Most Central Oregon restaurants serving breakfast offer breakfast burritos, or so it seems. To find the best, it took almost two weeks of eating multiple burritos each day to make a fair comparison. Some “burritos” are simply wraps or tortillas with breakfast ingredients. Others are traditional Mexican burritos. The burritos that originated in Mexico are small and thin, with only one or two ingredients. All of the burritos that I tried would be considered “mission-style” burritos, plumply overstuffed with various ingredients.

The name “mission-style” refers to the origins of these super burritos. Febronio Ontiveros claims to have invented them at El Faro, a grocery store in the Mission District of San Francisco, in 1961.

The best of these mission-style burritos have fresh quality ingredients. The care taken in cooking the eggs is also a critical element in a good breakfast burrito. If the eggs have been overcooked or are unseasoned, the whole burrito can taste dry. Burritos that were slightly greasy were a bit better than the others. Tortillas are important too. A homemade or grilled, thin tortilla is better than a thick doughy tortilla with folds with no filling. Lastly, the best burritos spread the ingredients so that each bite is a balance of all that goes into it — egg, cheese, sour cream, meat, etc.

Note that many restaurants offer gluten-free tortillas and wraps. Inquire when you order.

Top five best burritos

Of the many burritos I tried, these were the top five that stood out compared to the others. Each had an excellent balance of flavors swaddled together in tasty tortillas.

Foxtail Bakeshop and Kitchen – The Borough Burrito: This luxurious burrito is wrapped in gold foil. It begins with light, fluffy eggs that are almost crepe-like, layered under a thin, grilled tortilla. A generous portion of mole pork added sweetness with a hint of pumpkin and cinnamon. Small chunky potatoes were cooked until buttery and tender with bits of cilantro. Although it may have been slightly greasy, it added moisture and the mole flavor to each bite. It’s served with a side of salsa verde and crema. Somewhat sour, the spice of the salsa verde cut through the sweet and greasiness of the meat. Crema added a cool dairy complement. It was so good that I was sad when I finished eating it, and look forward to getting one again soon.

Rockin’ Daves Bistro- Build-Your-Own-Burrito: Because you customize a Rockin’ Daves burrito, it will be a great combination of flavors that you like. What makes it extraordinary is that Rockin Dave’s has fresh ingredients from which to build your burrito. It begins with scrambled egg, cheese and well-cooked hash browns. Choose from quality bacon, ham, sausage, or thick juicy slices of pork belly. Then add vegetables like onions (cooked or raw), peppers, artichokes, portobello mushrooms or greens. It’s your choice of wrap. My crispy yet juicy pork belly based burrito was wrapped in a spinach tortilla.

The Breakfast Club: This surprise top pick was like an excellent breakfast wrapped up to hold in your hand. Smokey cubes of ham and bacon, well-cooked hash browns, scrambled eggs and cheese are rolled into a flour tortilla. The secret was that all of the elements were cooked perfectly, including the lightly seasoned, fluffy eggs. The burrito came with light tomato salsa and sour cream.

Los Jalapeños — The Mexican burrito: It begins with salty and savory ham, cooked onions, grilled hash browns, two eggs, cheese, onions, fresh jalapeños, hash browns, two eggs and cheese. But it’s the sauteed mushrooms that elevated this burrito into the top five. It was like a well-tuned mariachi combo in my mouth.

Runner ups

Although these burritos didn’t make the top five, some were very close. Certainly, you will be pleased with any of these runner ups.

The Victorian Cafe — Southwest Burrito (only available for takeout): Homemade Andouille sausage bursts with flavor among big chunks of perfectly roasted tender red potatoes, spinach, red bell peppers and onions. It’s all rolled in a warm flour tortilla with three scrambled eggs and pepper jack cheese that was not only melted and creamy throughout but oozed out of the burrito when reheated. The burrito is served with housemade chipotle hollandaise sauce.

Don Gabino’s Mexican Grill- Chorizo burrito: It seems that not all Mexican chorizo burritos are created equal. I tried this burrito twice recently. The first time, it was perfectly balanced, and the second time, it was very greasy. Both times, the smokey chorizo flavor stood out from the eggs and cheese. The chorizo flavor often gets lost.

Life and Time: Free Range Fast Food — Sweet potato breakfast burrito: Sweet potato chunks are mixed with black beans, corn salsa, cilantro and cotija cheese to lighten the savory sweetness of this healthy burrito. Fried eggs are included in these fresh ingredients. The well-balanced combination is wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla and served with sour cream.

Longboard Louie’s- Machaca burrito: Machaca is a shredded beef that has been marinated and cooked with peppers and spices and then scrambled with eggs for the breakfast burrito. A sour, peppery taste mixed with plenty of chopped tomatoes, onions and cilantro in their housemade Pico de Gallo. The flavors added zing to the Spanish rice and refried beans stuffed into the burrito. The combination was moist without being drippy.

Cafe Sintra: I chose linguiça Portuguese sausage scrambled eggs for my breakfast burrito. Bacon, ham and breakfast sausage are the other options. The tortilla is stuffed with fluffy eggs, red onions, small cubes of tender potatoes and mild mozzarella cheese. Chopped sweet red pepper and spinach added a freshness to the smokey sausage, eggs and cheese. Hollandaise sauce with smokey paprika and a side of potatoes are the perfect accompaniment to this burrito.

Active Culture Cafe: With all organic ingredients, this tortilla is smeared with a layer of guacamole, scallions, nutty moist brown rice, black beans, cilantro and scallions around a center of fluffy scrambled eggs. A thick, doughy tortilla kept it from the best category.

Reggio’s Cafe and Mi Cielo Mexican Restaurant in Redmond: The flavor of these two burritos was quite similar, and it would be hard to choose one over the other. Both burritos had well seasoned scrambled eggs and a complexity of Mexican flavors. The Reggio burrito had a good serving of peppers, and cheese melted throughout. The Mi Cielo burrito’s sausage was a bit tastier, and I was able to add refried beans.

Rest assured, these were not the only burritos I tried, but they stood out among all the others. Next time you are in the mood for a handy on-the-go breakfast, check out these burritos.

Foxtail Bakeshop and Kitchen – 555 NW Arizona St Suite 60 (the Box Factory)

Rockin Daves Bistro – 661 NW Greenwood

The Breakfast Club – 378 NW Greenwood

Los Jalapeños – 601 NW Greenwood

Active Culture Cafe- 285 NW Riverside Drive, Bend 97701

Cafe Sintra – 1024 Bond Street Bend-

The Victorian Cafe- 1404 NW Galveston

Longboard Louie’s – 62080 Dean Swift Road (off Greenwood)

Life and Time: Free Range Fast Food – 320 SW Century Drive (drive through on corner)

Don Gabino’s Mexican Grill – 304 SE 3rd Stree

Reggios Cafe – 1154 NW 6th Street

Mi Cielo Mexican Restaurant- 950 SW Veterans Way (near Fred Meyer)