Johnson Teh and Kazu Abe’s fast-casual Lan Pan Asian at Dadeland Station and Yuga in Coral Gables have a dedicated following for their fresh, consistently tasty dishes that truly span different Asian cuisines, from sushi to noodles and Vietnamese wraps to Filipino food, Korean and inventive mash-ups like battered and fried tuna sandwiches, made of grilled tuna with rice and seaweed and yellow curry vermicelli, dotted with Chinese sausage, shrimp and peppers. Now, they’ve brought a new idea to downtown Miami: Burrito San, fat sushi-style rolls that are filled with traditional sashimi tuna and brown or white rice, but also other unconventional choices, like crispy masala chicken or braised pork, scrambled egg, banana ketchup and roasted garlic cloves, dubbed the Filipino Breakfast roll.
Burrito San draws upon some of Lan’s greatest hits, says Abe. “The idea for this restaurant was to take the most exciting, interesting dishes and flavors at Lan and create a fast casual restaurant where we could focus on a short, more simplified menu that would be really different from anything that we saw on the market. Our burrito rolls are hand held, are burrito-sized, have the contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures you have in a burrito, and packaged up it looks just like a mission-style burrito,” says Abe. “Moreover, since you eat it like a burrito, it has the overstuffed, slightly messy quality of a burrito.”
Abe says the nori-wrapped rolls use local and organic ingredients when possible. “What you should know is that we are trying to build a brand that will be synonymous with the very best ingredients/products that we can source: Wild Alaskan salmon, grass-fed beef, compostable and recyclable disposables, and local produce where possible from LNB Farms, V&B Farms and Doctor Pickle,” she says.
The short menu also includes soups and sides, and two desserts – Thai donuts and mandarin orange creme brulee – plus a short list of craft beer, wine, hot and cold sake and homemade lemonades. Takeout, delivery and catering are offered.
Burrito San’s name embraces their Japanese roots, Abe adds. “‘San’ is an honorific that we use in Japan for people and places to signify respect and importance. So here, we honor the burrito roll!” she says.
