Burritos: Freebird in Exmouth Market

Freebird
Exmouth Market
Clerkenwell
No Phone

Date of Last Visit: Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The Victim: Me

The Damage: £5

The Background: Stephanie, my cleaning lady extraordinaire, is leaving me. She's having a baby. I can't even tell you how guilty I feel about having a cleaning lady. Make it a pregnant cleaning lady and well, I am swimming in guilt.

But life goes on. So here I am, working from home, making sure my new cleaning lady doesn't rob me blind. (I have such trust in people!) Her name is Lily and she seems really nice and I can't imagine her robbing me, so that's good.

So I take a break for lunch and head over to Exmouth Market for a burrito! I am so excited! I have been wanting to try Freebird for ages, and it's not too far from me, but it's been hard to get a day at home where I can give it a try.

The Approach: The stand is quiet when I get there. I'm the only one there. Then I recognize the two owner dudes from my night at Mucho Mas and try to drum up a conversation. I remind the one guy that I met him at Mucho Mas. I don't think he remembered me. I think he just thought I was a crazy American who was really excited to have a burrito for lunch.

The Product: I get a pork fajita burrito. (Pork = Carnitas.) They make it in front of me, which is cool. I get a little worried though when they wrap it up. They don't wrap it so well. It looks like it's going to fall apart. But I take it and go. Not before forgetting to pay, of course. I am nothing if not classy.

Back at Home: I unwrap it and it falls apart. It's just not very burrito-y. It's a mess. A delicious mess, but a mess indeed. I like the carnitas. Really nicely seasoned. But then--I went with the medium salsa, and it's not got much of a punch to it. It's just a bunch of corn. Hmmm.

The Verdict: Not bad. But not knocking my socks off either.