Pinto, Queen Street, Glasgow – July 2011

Made it into Pinto with the hope that the food was better than the grammar of the hoarding (sorry i mean promotional tactic). Glasgow is screaming out for some decent mexican food. Sadly Pinto, brought to Glasgow by the Di Maggio group doesn’t quite yet fill that void.

The interior is exceptionally clean and brightly lit, a bit of a schizofrenic personality – going for a hip n trendy food vibe or fast food get em in and get em out fast vibe. Not sure there. The music is cheesy mexican meets mexican chart/rap. After 15 mins it wore me down.

The menu is easy to follow (handy for that post club munchies for the target audience I suspect).

Part One is select Burrito, Bar Burrito, Tacos, Nachos or Salad.

Part Two is choose a filling from Char Grilled Chicken (£4.95), Char Grilled Steak (£5.65), Slow Cooked Pork (£4.95), Barbacoa (Spicy slow braised shredded beef) (£4.95) or Vegetarian -(£4.65).

Part Three – top this with a choice of rice, beans, sour cream and choice of salsas.

Extra sides are available. Drinks include margarita/wine/corona (£3.25) as well as soft drinks.

We ordered two burritos and two margaritas for £16.40.

The ice machine for the margarita seemed a little temperamental and we ended up with a lot of ice. For £.3.25 a little bigger size of glass would have been nice.

The burritos were a good size, and tasty, especially with the Chipotle salsa which gave the meal some kick which was good to cover the rice/bean mush. The contents were a little tepid and the tortillas would have been better warm. More meat and less rice/bean would be good.

To sum up a bit of a change for lunch times or in need of a quick meal. Pinto’s facebook page has a 2-4-1 burrito voucher at the moment.