Chipotle - Visit #1

The next burrito to be reviewed by M.O.A.B. comes from the franchise chain:

"Chipotle"

This particular visit was at their branch in St. Charles, Illinois.

I'd been meaning to try their burritos for some time, yet there isn't one that's actually conveniently located to me. I was off the week of Christmas and made a special trip to St. Charles and there was one in the outer-perimeter of a mall parking lot. I decided that it was time to sample Chipotle's offering.

Chipotle is a dine-in and carryout place. I went at lunch time and there was a fairly spacious dining area attached. Single bottles of beer were also available at check-out. I took my burrito as a carry out, so at present I cannot comment on whether or not there are condiments on the tables.

Their menu is fairly simplistic. Any Chipotle Burrito comes with the following:
A giant flour tortilla, cilantro-lime rice, a choice of pinto or vegetarian black beans, choice of meat, choice of salsa, cheese or sour cream. Their vegetarian burrito comes with guacamole.

You have them build the combination that you want. It is done assembly-line-style in front of you. Each ingredient is laid out in its own line along the tortilla.

Your meat choices are limited to the following four:
Carnitas - (Pork)
Barbacoa - (Spicy shredded beef.)
Chicken
Steak
and their vegetarian to round out the number to 5.

Your salsa choices are:
Roasted Chili-Corn (medium)
Tomatillo-Green Chili (medium)
Tomatillo-Red Chili (hot)
Fresh Tomato (mild)

My first selection from the Chipotle menu was the Barbacoa (Shredded Beef)Burrito.

Chipotle Barbacoa Burrito. Doesn't quite look like its counterpart on the bag, does it?

Purchased December 22nd, 2004

Wrap / Presentation *
Look at the photo. They're kidding, right?! It looks NOTHING like the one their website would lead you to believe is the norm. This guy utterly collapsed the moment I started eating it.

Fillings * * 1/2
Barbacoa shredded beef, cilantro-lime rice, pinto beans, cheese, tomatatilo red chili and sour cream. They appear to go heavy on the rice and beans, filling the burrito with only the minutest amount of requested meat.

Flavor * * 1/2
I don't think I am going to be a fan of the assmebly-line burrito production approach. When biting into this poorly wrapped mess, you were eating through each individual ingredient, rather than a combination of them all. One bite would be rice, the next beans, the next the meager amount of meat they actually inserted. Their tomatillo red chili sauce was pedestrian, at best. Bad combination choices all around.

Staff * *
With assembly lines you get automatons. They asked what I wanted, and off they went, rarely making eye contact or any other form of conversation. They seemed rushed. Granted it was lunchtime, but there were less than three people in line, including myself. Why so haggard, guys?

Condiments *
No additonal hot sauce is offered with your order. Again - if it's at the dine-in tables, I will have to wait for the second return trip to see if there are any, but to not include anything additional with your order seemed cheap.

OVERALL AVERAGE SCORE: 1.8 stars for Chipotle's Barbacoa Burrito.

YEOWCH!! Not a very good first impression. I am wondering if this is merely that particuar location. For the required M.O.A.B. second visit, I am leaning towards finding a completely different area Chipotle for comparison. This may have been a fluke. We shall see what we shall see.

I wasn't impressed.