While the name sure doesn’t sound like it there’s a new(ish) Mexican restaurant called Freebirds, in Marina del Rey on Lincoln at Washington. It’s next to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, which is how I found out about it when I met Redwan, their Regional Manager when I was enjoying a coffee there. He invited me to stop by for a tour and I took him up on it. It was pretty cool upon arrival – you can’t miss “Libby”, the Statute of Liberty riding a custom built Harley hanging from the ceiling. There are big wooden community tables and some small ones against the wall with graffiti style art on the walls plus some plaques for Surfrider’s Foundation, one of several places in the community that Freebirds supports.
So far so good. I met their genuinely friendly staff, including Erin, the Manager and a Venetian. I got some chips and salsa to go and enjoyed the light, tasty chips and the smoky corn salsa, which was really good (and I’m not real big on corn…) and the house red salsa was good too.
I returned a couple of weeks later to try the grass fed beef burrito; first you should know that there are 4 sizes of burritos to choose from: Hybrid, the smallest one up to Super Monster, which does in fact, scare me (it could feed a family of 8 in my opinion!) There are a bunch of options that come with the burrito that are all fresh; nothing is frozen at the bird! Some of the options are roasted veggies, (I liked those), mixed greens, eight choice of salsas and sauces, cilantro lime rice to name a few. The beef burrito was tender and tasty wrapped in a cayenne tortilla. There are also flour, wheat and spinach tortillas too. The Hybrid size plus chips and salsa was the perfect size for a filling lunch for me.
There’s also free wifi although only one spot to plugin. That would be the only improvement I would ask for, however, this is a place where people come to eat; everyone from business people to skate boarders and local bloggers. This is a great spot for a casual lunch or dinner with quick and friendly service that doesn’t feel like a chain restaurant. It was founded by two ex-hippies in Santa Barbara back in 87 that wanted to offer burritos with grass fed beef and natural chicken. They’ve fed a lot of burritos topeople since then!
Freebirds
4025 Del Rey Ave
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292
Phone: 310.306.9600
Hours:
Sunday – Thursday 10:30am – 9:30pm
Friday & Saturday 10:30 – 10pm