The Mission burrito is San Francisco's defining sandwich: a giant flour tortilla packed with rice, beans, meat, salsa and sometimes cheese or sour cream, foil-wrapped to the table.
The shape was set in the late 1960s on 24th Street. Febronio Ontiveros at El Faro on Folsom is widely credited with the 1961 rice-and-foil package; La Cumbre on Valencia popularised the same wrap a few blocks west. The Mission style differs from a Sonoran burrito in three ways: rice is inside, the tortilla is steamed before rolling and the package is overstuffed to the point that the foil is structural. By the 1980s the form had spread from 24th Street to college towns across the country; Chipotle's founder Steve Ells trained in San Francisco before he opened his first room in Denver in 1993. The burrito is the rare American dish with a specific birth address.
4 editor picks for Mission burrito in San Francisco, ranked by editorial score. All San Francisco signature dishes · Mission burrito across every city.
La Taqueria ★ 4.7
the-mission · 2889 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
La Taqueria in San Francisco is Miguel Jara's Mission taqueria, James Beard America's Classic, with no-rice burritos and doubled corn tacos since 1973.
El Farolito ★ 4.5
the-mission · 2779 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94110
El Farolito in San Francisco is the Mission's all-night taqueria, opened in 1980 on 24th and Mission, with the super burrito that set the modern bar.
Taqueria Cancun ★ 4.3
the-mission · 2288 Mission St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Taqueria Cancun in San Francisco is the Mission taqueria on 16th and Mission, the baseline burrito mojado the city falls back on, open late every night.
Taqueria El Buen Sabor ★ 4.1
the-mission · 699 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110
Taqueria El Buen Sabor in San Francisco is a family-run Valencia Street taqueria at Valencia and 18th, serving the Mission since 1995 at sub-twelve-dollar prices.