California Burrito vs. Mission Burrito.

A California burrito is from San Diego and contains carne asada, french fries, cheese and usually guacamole and sour cream — and nothing else. A Mission burrito is from San Francisco, is roughly the size of a forearm, and contains rice, beans, meat, cheese, salsa and often guacamole, wrapped in a steamed flour tortilla and then in foil.

The shorthand: fries in it, it is Californian. Rice and beans in it and heavy enough to need two hands, it is Mission style.

The California burrito

It appeared in San Diego in the 1980s, and its defining move is putting the potato inside the burrito instead of next to it. The classic build is short and thick:

• Carne asada, chopped
• French fries
• Shredded cheese
• Guacamole and sour cream, or pico de gallo

What it does not contain is rice or beans, and adding them is the surest way to annoy someone from San Diego. The absence is the point: without filler, the burrito is mostly meat and potato, and the fries soak up the beef juices in a way rice cannot.

It also fails quickly. A California burrito is at its best within a few minutes of being wrapped, because the fries go soft. This is why it is a walk-up-and-eat dish rather than a delivery one.

The Mission burrito

Named for San Francisco's Mission District, where taquerias built it in the 1960s and 70s. The innovations were structural rather than culinary: a larger flour tortilla, steamed to make it pliable; rice and beans added to bulk it out; and a tight foil wrap so it could be eaten one end at a time without collapsing.

A standard build:

• A large flour tortilla, steamed
• Spanish or cilantro-lime rice
• Pinto or black beans, whole or refried
• Meat — carne asada, carnitas, al pastor, pollo asado
• Cheese, salsa, sour cream, guacamole

Order it "super" and you get cheese, sour cream and guacamole included. This is the burrito format that the national fast-casual chains copied wholesale, which is why the assembly line at any burrito chain looks the way it does.

Side by side

So what is a South Bay burrito?

San Jose sits between the two traditions and does not follow either strictly. The default here is closer to the Mission build — rice, beans, foil, "super" as a standard option — but the taquerias serving it are largely rooted in Michoacán and Jalisco rather than in San Francisco, and the salsa is usually taken more seriously than the size is.

The result is that the burrito that matters most in the South Bay is the carne asada burrito, judged on the quality of the meat and the salsa rather than on which regional template it follows. You will find California burritos on plenty of menus here too; they are a menu item rather than a local tradition.

Which should you order?

Order a California burrito when you want the meat-to-filler ratio as high as it goes and you are going to eat it on the spot. Order a Mission burrito when you want one object to be your whole lunch, and when the taqueria's beans and salsa are good enough to be worth the space they take.

If the carne asada is excellent, the California burrito shows it off better. If the carne asada is only fine, the Mission build carries it further.

Where to eat one in the South Bay

Forkelo ranks the best carne asada burritos in the South Bay on evidence about the burrito itself — not the restaurant's overall star rating, which tells you almost nothing about whether the asada was grilled properly today. There is a separate ranking for the best breakfast burritos, and every burrito ranking in one place.

For the meat inside, read what makes a great carne asada burrito.