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Chipotle Mexican Grill


vengroff

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Ya want edge, Don?

Request a nutritional breakdown from them via e-mail (unlike the other chains they don't have it on their website).

They put enough sodium in everything so that they don't EVER have to worry about spoilage.

Maybe a little less fat and better quality of meat, but Chipotle (and Baja Fresh) are not really any better for you than grabbing some McD's.

OK, sorry but it was the best I could come up with. I like the place, but won't eat there very often.

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

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My favorite at Chipotle is the Vegetarian Fajito burrito....and I am no vegetarian! However, with the veggie version you can get the beans and the peppers and onions and the guacamole all for the 5.50 price without having to pay any upcharges like you do when you get any of the meats. The guac and peppers more than makes up for their so-so beef IMO, and I like pay 5 bucks for lunch instead of 8

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Chipotle is good for that new-fresh-mexi food, but I prefer Baja Fresh. Even in California (where mexican joints abound like cicadas in DC) the locals were impressed with Baja Fresh when it debuted in the mid-90s.

Wendy's may have some ownership in Baja Fresh, but you can franchise a store for a cool $2M+ (at last check 2 years ago).

There's local taco joint called Teocalli Tamale in Herndon that is very similar to Chipotle but 10x better in flavor.

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Carnitas

no rice

pinto beans

medium salsa

guacamole

Mmmmmmmmm. Sodium.

Ten years ago, I used to mail order my coffee beans from Starbucks in Seattle, and they were pretty darned good, too.

I think we must have been their DC base, Don. And I was soundly ridiculed for mail-ordering coffee. :rolleyes:

Heather Johnson

In Good Thyme

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oooh I love Chipotle. I may have to have lunch there tomorrow and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. There's one right near the office...Slkinsey and I call it "the 'potle," as in totally potley.

My usual order:

barbacoa burrito (I like the carnitas too, but prefer the barbacoa)

NO rice. Rice makes burritos too filling, IMHO, although Chipotle's rice is quite tasty.

Pinto beans

pico de gallo (mild)

corn salsa (medium)

a LITTLE cheese

a LITTLE sour cream

lettuce.

a diet coke. (NO, not to counter the calories in the burrito, just because I don't like regular coke and I DO like Diet Coke).

How are their margaritas? I usually go on a workday...wouldn't be prudent to have one then, usually.

K

Basil endive parmesan shrimp live

Lobster hamster worchester muenster

Caviar radicchio snow pea scampi

Roquefort meat squirt blue beef red alert

Pork hocs side flank cantaloupe sheep shanks

Provolone flatbread goat's head soup

Gruyere cheese angelhair please

And a vichyssoise and a cabbage and a crawfish claws.

--"Johnny Saucep'n," by Moxy Früvous

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I really like Chipotle, salt and all, and it is a welcome change from the regular lunchtime tedium of the area around my midtown office.

My regular order:

Carnitas Burrito

Rice

Black Beans

Hot Salsa

Mild Salsa

Sour Cream and Cheese

Yummy.

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I also have to give Chipotle credit for the tasteful signage. Unlike Subway's uniform garish yellow plastic signs assaulting our senses everywhere, Chipotle seems to design their signs and store fronts to fit each location. There's one around the corner in mid-town Manhattan that has a wood/brushed steel motiff that fits tastefully (and subtley) with the front of the building.

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Gotta love those carnitas. What I think is coolest, though, are the semi-industrial aluminum and plywood Mayan petroglyphs. I want one for my house. :biggrin:

"Tea and cake or death! Tea and cake or death! Little Red Cookbook! Little Red Cookbook!" --Eddie Izzard
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I also have to give Chipotle credit for the tasteful signage. Unlike Subway's uniform garish yellow plastic signs assaulting our senses everywhere, Chipotle seems to design their signs and store fronts to fit each location. There's one around the corner in mid-town Manhattan that has a wood/brushed steel motiff that fits tastefully (and subtley) with the front of the building.

And appropriately enough, the one I saw on the strip in Vegas had a sign full of lights. :biggrin:

Still, when I was in NYC this past weekend it was weird to see Chipotle there. I walked by the one in the East 40s and gasped on St. Mark's Place (even though I had 1. received advance warning and 2. really like Chipotle).

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Unfrotunately, I can't find the pdf from Chipotle with their nutrition info, but I wanted to put some numbers to my earlier post.

A chicken burrito with rice and salsa = @2500 mg of sodium or 100+% RDA.

The tortillas had around 800 mg (up there with the worst of the supermarket brands).

The chicken was the least salty of the meats at about 400 mg.

The RICE had 800 mg of sodium per serving. :huh:

I e-mailed for another copy of the nutrition sheet and will post additional details later.

If someone writes a book about restaurants and nobody reads it, will it produce a 10 page thread?

Joe W

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I'm a barbacoa man. With hot sauce (and Tabasco), pintos, cheese, lettuce, rice.

Gotta love a burrito as big as your head!

peak performance is predicated on proper pan preparation...

-- A.B.

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Unfrotunately, I can't find the pdf from Chipotle with their nutrition info, but I wanted to put some numbers to my earlier post.

A chicken burrito with rice and salsa = @2500 mg of sodium or 100+% RDA.

