce, the garlicky veggies, the sweetness of the freshly made guacamole, and the hot and tangy salsa. Let us assure the Mexican lovers out there – the salsa is the real deal. The salsa may be a mild-mannered Mexican, but you can also heat things up with Chilango hot sauce.

Check out our full review of Max & Benito, here. 

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Interestingly, you wouldn’t find these guys on any of your usual foodie fan websites, but that’s not because they’re crap, yet rather it’s purely because they would rather focus their energy elsewhere rather than pimping themselves out to the press. However, we found them. El Burro’s continued success is based largely on word of mouth, and when you are producing beautiful burritos as well as these guys, word of mouth is all you need. The menu is small, but mighty, and as one of the few that mixes it up with special kinds of burritos, it means that you can easily make numerous visits and try a different creation each time. Their locally-sourced products inflate the burritos to a point where you’ll take a couple of minutes to work out how you are going to eat it. The homemade sauces possess zing and lace the burritos nicely. Watching the burrito builders here, it’s clear they know what they’re doing. The burrito comes nestled on a basket of nachos, meaning that if you do have some spillages, you have something to mop it up with. If you have space in your belly for after the burrito that is.

The added bonus here is the atmosphere – the place is spruced up with local artwork that takes after the tongue-in-cheek humour of the team. Meanwhile, the team are relaxed and friendly (the kind of people we’d hang out with if we were cool enough) which adds to the fun-loving atmosphere in which you make a mess of yourself, your beer and your burrito, as the crew joke around. Oh, and the drink selection is stellar.