Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Duluth

I used to go here all the time. Especially since I am a mall employee, using the app to order ahead used to be a life saver on time. But the laat few times have been an absolute nightmare! My orders were not done on time (and I usually order a few hours early just to be safe) and I end up standing there for 10-15 minutes waiting. Of all the employees they have in that resturaunt, not one person saw me standing right next to the order pick-up stand, staring all of them down waiting to get someone's attention. Other customers saw me and today, a customer that was at the end of the line, got to the register ten minutes later and gestured for me to go first to talk to the man behind the counter. The man behind the counter looked shocked that he didnt see me standing there and asked what he could do to help. I tried being calm (I'm claustrophobic and standing there in a crowded tiny room wasnt helping) and told him I was waiting for an online order. I showed him the time stamp on the app (it was supposed to be done 20 minutes ago) and they asked for my name. FOUR EMPLOYEES slowly walked around searching for the online order ticket and couldn't find it. They looked through the order history and they never communicated with me at all through this process, only amongst themselves. I hear them argue about it saying the ticket was never printed and that someone was supposed to be watching for that. They start contemplating if I even made the order (I am standing right there, with The app open, showing the time amd date I made the order amd that I paid, so wth?!). Other customers are uncomfortably waiting in line and we all exchange awkward smiles and roll our eyes while watching the employees. Five minutes of slow searching and bickering later I come closer to the counter and ask where my order is. No one pays attention to me.

There was a young man that was working in the kitchen area that put down his knife, quickly walked up to the counter and opened up the warming compartment under the counter and handed me the bag with my name on it, then goes back to his spot in the kitchen without saying a word to me or his coworkers. They all stare at each other, then look at me with looks of disgust and anger. So i wait a minute, but no one says anything!! No apology for the confusion, no thank you for stopping in. Nothing! I felt unwelcomed and hurt.

Storming out, I return to work and sit down to finally eat what i could with the last 7 minutes of my break. The bag and container was hot, but the food was cold! The sour cream had curddled and looked like cottage cheese. The rice, steak and corn was all held together in one massive clump by the melted cheese that covered the entire top layer, and was not appetizing to look at. I ended up throwing it in the garbage.

This is not the first nor the third time this has happened with the food turning out nasty .But the interaction from the staff is what made me lose it. I have NEVER in my years of working in the mall, felt so unwelcome. I question the level of communication amongst their staff and I am going to start earring elsewhere. This was the last straw. I remember When the chipotle team was welcoming, all smiles and friendly to talk to (no matter how busy they were) and they would be singing along to the music in the kitchen ehile they prepped food and the place was clean, orderly and I was always excited to go there for lunch. Now? Its a room full of grumpy kids who clearly don't want to be there, don't like each other, and could care less about the resturaunts environment and customer interaction. I'd rant about other things I've noticed, but I'll leave it up to them to figure...

Our experience at the store tonight was so incredibly horrible and embarrassing. We checked the store hours online prior to going and it states that they close at 10 PM. We arrive at 8:53. When we go into the store, there is very inappropriate rap music, blasting at a super high volume that kept saying racial slurs, and the word “N**” over and over again in the song. As we approach the counter to order, an employee is scraping soggy rice out of the bottom of the hot line And dripping it all over the new food. There was about seven or eight team members standing around doing nothing - on their cell phones in the lobby and chatting with their co workers. M One man made our food down the line while the other workers chatted about their personal life and gave no care in the world that customers were trying to order food and listening to their conversation. The woman who checked us out called over another coworker. we thought that this was to help her with our paying process as we were in the middle of checking out. To our surprise, it was just to continue a private conversation that they had been having which interrupted our checkout process. This is super rude and unprofessional, and should not be tolerated. We then sat in the lobby as we live 30 minutes from the restaurant and had planned on eating our food in the store. After we sat down, one of the workers yelled from behind the counter that the lobby was currently closed. Where was this posted? It wasn’t. As mentioned we live 30 minutes away, checked the store hours prior to going there for dinner. And we’re not interested in eating a chipotle bowl while driving home. There is no reason for the lobby to close an hour prior to the takeout services that the restaurant offers as the lobby is barely furnished with hard steel tables and a couple of chairs. This can easily be wiped down in a matter of seconds, and us eating in the lobby did not affect their closing duties. After the racially inappropriate song that was super uncomfortable to all of the guests, they then switch to an Eminem song to blare throughout the restaurant. The fact that this is allowed and how paying customers are treated throughout their entire experience from ordering, to eating, to their restaurant experience is seriously, embarrassing, and very concerning for our workforce moving forward. At one point, one of the workers yelled to the line of customers that they were out of lettuce, cheese, and corn. Based at the experience, I doubt that they were actually out, but didn’t not want to prep more. Just as they did not want us to be eating...

This is also being posted on the location's Facebook listing, and has already been sent directly to Chipotle's online contact support.

Due to my extensive traveling, I am now just getting around to this feedback. Back in September this year, I visited the Duluth, MN location for the first time. A number of concerns arose for this, with them expanding even more when talking to the local regular customers.

I will begin my feedback with a simple, candid statement: Chipotle should consider closing this location permanently as soon as possible, unless some serious house-cleaning can be done.

Every table was absolutely filthy. There was not one surface I felt comfortable dining in for, so I took my meal to another nearby restaurant that was kind enough to let me eat my outside food at their location. When I brought in my own wipes to try cleaning the tables myself, the food residue was so thick that I could only partially clean them, leaving me no choice but to eat my meal elsewhere.

In addition, the paper towels ran out in the restroom. Almost every trash bin inside this location was also overflowing.

Lastly, my meal was shoddy, as the manager on duty did not know how to properly close a double-wrap burrito, failing to do so properly with mine as well as another customer's. It was an unpleasant experience trying to eat this sloppily-folded burrito.

I do not blame the manager on duty for what I witnessed and experienced at this location. There was an obvious staff shortage and I could see that the manager (who looked to be absolutely no older than 25) was overwhelmed by the dinner rush. Upon speaking to a local customer also waiting in line, I was informed that this location is notorious for everything I was venting about due to staff shortages.

I will end this by circling back to my earlier statement: Chipotle either needs to completely uphaul this location, or close it permanently. As the only Chipotle location in Duluth, MN it sets a terrible precedent both for visitors like myself and even more so for more rural customers that don't have other Chipotle locations nearby to accomodate them. A first impression can only be made once, and this location puts the Chipotle brand in serious jeopardy for those in Metro Duluth and the moral rural parts of Northern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin that this location presumably serves.

Should this location still be open when I visit Duluth next year, I will give it one more shot. But I will not be disappointed whatsoever if has been permanently closed by then. Its current performance is simply not...