Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Cincinnati

I have been here probably hundreds of times, literally, over more than a decade. Since COVID, it has deteriorated to the point that it is now staffed by low-key rude and surly workers. The place is often unkempt, as documented in photos attached to other reviews .The food quality has slipped somewhat, though if the service were consistently 4 star and above, I'd probably still go there.

The workers in this place act as if customers are trying their patience by coming in the door. Before COVID, and for a while after places re-opened, this restaurant used to have long lines, and all seats filled. Now you go in, and it is mostly empty. But even if you are third in line, never fear, you will have a lengthy wait! The worker at the tortilla end will take their sweet time, act as if they did not hear your order at first, and slow walk through the first stage.

Often, not always, they are out of one or more of the meats. So you can either wait forever, or pay the same price or more for an alternative. No excuse for this to happen repeatedly. You figure out how much you need, cook it, and keep it coming.

Then you go to the salsa and dressings area, and they often muck that up. Put green verde salsa instead of pico de gallo, or some other foul up.

The overall attitude through all of this is not consistently friendly or welcoming--more like consistently chippy, copping an attitude.

It seems this location went to some social experiment after COVID, along lines of, "How would it work if we put people utterly lacking in basic social skills in a position where they deal with the money-paying public?" The reduced flow of business there suggests the marketplace has furnished its answer.

One reviewer said this is the worst Chipotle in the nation. Wow. Not sure how one determines such a dubious status, but I would not want to encounter a worse one.

Last straw for me: went in, waited patiently in line for them to work through three customers, including me. Manager or assistant manager or whatever he is then tried to switch my burrito with the much smaller burrito that the lady in front of me had ordered. Hmmm. And why would he think that his staff had made me such a small burrito, or that they had somehow been switched in their order as they trundled along the counter? Not sure, but this lady had already held up the line asking the staffers to take rice OFF her burrito, and take chicken off too.

By this time, my order is wrapped up, and rapidly cooling off. I have to walk it back to my office, where it is not going to get any warmer. But manager guy decides he wants to teach one of his workers how to wrap with their paper-thin, failure prone burritos. This diverts the cash register man's attention to someone who was behind me in line. I asked if I could just get my order rung up, pay and go? Manager glared like he wanted to say something else, but what he said was, "You need to have more patience." Well, hate to break it to you, but no, I don't have to exercise any more patience with this place. The people who come in to eat are busy, working professionals. Time is often their livelihood. This location's consistently bad reviews speak for themselves. Already, the chicken wing place that moved in next door seems to have cut significantly into...

Normally I do not review chain stores, but my experience at this location today, I believe, prompts me to make my experiences known. I also really don't like giving 1 star reviews because I strongly believe in finding value within what's seemingly negative, but for this one it's very difficult, if not impossible to do so.

So I made a mobile order at 7:53pm, and set the ready time as 8:00pm, just because I had experienced way too many situations of delay when I had set a later time before with Chipotle, so I have learned to strategically set the earliest time to avoid any further delay. I was thinking in my head that if they're late by 10-15, or even 20 minutes, I would most definitely understand, especially since the line could be long around that time while they were understaffed. I have known about Chipotle's working model which doesn't benefit a lot of employees so I didn't want to blame the employees there at all.

However, when I went into the store at around 8:10pm just to see what was happening since I was around the area, I saw only 3 people in the line, and 2 of them were in one group. One worker was helping them with getting food, but was extremely slow and had an evidently unpleasant look. There was nothing on the mobile order shelf and my app told me there was a delay without why. Then I visibly saw and heard another worker on her cell phone while preparing mobile orders, but would stop every now and then while preparing the orders to emphasize something in her phone conversation. I was hoping that she wasn't stopping every now and then for my order, but I ended up wrong as it turned out to be mine. Basically my order was delayed not due to any busy rush hour, but because the worker preparing my food knowingly delayed it while prioritizing her phone conversation. As I was waiting, the line for mobile order pickup started accumulating, most likely because people have also arrived to pick theirs up while not having luck. I finally received my order at around 8:28pm, but I was watching my order prepared all the way from 8:10pm when I entered the store until 8:25pm, by which time she had just finished the sofritas bowl and was ready to grab the sizes and the drink.

I try as much as possible to not put responsibility on the workers because I know that the system that's run has a strong potential on making workers dead inside or in general treat their job with an aloof attitude. In other words, the real issue is bigger than the individuals. But of course, a consumer-centric business will fail if consumers' experiences are damaged or even destroyed, and I really hope that management can help provide the workers there with some level of additional training, or ways to help boost morale...

That's why i don't deal with this Chiptole anymore cause all these new People working there since summer around July 2015 and all of them rude and disrespectful then they got this one person do all the food for the People in the line and she's so slow and she was making some Lady's Quesadilla and put her nasty arm on the Lady's food and the Lady just stood there and not saying a word to a nasty worker and i should just walk out be i didn't it was my fault for standing there and i finally got a Bowl and i went up to a counter trying to get two sour creams, 2 hot sauces, 2 lettuces and 2 cheeses on side like i usually do for years. And i just find out that i can't get more than 3 no more or aleast i had to pay a freaking hell 90 cents just for to get more on the side and is ridiculous and expensive to be paying to these People wow....and that Black Girl should had been told me before not to get more than 3 sides for the Bowl and she's just stupid and say it to me a last damn minute wow...and i was about to get a Barbacoa on side and saw a short Girl talking and spitting come out of her mouth in to the food gross eww.....Then i was so livid and mad at the same time and i being nice for not go off at the people working in the restaurant industry like a sorry restaurant in Downtown of Cincy wow.... And i pay for it and i left mad and disappointed at the same time and i should tell that Black Girl "Oh you could keep it and i don't want it" That's what should've been did at the first place but i didn't and took the food along with me and i NEVER GO BACK SINCE LAST YEAR!!!! I will never go to Chiptole never again in my life that i been treating disrespectful and rude People working in Chiptole is a Lack of Communication, Help, Business and Environment Process. Lack of Customers Services and place is Dirty and...