Valentin's: A Breakfast Story

Submitted by Daniel Serber on Sun, 07/31/2011 - 17:42

Summer mornings in Fresno are pleasant, and honestly, I rarely take the time to enjoy them. I was happy when Greg called me at 8:00 in the morning and asked if I could pick him up from the mechanic and escort him on a series of man dates throughout the day until his car was ready to drive again. When I got in my car I didn’t fear the oppressive heat that usually accompanies a summer drive, it was early, the air was still cool and life felt good. Every good Fresnan knows that nothing can make a summer morning better than a breakfast burrito so we drove west looking for adventure, and what we found was a place called Valentin’s in a strip mall on Dakota and Hughes. It was a Mexican Restaurant that like so many others offered Mariscos but we were more interested in a Mexican breakfast, preferably in burrito form. They were open and had a sign painted on the window that read “$5.99 breakfast specials daily” so we were sold.

We walked in and headed to the counter (I believe the correct protocol for “dine-in” was to self seat) the woman who greeted us was friendly and there was something innately maternal about her smile. We took a few menus to our seat for what turned out to be the hardest part of our day, deciding what to try. They had an extensive breakfast menu that included full Mexican breakfast plates like their Nopales, Chorizo, and Eggs served with potatoes and tortillas ($7.95) or special of the day, two pork chops with eggs and papas ($5.95). They also had breakfast burritos ($2.90-$3.95) and breakfast tortas ($6.95) served with papas or fries. We split a Chorizo and Egg torta which came with fries as well as a shredded beef breakfast burrito.

We sat at a table and were greeted with a big bowl of thin crispy chips with salsa. The house salsa at Valentin’s is a spicy pico de gallo where they don’t get shy with the peppers which is great for a guy like me. Then as we chatted and inspected the menu more thoroughly we discovered they have a huge menu punctuated with interesting Mexican steak and shrimp choices. They do more then the Diabla, Veracruz, and Mojo de Ajo that usually starts and ends the shrimp choices around town. Then our food came out, hurray!

The motherly lady with the big smile set before us food. The torta came with a very light yet thick bread that soaked up a little chorizo with out making the outside of the bun at all greasy. The eggs and chorizo were fantastic. It was a great little sandwich that worked amazing together. There was a little creamy sauce in there that surprisingly complimented the other ingredients. I am going to stress that albeit small for the price, this torta was extremely delicious. At first I had scoffed at Greg’s gringo choice of fries instead of papas but I was actually surprised at the quality, crisp, and flavor of them. I had ordered the shredded beef breakfast burrito. It was a great big burrito filled with shredded beef, onions, peppers, eggs and potatoes for less than 4 bucks. In retrospect shredded beef doesn’t make you feel real breakfasty but the meat was flavorful and succulent enough that I didn’t regret my choice. The food was fantastic as was the service and I am looking forward to updating this food review when I go back for dinner!