Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Columbia

Chipotle Mexican Grill met most of my expectations, and gave me an overall good fast food restaurant experience. Here's why I liked and disliked this Chipotle Mexican Grill:

This Chipotle Mexican Grill is easy to find, and has accessible parking. However, during all meals the parking spots fill up quickly, so be prepared. I never liked driving to this Chipotle Mexican Grill because of how hard it was to come by a parking space; and it was also hard to get out of the parking lot due to all the traffic on Gervais.

The customer service at this Chipotle Mexican Grill is incomparable to any other fast food restaurant. The employees at this Chipotle Mexican Grill are prompt, professional, courteous, helpful, tactful, and knowledgable. Every time I have eaten at this Chipotle Mexican Grill all employees that I have ever interacted with go above and beyond for me. I have never had to wait an unreasonable amount of time in line for my food. Even when the line is out the door at this Chipotle Mexican Grill, service is still exceptional.

Chipotle Mexican Grill has such a wide variety to choose from on their menu that I could eat their everyday and every meal. They also have an extremely healthy menu, and something for everyone. With the variety also comes freshness, it doesn't matter what menu item you get, everything's fresh! I can personally taste the freshness and difference in all of Chipotle Mexican Grills meats, vegetables, rice, tortillas, and fruits. It doesn't matter if you get a meat bowl, quesadilla, taco, salad, or fruit, it's always fresh; and gets better and fresher every time I go to this Chipotle Mexican Grill.

I always get a chicken, steak, or meat bowl of some-sort, with a quesadilla, and chips. On an average trip to Chipotle Mexican Grill my total comes to be about $20-$30, and I feel that this is reasonable. For the variety, quality of natural and organic food products, freshness of all food products, and customer service, I feel that Chipotle Mexican Grill is reasonably priced. There aren't many other restaurants that have an all natural and organic menu. Out of all the restaurants that do have an all natural and organic menu, I only choose and trust Chipotle Mexican Grill due to their ingredient promise.

Every time I eat at this Chipotle Mexican Grill there's excellent speed of service, fresh food, great customer service, great climate control, and great seating. The atmosphere at this Chipotle Mexican Grill is inviting and comforting, and this is why I will continue to go back time and time again.

My only complaints of this Chipotle Mexican Grill are the following: This Chipotle Mexican Grills overall cleanliness (inside and out) was below average to average, there were a lack of chairs, and employees were sweating into the food. The inside always had trash on the floors, and leftover trash from previous customers left on tables; and sometimes even the chairs. I made the mistake of eating outside, and there were birds fece all over the outdoor tables and chairs. I don't understand how an organic and natural restaurant filled with clean food can lack cleanliness (both indoors and outdoors). When I eat out anywhere, and especially somewhere that has clean, organic, and natural food, I expect the restaurant to have all around cleanliness (indoors and outdoors)! Also, this Chipotle Mexican Grill needs more tables and chairs to meet their high volume demands. Many times I had to take my food to go, when I wanted to dine in! Lastly, I have been to this Chipotle Mexican Grill on several different occasions, and observed employees sweating through their caps and onto their faces. The sweat would then cover their faces, noses, and then drip into the food. I have personally seen this happen! I only wish the employees would clean their faces when this is happening, or ask for a break. I honestly would like to see the manager watching the employees to ensure this...

My very FIRST Chipotle experience! Believe it or not, I've never visited a Chipotle Mexican restaurant until this visit. I have seen Chipotle locations "pop-up " everywhere, but never had an occasion to visit. My colleague and I were on a brief, one night stay in Columbia. We both wanted to grab takeout and eat our dinner at the hotel. Chipotle is located within a short 5 minute walk of the hotel. Unfortunately, I think my overall expectations of Chipotle were too high. I have heard all the excitement and comments about Chipotle and I was really excited to experience Chipotle myself. Honestly, although I enjoyed my dinner and visit, I was a little underwhelmed with the experience. This Chipotle location is in the heart of downtown Columbia. My colleague and I arrived around 4:30 pm and found the restaurant was not very busy. The dining room and facilities appeared clean and well maintained. The customer service was excellent! Our server was so very nice to us. Since this was my first visit , she was very patient with me and my menu questions. My first entrée choice was the salad, but they were out of the dressing. I ordered my second entrée choice, steak soft-shell tacos. I love tacos and my Chipotle tacos were good, but I have had much better. Perhaps I would have been more impressed if I had immediately eaten my tacos at the restaurant. I did enjoy my tacos and I will order again, if/when I return. I like the concept of building your own entrée and watching the server prepare the meal to my specifications. Unfortunately, I was not impressed with the presentation of the available toppings and additions. Many of the items were nearly depleted and appeared to be not fresh. Unfortunately, I was not overly impressed with my first Chipotle experience (not exactly sure what I was expecting???), but I still enjoyed my takeout tacos and will most likely order again. My recommendation is to eat your food in the dining room. In my opinion, my tacos would have been much better if I had eaten at the restaurant and not ordered takeout. I'm anxious to have another Chipotle experience in the...

Its okay compared to other places but compared to Chipotle in general this is the worst one I have ever been to. I just moved to this area from Tampa, FL where there were four Chipotles that had lines to the door and beyond no matter what time of day you went, and the service and product at all of them was better than this one. The last time we went to this one here in Columbia, SC, there was no one there so we thought it would be quick but the beans were all solidified on top and the food looked old and not fresh. The service was also not fast and we could tell the disdain of the employee at having to take our order. This time they were out of white rice, which I didnt find out until after I was through the line. Well they werent actually out of it, they just failed to prep enough. The girl tried to convince me that you cant tell the difference. Frankly, you can. On top of that the girl was getting snippy with the employee behind her which made things awkward for me. I checked out and started to eat when I noticed there was a giant bay leaf in my bowl, which isnt a big deal because I can pick it out but someone with a burrito probably could not have. That led me to question everything and I started to notice some of my chicken pieces were questionably cooked. Add all this and the fact that the dining area was disgusting and I watched an employee do a piss poor job of whipping down the tables with a dirty rag that actually left food particles on the tables. I would have just thought, "okay, maybe I just caught them on a bad day twice." But then I checked on Google and saw that all the reviews were bad, so there must be something culturally wrong at this specific Chipotle that makes it suck so hard. And I will have to second that the employees are politely rude or fake polite, they make polite conversation with an air of sarcasm that lets you know they really hate you for being there. They also dont care about accuracy, they move very quickly but they just slop things down and dont even give you a chance to say if you want something done a...