Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Charlottesville

I was really disappointed today. I am pregnant and spent a long day of doctors appointments, needless to say I was starving after so I decided I would try chipotle as I have never had a bad experience with any of their chain restaurants and the local Zazu’s which was my go to had been shut down. I go into the store to find it very messy and small things littering the floor, I am observant so as I waited I cautiously looked around the store and at the customers and employees. The customers in line all seemed slightly agitated and the staff was abundant yet only seemed as though four of them were actually working, the others stood around or hid in the small access way to the left of the cashier. I noticed it of people congregate around the drink machines which I later learned was because they hadn’t stocked the ice, with so many standing around employees there isn’t an excuse for this.... I get to the line and cautiously order my burrito, they lady was super friendly and as I asked how her day had been she explained that they had been swamped and this was the first time in a while the line hadn’t reached the door, totally understandable as to why the store looked so disheveled. I smile and make some small talk as I order my vegetarian burrito, noticing a few pieces of meat floating in the beans I had to cringe and pretend it was still going to be vegetarian... she offered me large amounts of rice and beans which made me smile. I got a small portion of grilled vegis which was fine with me as there was even more meat inside it’s metal dish. Talk about cross contamination! But they had been busy and I was super famished so there was no need to request they replace these dishes and make me wait longer. Next came a smiling boy who offered to garnish my dish.... giving me a healthy amount of salsa and such ingredients and carefully wrapping my overly stuffed burrito..... I stepped over to pay.... later noticing the foil he wrapped it in didn’t cover the whole meal and he hadn’t added an additional metal wrapping to overcompensate but this was only later as I was driving down the road and the food spilled into my car, my fault as I shouldn’t have tried eating in my car. The seating area was too messy for me to want to eat inside though. Ok cool, so now I’m paying with the woman at the front who has a variety of people behind her all employees standing around and staring at me, uncomfortable yes but I stared back and made sure they knew I wasn’t impressed. My total was $15 for a burrito drink and chips which seemed kinda higher then I had previously spent but I accepted and grabbed my cup to go fill it with a smile as I anticipated getting out of the dirty store and devouring my meal. Nope. Drink machine was out of ice. I don’t know if anyone had informed them but many were standing around waiting as I stated earlier. I asked the cashier for ice, she gave me a irritated look but requested one of the standing employees to fill the ice. In a visibly dirty container they irritatedly filled it with only one bucket of ice.... quickly used up but I was first to get it so I didn’t care. I got my drink only to realize there weren’t any size appropriate lids and the larger lids available were covered in food and drink. Gross. So again I informed the cashier who giving me a look brought out maybe a dozen lids and handed me mine. Noticing I was looking for a straw she stated the entire store was out and they hadn’t properly ordered..... no napkins in any of the dispensers either. I had to take some off of a dirty table someone else had left. I was highly agitated considering for $15 I could have sat at a restaurant and ordered a meal for cheaper, been served in a clean environment and had a better meal.... I left later to realize I hadn’t gotten my receipt either.... later biting into my over stuffed poorly wrapped in foil burrito I noticed my rice was still very hard and crunchy inside and that the things I had requested were in small parts not equally dispersed through burritto so I was eating a bite full of one...

I spent a better part of my life from age 15 to 25 working in food service, it takes a lot for me to actually write a review… This location is an absolute disgrace to the chipotle brand. I’ve lived here for 13 years, I have watched the quality of service and food at this location take an absolute nose dive. I realize that nobody’s gonna read a review on Chipotle, it’s fast food and that’s totally fine – but somebody needs to hear about the absolute abysmal experience that we had at this place.

To begin with, literally every table that was open when we walked in was covered in food bits and trash… additionally, the bathrooms had no toilet paper and no paper towels. Tough when my three year-old has to take a number two…

The key manager on site (Akita) should be absolutely embarrassed and ashamed by the way that her employees behaved.

We had an order, an order that I place regularly with no issue from the chipotle on pantops… an order for a bowl with white rice, no cilantro. Since I’ve been coming to chipotle, when i order white rice without cilantro – they pull out a tub of white rice that has not been mixed yet and give us a side of plain white rice. I added instructions to the order and despite that, my order had white rice with cilantro… Not the end of the world, totally get that people don’t read special instructions sometimes. I stood at the counter and requested a small side of white rice with no cilantro… I’ve had to do this plenty of times and have always been accommodated.

The person at the register turned around and requested a side of white rice with no cilantro… placed a clear ramekin on the counter for the back line and walked away. What really got me here was that the person working the back line looked at the cashier, nodded her head and kept working. I then watched the woman on the back line pull out a tub of plain white rice and mix the entire thing with cilantro, lime, salt, etc. Literally looking at me while she was doing it. I stood at the register for 13 1/2 minutes waiting for that side of rice. The person on the register came back and said “you haven’t gotten your side of rice yet?” She walked to the back line and talked with the person working the back line who had just mixed the rice. She then walked back to me and told me that “the white rice was cooking but not ready”, it would be 15 minutes. I had literally just watched the person working the back line stare me in the eyes and mix a tub of white rice after receiving our request. Maybe there’s poor communication here, but it seems like all it would have taken was a small scoop of white rice, prior to mixing it.

I was completely floored. To top if off, no explanation, not apology, simply a “tough luck, but you can wait if you want” sort of look. The cleanliness and quality of the restaurant aside… This is embarrassing. I don’t know who the proprietor is. I certainly know who the keyholder Akita is, your employees...

Absolutely hellish place. Mother of God. If you have any other choices, don't go. I live right around the corner so I've given this location about a million tries, but I've never had an experience this abysmal. I ordered one burrito before 5 PM for a 5:10 pick-up time, since I had a 6 PM class. I received a notification before I arrived at the restaurant that it was ready "on the shelves." If you've been any time recently, you'll know that there ARE no shelves. Instead, you have to wait awkwardly off to the side of the checkout station for someone to come by to give you your order from the back (insider tip: they won't!)

When I arrived, there was already a line of pick-up customers to the door. When someone tried to look into the back to see if her order was sitting ready, she was pushed back but her food was not given to her. At this point, I think they placed a cart in front of us so that no one could get too close. Several people in front of me asked the woman working at the checkout station for any information, and she didn't respond. Anyone who attempted to get anyone's attention was either ignored or told impatiently to wait for someone else who never came to check on us.

After 45 minutes of waiting for food that had been ready for an hour, I got to the front (near the little cart they'd placed to keep us back). An employee came over and, instead of asking whether I'd gotten a notification (or even apologizing for the wait), he told us we needed to move back because we were crowding the employees. I really do appreciate the need to keep the employees safe, but none of us were even touching the counter/cart. Plus, the entire restaurant was now full of people waiting for mobile orders, so I'm not really sure where he envisioned us little sardines going (leaving without our food, probably).

After a full hour of waiting, I finally was able to get the attention of a worker who said they didn't have my food because they were about 20 minutes behind. When I explained that I had already received a notification, he said, "oh yeah, we've had that one ready for a while." Mind-boggling.

I really do appreciate that this is an incredibly busy location that is probably understaffed. I'm typically pretty patient here, since I know that when I place a mobile order here, it's probably going to be 10-20 minutes late. I budget time for that. But the system they've got simply isn't working, and I've gotten really tired of having to pathetically beg the little AI (Pepper?) for partial refunds when they inevitably get my order wrong. This time, I wasn't even connected to a live agent, so I wasn't able to give any feedback or get any refund for a cold burrito that definitely wasn't worth the 14 dollars I paid for it. I don't know if the Chipotle at the Corner is any better, but at this point, I'm...