Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Elk River

A Nightmare at Elk River Chipotle: The Worst Dining Experience of My Life When you walk into a restaurant like Chipotle, there’s a certain standard you expect. You expect decent food, polite service, and a clean environment the basics. Especially for a restaurant that advertises “Food with Integrity,” you imagine they would hold themselves to higher standards. Unfortunately, my visit to the Elk River Chipotle shattered every expectation I had. What was supposed to be a quick, enjoyable meal turned into one of the most frustrating, disappointing, and downright disgusting experiences I’ve ever had in any restaurant. If I could rate this location lower than one star, I would.From the moment we walked in, the problems began. The line was moving at a snail’s pace, despite there not being many people in front of us. The workers behind the counter looked like they couldn’t care less. No smiles, no greetings, no sense of urgency. They moved with the energy of people who had completely checked out mentally. It was painfully clear that customer service was the last thing on their minds. There’s a difference between being busy and being lazy, and this crew was the definition of lazy.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity standing there, it was our turn to order. We were excited — we had been craving Chipotle all day — but that excitement died instantly. As they hurried through the process without any care or communication, we noticed a huge mistake once we sat down: there was no protein in our bowls. None. No chicken, no steak, no carnitas — absolutely nothing. It’s unbelievable that at a restaurant where

You would think that maybe the workers would be apologetic or willing to fix it when brought to their attention. Wrong. Their attitude was cold and dismissive. It felt like we were bothering them by even existing, let alone pointing out a major error. It wasn’t just poor service; it was a complete lack of basic human decency. When you’re running a service business, especially food service, treating customers with respect should be the bare minimum. Clearly, no one working that day got the memo.

And the problems didn’t stop with the food and the staff. Even something as simple as getting a drink turned into another headache. The drink machine was a disaster. There was debris and grime floating in the ice bins and in the drinks themselves. Every time we tried to fill a cup, something nasty would come out with the soda. Not only that, but the machines barely worked. Half the sodas weren’t available, and the ones that were tasted off — like the syrup was wrong or the lines hadn’t been cleaned in months. It was absolutely disgusting. I honestly questioned whether anything in the building had been cleaned properly, ever.

Between the missing protein, the rude staff, the filthy drink station, and the absurd wait times, I genuinely cannot think of a single positive thing to say about our visit. We left feeling angry, ripped off, and a little sick to our stomachs. How does a chain as big as Chipotle allow a location to sink to this level of incompetence and filth? Where is the management? Where is the pride in the brand? If the corporate office had any idea how bad this location was operating, they should be ashamed.

To make matters worse, this wasn’t my first time at a Chipotle — I’ve eaten at plenty of other locations before and had good experiences. Normally, the food is fresh, the workers are efficient and friendly, and the restaurants are clean. Elk River Chipotle, on the other hand, felt like a completely different world — a world where customer service is dead, and food safety seems optional. It’s baffling how two locations under the same brand can

I will never set foot in that Chipotle again, and I’ll be warning everyone I know to do the same. Elk River Chipotle isn’t just bad — it’s a disgrace to the Chipotle name and to the idea of customer service in general. If this experience is any indication of how they plan to run their business, it’s only a matter of time before they lose...

After many different trips to this Chipotle location, I have given up all hope. My recent experience sums up this location entirely and I will not be back. On Saturday morning, I was craving Chipotle and I was able to convince my husband to come with me, who stopped going to this location long ago. I convinced him that if we go right when they open, there is no way we could have a bad experience. Boy was I wrong.

We arrived at 10:45am, which is what time they are supposed to open per their website hours and posted hours on the door. We walk up to the door and it’s locked. We had no problem waiting as we were fully aware we were “those” people and thought they were running behind so we waited outside for 5 minutes. The employees were well aware we were there. After 5 minutes in the cold, we went back in the car to wait until they opened their doors. Convincing myself that maybe they would open at 11. That wasn’t the case. While waiting in the car, 5 customers had gathered outside the door and 3 different potential customers left. Not once did any employees come to the door to communicate what was going on.

Finally at 11:08, they unlocked the doors. I was still excited but once inside, I slowly regretted my stubbornness and should’ve listened to my husband and gotten jimmy johns next door instead. We had to wait in line for 10 minutes before any order was started because they were fulfilling online orders. In those 10 minutes, I lost my appetite. There were countless dirty dishes in the kitchen piled up, visible cups, napkins, and food all over the floor and tables, which made it apparent no cleaning had been done from the previous day. The food sitting out looked like it also was from the day before, so visibly unappealing my husband told me to not get the black beans. The employee sanitation was very concerning as well with him going back and forth from the kitchen and not once changing his gloves while making orders. Basically by the time it was my turn to order, I wanted to leave, but I knew that I convinced my husband I only wanted chipotle and after making him wait for 45min I couldn’t just have us leave. We ordered our food, paid and made our way over to the beverage and utensils. The uncleanliness became even more alarming as the counters were covered with straw wrappers, crumbs, and visible crusted on soda and food. There were no straws and barely any forks left. My husband and I are some of our food but couldn’t stomach it and threw the remaining away and left.

This location is always dirty and over hour + wait times. While, I fully understand they may have issues with being understaffed, but the lack of cleanliness and food quality cannot be acceptable. My husband works near by this location and has made comments that the employees that have gone there, have also had awful experiences and won’t be coming back. I can only imagine how much revenue this location misses out on. Chipotle...

This place has the most glacially slow service of any restaurant I've ever patronized. I used to have their app and would order online so I could go and pickup and eat without having to stand in their super long lines. Then Covid hit and this particular place became completely unable to have orders ready by the time promised on the app. There were several instances of waiting 30-45 minutes past the pickup time given on the app. So I started to delay my arrival accordingly, knowing how slow they are. Then they got even slower and the delays reached up to an hour. Id have lived to walk away but once you've paid online uoure on the hook or you'll lose your money. To Chipotle's credit they did grant me a few free burritos after I complained, but the problem never got fixed. Regardless, I deleted their app from my phone. And from this morning's experience it still hasn't changed. They opened at 10:45 and a line of about 5 people formed in front of me. Orders were not taken until well past the opening, as it seems like 10:45 was when the employees started work, not the time they were ready to take and fill orders. So ten minutes go by, nothing happening, to the point I got fed up, opened my Subway app, and ordered a sammich while in the Chipotle line, which I then abandoned. My Subway was delivered before the time I was given on their app. Imagine that! So if you hate wasting time, avoid this Chipotle like the plague!

11/22/22 Update: They are still slow, but only by a few minutes this visit. If you cannot have an order ready by the time your app promises it, then adjust the time! Why does this seem so difficult? Now the main issue seems to be the size of the order. For charging $9 out the door one might think they'd at least maintain their portion size. NOPE! Welcome to the mini burrito! For $9.

1/9/23: Ordered at the store in person today around 4:30pm. Good experience. The checkout girl was totally on the ball, knew what she was doing, and did it quickly and efficiently. The portion size was perfect too. I guess you need to avoid ordering from the app if you don't want a...