Chipotle had a string of Foodborne Illness outbreaks from 2015-18
https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/press-releases/chipotle-mexican-grill-agrees-pay-25-million-fine-resolve-charges-stemming-more-1100-cases-foodborne
Don’t feel too bad for “Chipotle” they are a S&P 500 listed Corp. with over 8.5 Billon in Revenue!
They should have some very thick $kin
The food illness issues are long past. If you know anything about how Steve Ellis ran the company, one of the problems that happened as they grew was the inability to monitor all the sources of their suppliers. Ells wanted to source the food from local farmers and suppliers. All the cooking happened in the store. No central commissary. The company was so effen progressive when he started there was no advertising allowed. The closest he came to allowing advertising was sponsorship of shows on PBS. If you wore your concerns about sustainability on your sleeve, Chipotle was where people ate among the fast food options. But the food illness outbreak cost Ells his job and the company brought in a new CEO that had management experience of running a large food company. I used to go and get lunch all the time and watched how the lines went from out the door and down the block to nothing to slowly building back up as they got better controls in place. If you had bought the stock then, you have made a killing. Very well run company now. If you don’t want to go for whatever reason, I wouldn’t worry about your lack of business as being any concern to them.
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Anal bleeding? Just a wild guess, of course…
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You’ve seen the ads, so you know they’re a Subway-style put-it-together-to your-choice place with an array of options by protein, carbs, vegetables, salsas, toppings, and extras.
You pick whether you want all that in a taco, burrito, or bowl. Or “off-menu” (at one point anyway) flour quesadilla.
If you’re trying to maximize food / minimize wetness and deterioration of the outcome on the way home, get a bowl and a flour tortilla on the side and DIY your burrito or quesadilla at home.
Personally, I like soft tacos or a quesadilla. If I get a bowl, it’s 2 meals for me. My experience has been that everything is flavorful and fresh for a fast casual place.
Like @Autumm2 I like the chicken, black beans, pico de gallo, and corn salsa. Sometimes carnitas instead of chicken, it’s tasty but fattier as expected.
@Midlife — echoing @ipsedixit, it’s easy and cheap enough to go try if you’re curious.
As an aside, I’m always curious why people who don’t have an answer to OP’s question just stop by to bash the premise in general, and so on.
Everyone doesn’t have local taqueria options, and even if they do, food restrictions may not allow you to eat there. I know plenty of people who don’t eat beans cooked with lard (or tortillas fried in lard, something they discovered in an unfortunate manner), or need vegetarian options, or have other food restrictions.
The anti-chain snobbery is a bit tiresome from thread to thread.
As @BKeats’ pointed out,
(There’s also already a long thread on why people at chains, so it really doesn’t need to be re-litigated on every specific question thread.)
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There are already several ongoing discussions on this. Search by “chain” or “fast” or similar in title.
Here’s one:
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I suppose I am one of those you’re referring to. It is less than favorable meats, tasteless beans and rice, and whether you want them on or in a tortilla, or in a bowl, I don’t see how that affects the reality that their food is just bland.
No, you actually answered the question, so I assume you have eaten there.
(But also, I don’t find their food bland and I don’t have a palate that leans to bland, so mileage obviously varies. Their food is meant to be dressed up with the wide range of salsas they stock, though I rarely use them — because I find their food well-seasoned. And I rarely eat at chains.)
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I have… several times… but have no reason to go back.
Curious why you went back several times when the food was so lackluster to you.
Speaking only for myself, I sometimes go back to disapponting places for several reasons. Second chance, I’m a guest, nothing else nearby, ad astra.
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My first visit was shortly after they opened (chicken burrito), and I always give a new place a second chance or two. Second trip was carnitas… and third was the chicken again. The meats are nothing like a long braise, and had no char. The salsas tasted raw and under-seasoned, and the rice and beans were just tasteless. Plus if you don’t pay seriously extra for extras (and tell them ditch the rice), you end up with a tasteless rice burrito with a minuscule amount of everything else.
Where as a JimBoy’s Super Burrito (for less than half the price) is dripping with red chili sauced shredded meat, refried beans, onions, lettuce, salsa, guac, sour cream, and cheese. Granted they don’t serve that anymore, but that was the local FF competition at the time.
This, IMO, is the only reason to go to Chipotle. Their food is lame, but it is one of the few fast food chains around that offer a truly low carb meal that doesn’t consist of bunless burgers. My usual order is a salad with fajita vegetables and barbacoa or carnitas. Even with a hefty dose of both salsas (which are watery and meh) and sour cream/cheese/etc, its a pretty bland meal, but better than most fast food alternatives.
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Very apt analysis. “Nothing better nearby” is the chains’ secret weapon.
Except for the “watery and meh” that actually sounds like something I coujd take home and work with. The posts suggesting I just give it a try are making more sense to me now.
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Remember it’s fully customizable, so what you choose entirely impacts what the end product tastes like.
You can ask for the salsas on the side for takeout. If it’s coming home you’ve probably got hot sauces you already like, in which case I’d focus on the fresher / chunkier salsas (like corn and pico) and skip the thin ones (or get as a side).
I didn’t know till someone told me that you can always ask for a flour tortilla on the side with a bowl meal. You can also do half rice, double the beans / meat for a cost, and so on.
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I’m curious as to when was the last time you went and had the hot salsa. There was a recent article in the Journal about how much hotter the salsa has gotten. I picked up a bowl a few weeks back and had them top it with the hot salsa. Yowza. I can take hot food. Tobacco is mild to my tastes. This packed some serious heat. If you think that’s bland then you must eat habaneros like cherries.
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It has probably been 6 months or more. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge chili head, but I have a reasonable heat tolerance. Tabasco registers as spicy for me but certainly not overwhelmingly so. In fact, I usually add Tabasco at Chipotle because their salsas are not only not hot enough, they really don’t have much flavor at all. No salt, no tang, not much heat - just blah. I’ll watch out for the increased hotness factor next time I go, though.
The red salsa is hot to me, too. I ask them to put half a ladle on my bowls intead of the full amount.
I like a mix of the “spicy” red with the pico di gallo. To me, neither too hot nor too bland.
FWIW, I have not had their burrito, and probably no other burritos since I first tried one. I think for me, a burrito would mute a lot of the flavor and textures of the individual ingredients.
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