The tortillas had around 800 mg (up there with the worst of the supermarket brands).

The chicken was the least salty of the meats at about 400 mg.

The RICE had 800 mg of sodium per serving. :huh:

I e-mailed for another copy of the nutrition sheet and will post additional details later.

This is another reason I'm glad:

1. it takes me two sittings to finish the sucker

2. I have low blood pressure (not that too much sodium is a good thing, but it's also less of a problem).

But damn! I sure could go for a burrito tonight, but instead I'll be having mini burgers or pizza.

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I prefer the soft tacos - 1 each of chicken, barbacoa and carnitas -

I'm a soft taco person too, but didn't know they'd divvy them up like this. What do they charge you for that? Is there even a button for such a mix on their registers???

Usually I just get chicken, w/tomatoes, corn, lettuce, sour cream and then add the hot sauce on my own. Sometimes grab some of the lime wedges by the drink dispensers and squeeze them on.

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When I went back to school last year I had Chipolte every Tuesday night. Barbacoa, no beans with guac.

If I needed variety I had the soft tacos instead.

Wish the rice had more taste and there was a salsa bar ala BF.

The only time I finish one is when I missed the previous meal. I have a friend that eats two at a time.

True Heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic.

It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost,

but the urge to serve others at whatever cost. -Arthur Ashe

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I'll piss on the party, and come right out and say it:

McDonald's!

The sodium comment is noteworthy, and I do think the food lacks depth and soul, though I admit to having enjoyed it in the past.

The uncritical acceptance of Chipotle Grill in this thread is troublesome to me, but you need to remember where I'm coming from.

Cheers,

Rocks.

P.S. To avoid being labeled a nattering nabob of negativism, I enthusiastically concur with recommendations of The Well-Dressed Burrito!

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I'll piss on the party, and come right out and say it:

McDonald's!

The sodium comment is noteworthy, and I do think the food lacks depth and soul, though I admit to having enjoyed it in the past.

The uncritical acceptance of Chipotle Grill in this thread is troublesome to me, but you need to remember where I'm coming from.

Cheers,

Rocks.

Chipotle is what it is - convenient and pretty tasty. It is the only place that is in my direct route home that serves burritos and tacos that doesn't share space with a KFC.

If there were some tacqueria (sp?) truck in the parking lot of my office or anywhere along the Dulles Toll Road - I'd probably stop there first. But there isn't so...

Bill Russell

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I prefer the soft tacos - 1 each of chicken, barbacoa and carnitas -

I'm a soft taco person too, but didn't know they'd divvy them up like this. What do they charge you for that? Is there even a button for such a mix on their registers???

It never seems to cause them any consternation at the register. I think they just charge for whatever the most expensive of the three is. I think they are all within $.20 of each other.

Bill Russell

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Repost of (accidentally) deleted post:

I freely admit to loving both Baja Fresh and Chipotle, especially the Baja salsa at BF (the black salsa mentioned above). I've been walking by the new Georgetown Chipotle every day, checking to see if it's open yet (it's not), since my inexpensive lunch options in G'town are so grim. One can only eat so many Booeymonger sandwiches.

The chicken flautas from the Well-Dressed Burrito are a whole 'nother story. I miss working in Dupont Circle. :sad:

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Don, you're usually much better at stirring the pot than this. It's OK for merely good food to lack depth and soul--great food has depth and soul, merely good food doesn't--and while the salt thing has prompted me to...become more curious...it's not a deal-breaker because Chipotle nails so many other things I appreciate. In true eG fashion let's bring the salt thing under increasing scrutiny, but Antoine Westermann has a heavy hand with salt everywhere he cooks or has consulted for. If it is OK for a Michelin 3 star, it might be OK for an occasional soul-less soft taco.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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Don, you're usually much better at stirring the pot than this.  It's OK for merely good food to lack depth and soul--great food has depth and soul, merely good food doesn't--and while the salt thing has prompted me to...become more curious...it's not a deal-breaker because Chipotle nails so many other things I appreciate.  In true eG fashion let's bring the salt thing under increasing scrutiny, but Antoine Westermann has a heavy hand with salt everywhere he cooks or has consulted for.  If it is OK for a Michelin 3 star, it might be OK for an occasional soul-less soft taco.

Hidden salt often serves as the devil's mask.

I won't overstir this pot because I don't have anything bad to say about Chipotle Grill, but I do think a healthy degree of skepticism about the future is in order.

Look at this article. Can this level of care be exercised when the chain grows tenfold?

Double, double, foil and trouble,

Rocks.

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Hidden salt often serves as the devil's mask.

Wise words these. Sugar serves the same function as well--can it be a coincidence savory cooking continues to become sweeter?

Add all the fat some of our most famous chefs are adding or cooking in these days, poached lobster a la Keller anyone?-- and we may have just formed the holy trinity of eG skepticism.

The Devil has been busy.

He probably hates this Chipotle/Niman Ranch story you linked to: buy a better product which costs more, pass the increase on to your customers, market it well, sales go through the roof, try to improve other aspects of your operation similarly.

The Devil can't win them all.

Steve Klc

Pastry chef-Restaurant Consultant

Oyamel : Zaytinya : Cafe Atlantico : Jaleo

chef@pastryarts.com

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