Red Burrito — Restaurant in Vancouver

I don't eat out at restaurants like I used to many years ago. I love to cook so I will go out on special occasions, and if I love a restaurant so much and can't cook their dishes on my own. The reason I frequented Red Burrito is because they made great Tamales. 🫔 It's hard to find Mexican restaurants that make them. I discovered them a few years after they opened in 2006. Love it!! They were authentic and I could dine in (Usually at the Commercial Drive location) or most of the time would take it to go. Tamales can be a meal in a portable form unless you're like me and love to cut them up and put all kinds of sauces on them. In most versions, tamales are made from a mixture of corn dough (masa) and filling, wrapped in a banana leaf or corn husk, and then steamed. The corn masa becomes firmer when steamed, and the tamale can be unwrapped and eaten on the go. It had been a while since I had one and I was craving it. My boyfriend is from Hungary and he's had Mexican food but has never eaten Tamales. I believe we went to Commercial Drive on April 30th. We both ordered two chicken Tamales, I had the meal with beans and rice. We also both had their Tortilla soup which is a slightly spicy, chicken tomato soup that is filled with sour cream, Mozzarella cheese and cilantro topped with homemade corn tortilla strips. We also shared a Horchata drink which is a traditional Mexican drink made with Vanilla, milk, cinnamon and rice. So...what was the issue this night? Since my boyfriend had never eaten there, he didn't know the Tamales weren't filled with as much Chicken as they were since I'd eaten there in the past. It's been possibly 8 years since I've had their food and I frequented them a lot. I did my usual food prep. Cut up about half of the two Tamales and put the usual sauces I like on them. Sour cream, Salsa, and Green Chili sauce. I was enjoying it. I will say, that the Tamales were kept in a low-heated container by the till with the rest of the fillings. Sauces, Beans, Rice, Cheese, Etc. When I ate there in the past they were kept in the kitchen and were heated up (Probably by microwave) and then your dish was plated. So the Tamales were cool but I didn't care too much because I was finally eating them again. After a few bites, I thought to myself are they using dark Chicken meat? It was hard to tell because of the sauce. Then I looked at my boyfriend's meal which had no sauce and noticed his Chicken was lighter and that's when I saw the Tamales were barely filled inside. We looked at both meals and realized I was given Beef which I don't eat. Although they don't make them like they used to... not even half the amount of Chicken, they gave me the wrong meat. I politely told them and they apologized for the mistake. By then we had eaten half of our soups (which seemed slightly less thick than I remembered) but was still tasty. So we decided to finish the Horchata drink we shared. It was as I remembered. Tasty if you want an authentic Mexican drink and don't mind the sweetness. We needed a bag to take our leftovers home and the server said she'd replace my Tamales with two new Chicken ones. She gave us four new ones. I don't think she misunderstood me. My boyfriend had Chicken but it may have been because it was close to closing or she wanted to make us happy. We were surprised. My boyfriend admitted they were dry (He put no sauces on them) and I said I was sorry as they were better in the past and had more Chicken in them. We paid just over $60 and ended up with four more Tamales out of it but what to do with them? I put them in the freezer and decided I'd do my twist on what they gave us. I bought more Chicken, cooked and shredded it with Mexican spices, and heated and sliced the Tamales into approximately 1-inch slices. I served the slices with my Chicken recipe on top with sauces on the side. It was amazing and we ate it for 3 days!!! I'll never eat there again. They tried to make it right, but it's what I did that made it right. I can't speak for the rest of their food so give it a try. Restaurant...

i've literally never experienced such awful customer service in my entire life. my boyfriend and i ordered two chicken tinga burritos and we got two quesadillas. we didn't check until we were in the car & once we realized we had the wrong food my boyfriend went back. the manager insisted that we said burrito and refused to remake it or give us a refund. the guy was literally GASLIGHTING us and saying that he knows what quesadilla sounds like and that's what he made. we were very nice about it at first but it just got ridiculous. I can't have very much cheese so now we're out $27 and i have nothing to eat. i obviously didn't order a quesadilla if i can't eat a quesadilla. we weren't looking to get free food or anything, we just wanted to give the food back and get a refund but the manager refused and told us that's what we ordered. he said it's our opinion that we think we ordered burritos ?? and that it's our job to watch what he's making while he's making it. i'm never the type to leave a bad review as i work in customer service myself and know how hard it is, but this was honestly the most insane service experience of my life. if i spoke to a customer the way we were spoken to i would lose my job. i'm in awe of how awful it was, the bar was on the ground and the guy...

Delicious, delicious, delicious! It was my first time there and I asked for recommendations, they were super helpful! The customer service was fantastic, warm, and very welcoming. The tamale was a first for me and I'm surprised at how flavorful it was! I'd 100% order again and try the beef next time. The guac was so luxurious and had a lemony kick to it. Sad at how little you get as I'd definitely buy a second guac for next time. Too many chip to guac ratio but the chips make for a fantastic way to eat the inside of the burrito and tamale so in the end it's a win regardless.

The chips are addictive just a heads up.

The burrito was VERY hefty and took me about 2/3 meals to fully consume along with the tamale. I felt like I could definitely knock someone off of a bike with the weight of that burrito. He definitely didn't cheap out on ingredients even when I wanted all of them! All together it was a great meal for the price and service. I was in and out in under 10 minutes so it made a lunch break feasible when you only had 30 minutes to spare.

11/10 would recommend, hopefully I'll be back in town with my boys to get them to...