Late night Mexican eats comes to the East Side of Des Moines

UPDATE: El Blue Burritos has since closed.

The salsas at El Blue Burritos are all muy picante, but watery. El Blue serves them up at a salsa bar, along with condiments including lime wedges and slices of radish. You have to spoon the salsas onto your plate or chips. No little bowls for dipping.

The habanero salsa is flavorful: I could appreciate the chile without dying from heat. Avocado salsa has a real good heat, and ranks as one of their hottest along with a tomatillo-dried chile salsa.

A green-hued salsa with coarsely pureed chiles, onions and perhaps tomato sports some heat, but is more approachable to the average palate. Not sure if I can call this kid-friendly. You may want to go around the block to Los Laureles [see blog post] for their salsa roja instead.

The "Super Burrito" – a 10-inch tortilla wrapped around grilled ground beef burrito with rice, beans, hot salsa and shredded cheese – is mostly ground beef. Beans, salsa and cheese were not discernible at all: completely dominated by the ground beef. White rice fared better. Beef does taste like burger off the grill. An option for added chorizo didn't stand out against the beef as did the other ingredients.

If burritos filled with steak, chicken or shredded pork are similarly built, then El Blue would certainly be a meat-lovers paradise. El Blue's offerings of tacos, tortas, grilled platters, seafood and salads seem to support this theory.

The chorizo taco I ordered was fairly par for what one would expect of an authentic two-corn tortilla taco.

Alas, El Blue hasn't a single vegetarian item on their menu other than desserts and drinks. You be better off going around the corner to Los Laureles for meatless options.

For late-night eats on Friday and Saturday nights, El Blue is a welcome and needed addition to the Capitol East neighborhood and the East Side as a whole.

El Blue Burritos, 1434 Des Moines St., Suite 8, Des Moines, Iowa. Open Mon.-Thur., 11:00am-10:00pm; Fri.-.Sat., 11:00am-3:00am; Sun., 11:00am-10:00pm.

Photos from the Picasa Web Album: Reviewed Foods