chilacates Brookline — Restaurant in Brookline

Rating: 3/5 I honestly have REALLY conflicting and mixed opinions about the place. It had a name to live up to, a famous name that all Brookline residents knew and loved, Anna’s taqueria. A name that became famous in my household as well as throughout many Brookline events such as the Driscoll annual festival. Anna’s taqueria always catered. Although, since the well beloved owner, Michael “Mike” Yoshiomi Kamio passed away in 2019, burrito shops have had a name to live up to in Boston. Chilacates took a brave step building a burrito shop where the original Anna’s used to be. Living up to the name and staying to the name is going to one heck of an uphill battle. When I went in, I was pleasantly surprised to smell the intoxicating waft of fresh corn tortillas, and smoked meat. Although the menu was laid out with an array of colourful pictures of Tortas, enchiladas, burritos and quesadillas I found it confusing to order. It didn’t feel like there was a lot of “wiggle-room” for a “build your own.” I felt like I couldn’t really choose what I wanted, it was only the bowl that you could pick and choose. The reason I say this is because I really wanted to add hot sauce into it and I was surprised to find that they wouldn’t put the sauce on the quesadilla. I was bummed to find that all the “goodies” (ie guacamole, sour cream & lettuce) were on the side. I thought it was weird. I also gotta say that it’s WAYYY too expensive for what it is, it came out to $45 for 2 entrées, and two elotes. C’mon man, that’s highway robbery.

EDIT Rating: 1/5 I really wanted to try it again to give it another shot and because my cousin wanted to try it and it was dry and boring. Really boring and...

It’s gorgeous inside but eerie quiet with no music or people. The burrito/bowl lacks the variety of options you would come to expect. The food is objectively good but it doesn’t have the authentic heart and depth of flavor like the variety of local competitors. The price is similar to others, but it’s half the portion of food.

For example, $15 at Los Amigos gets enough food for 2 meals. At chilacates, every last bit of food is gone in one sitting. The paltry serving of rice is just downright disappointing. I’m a fit guy with a fair appetite, but certainly not an excessive eater. I’m legitimately still hungry after finishing my $15 meal and questioning if I should ever go back.

Honesty, the only reason I go at all is because it’s the closest to my apartment. If I was closer to any other similar restaurant, I truly could not imagine a scenario where I went out of my way to go to Chilacates over another. Other than the convenient location, I just don’t see what they really have going for them.

Chilacates needs to revamp, add options and increase their portions. I can’t imagine this establishment building a loyal customer base with such a...

Great food but I got some person who didn't know how to make a burrito to save his life. I'm Mexican and don't know a Mexican soul who didn't know how to make a burrito by the time they were at most ten. After a really long wait, this poor soul at first tried to make me something that would've almost entirely have been rice. When he finished, he missed an ingredient so did it over. The doña standing next to me starts commenting to me how terrible the service is and how it was better in the past. Eventually the employee gets all the ingredients right but very poorly rolled the burrito. The manager said he'd refund me, which was kind. I hope next time I'm passing by for a quick burrito, it's quick and done correctly.

Update from the morning after: I was up vomiting 5-6 hours last night for some of the worst vomiting in my life, which stopped when the burrito was gone. I am guessing food poisoning. Really unfortunate since I've been to a different Chilacates location several times...