Burritos almost as wide as my face and “all menu items under $10.” Count us in!

For several years, we received glowing recommendations from a wide variety of diners that we visit a little shop in the North Carolina foothills that serves big flavors by crossing Mexican food with local Appalachian ingredients. All those suggestions placed the shop, Mountain Burrito, high on our list of new restaurants to explore.

We would have visited sooner, but we don’t make it through Morganton often. After we received a restaurant gift certificate from my wife Molly’s mom who works near the restaurant, we just couldn’t delay visiting Mountain Burrito any longer.

Spoiler alert: Mountain Burrito is awesome, and we discovered that the name actually has a dual meaning. The burritos are made near the mountains with locally sourced and inspired ingredients, AND the burritos are themselves a mountain of food. You’ll be full and satisfied when you walk out the door after a meal here.

You walk in and straight to the counter to select the meats and fillings for your burrito, or your tacos, nachos, salad or bowl. Your pick! The filling choices are vast, everything from steak and chicken to house-made hummus selections, guacamoles, beans, and picos. (Thorough list of toppings here) Your meal comes with a side of chips, so be sure to ask for a salsa selection to accompany those. And there’s a pile of specialty single-serving desserts packaged and awaiting you at the end of the line. Drinks include craft beer, brewed sweet and unsweet iced tea and fountain sodas.

Everything we sampled—including a chicken burrito with beans, cabbage and pico; a steak burrito rice, beans, guacamole and cheese; the chips and mild salsa; and an apple-cinnamon bread pudding—was delightfully fresh. The quality and quantity of everything we saw and tasted at Mountain Burrito was top notch, and it’s not that often we find both of those Qs in addition to meals under $10.

There is a limited amount of seating inside, but the counter and the dining keep things moving pretty quickly to open up spots. Outside seating is also available, as well as ample parking in a lot off the highway.

Don’t miss your turn off Fleming Drive for the restaurant, as we did. You can circle around the larger shopping center parking lot behind if you need to. That’s what we did. Then we walked in and immersed ourselves in what can best be described as a #FoodieScore.

Mountain Burrito, 408 West Fleming Drive, Morganton, N.C.