El Taco Veloz [#2] defeats Taqueria Traspasada [#15]

At the end of the day, it was fairly obvious how this one was going to go down. Clearly, El Taco Veloz [review] was going to have an edge in terms of atmosphere and experience, but I thought Taqueria Traspasada [review] had a little bit of wiggle room to make up for that with superior food. In fact, however, the chorizo was not a particular specialty at Traspasada, and Veloz was superior in both departments.

In honor of the outstanding experience that Traspasada provided in its eat-in match, however, I am going to introduce a new feature: the Burrito Breakdown. This rates each taqueria from 0 to 5 chili peppers in six categories related to the quality of the food, and from 0 to 3 chili peppers in five categories related to the non-food experience (service, atmosphere, presentation, pricing, etc.) This means that there are a maximum of 30 points available for the food and 15 for everything else, which seems to be about the right ratio.

I am not always going to use the Breakdown. Nor, for that matter, do I necessarily promise to abide by the Breakdown's ruling -- if the final score is within one or two chili peppers, then I'm going to go with what my heart tells me. But, it should help to provide some insight into close decisions.


Overall, a decisive 8-chili margin for Veloz, confirming my initial impression.