I have lived in New York for eight maybe nine years now and the one thing I miss the most about home is mexican food. I wake up every day with mexican food on my mind. I don’t get to address this hankering as often as I would like because not everyone I know wants mexican food for every meal like I do. I am fortunate to be around a lot Californians who understand the necessity of mexican food for living so Saturday I pulled a serious coup and went to Baja Fresh.

Friday night all the icons on my phone disappeared around 9pm and never returned so on a rainy Saturday afternoon I was faced with a trip to 42nd and 6th to fix my phone. Tyler wanted to get food and after stalling him for two hours because I was not hungry and nothing on the food websites looked good a light bulb went off in my head. You see no one wants to spend a weekend day alone running errands when you can do it with a friend and Baja Fresh on Broadway between 40th and 41st was a convincing enough reason for Tyler to join me on my midtown journey.

Baja Fresh has two locations in midtown that both opened this year. The one we went to shares a wall with one of the oddest retail stores in the world, Nygard. You can see this Nygard character with the huge grin above the Baja Fresh sign. Nygard is a massive unfished retail space with blue neon lights shining all over Broadway. Tyler and I knew it had something to do with selling clothes but past that it was unclear what was going on. Make sure to check out the store next time you are near Times Square because it is a speticle. Also do yourself a favor and click Here to read about Peter Nygard from the section titled “Nygard The Man” on his companies website.

Back to the food. The ambiance of a Baja Fresh is not going to add to your dining experience. The best experience is at an outdoor table in California but since we were in New York on a rainy Saturday we had to focus on the food. The inside of this particular location is dull with a cream paint job on the walls, some low two top tables, and round 4 top tables with high chairs. There are also 4 flat screens that face each other on opposite walls which were not on. We didn’t have to wait long in the line for freshness but that photo about sums up how exciting the decor was.

I ordered the classic (at least in my opinion) Baja Burrito with steak and Tyler ordered a Diablo Burrito. Now Tyler is a vegetarian of sorts so when they asked him what kind of protein he wanted in his burrito he was caught off guard. It’s funny that in a country of morbidly obese people we are now referring to meat as protein as if to appear we are health conscious. Tyler ordered a vegetable Diablo which means he didn’t even get a protein so why would they ask him that in the first place. Corporations. Anyways after ordering we received a small container of chips each and hit the salsa bar. The salsa bar was standard Baja and as you can see from the spread photo we tried them all out. Tyler threw away the mango salsa after taking one dip. “That’s not right” he said and I couldn’t agree more. The burrito was a decent size and as you can see from the puddle below my hand it was wonderfully juicy. The consistency of the guacamole was a bit smoother than other Baja burritos I have had which is a bit hairy considering guacamole should never look like it came from a blender but it tasted good nonetheless. The pico de gallo was really chunky and fresh tasting and the cheese perfectly melted. All in all this is the best fast food mexican burrito in New York.

I was able to sneak a picture of one man’s salsa stash while he went back to the counter to pick up his order. You can see said man’s massive calf in the photo. He left carrying two bags of food and one bag of salsa. While I don’t condone eating as much as it appeared he did I am all for getting your just due at the salsa bar.

Also of note was a high tech ice tea dispenser. Push button with four different flavors is a nice alternative to the soda machine. I have a really hard time drinking more than twelve ounces of a soda so if I order a drink at a fast food place I always hope they have an unsweetened ice tea option.

Baja Fresh is not a destination restaurant for most people but if you are in midtown it is definitely a good call.