Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Florida

Chipotle is a favorite of mine, but this location has A LOT of issues with staffing.

The quick review is: whoever is responsible for staffing needs to schedule more people. There has been a few times where going here either results in being turned away completely because they are too pressured by online orders or an incredibly long wait time due to only having ONE employee on the main line for dine-in guests.

Full Review:

This location is the nearest Chipotle to us as of the time of writing. Its around 25 mins away. My family has some dietary restrictions, but Chipotle ingredients and transparency makes it super easy for everyone in my family to get a great meal. Going out to eat is a treat- and due to restrictions Chipotle is a great option for us.

So one day we decide to go to Chipotle for dinner. We drive all the way there and when we arrive there is a lot of people going into the building and then turning around and coming back out.

Upon entering the building the employee there says they are "no longer accepting new orders at this time". Keep in mind this is like 7pm-ish. I'm assuming what was going on was a larger amount of online orders. Looking around I only saw 2 total employees (1 on main line and 1 in the to go/online order line) they both seemed absolutely panicked.

Alright. No Chipotle that night. But I've worked in restaurants for 10 years so I totally get it. Also this is not the employees fault- they seemed to be doing the best they could. They definitely weren't staffed properly.

Fast forward a few weeks later...

I come back to this Chipotle to grab a quick bite to eat. My partner was hesitant because the last time we made the voyage it didn't work out. But we were already in the area so I figured we could stop by.

But there was a pretty long line. 4pm on a Saturday. Around 20(?) People ahead of me in line but honestly I've seen Chipotle lines that long that move really quick. I decided to wait in the line.

Below is an account of what I saw while waiting. In total I was there 45 minutes.

There was only THREE employees total in the building.

The first was prepping, working quick in the back on rice, meats, etc. She was moving quick and you could tell she had a ton of different things to do.

The second was working in the togo/online order area to the left. She stayed in her pocket and took care of the online orders.

The third employee was the only one working the entire front line + cashing people out in the front. She was a ROCKSTAR and honestly was doing the best she could. But it was a lot of orders for only one person to handle.

Normally, the front line is ran by at least 2 people. One that handles the base ("bowl or burrito?"), beans, meat and then one person that handles everything else. Sometimes there's an additional 3rd person who just handles cashing out, but I've seen plenty of scenarios where 2 people can work quite well.

Having one person handle the front line is so unfair to the customers and the employee. Not sure if its company policy for the togo/online order person to stay put and not help main line? (Because I feel like she could have floated over to help for a bit)

The employees all did great. Once I got my food it was good as well. But why was only 3 people scheduled on a Saturday at 4pm? Who did the scheduling for this? Is this a matter of "we want to save on labor costs so let's put less people on"?

The solution is definitely just another worker or two. One person shouldn't be expected to handle the main line + cash out by themselves when its busy- that's how you upset customers AND burn out good staff. Again I want to state that the employee who did do this work was great, professional,  friendly,  and handles the pressure well. But why have that pressure to begin with?

Other Chipotles in Melbourne have been way more reliable. Sadly this one isn't right now due to...

Warning - Not Vegetarian Friendly

I have been to many Chipotle locations around the country, and this one is hands down the worst location I’ve been to. It’s not particularly close.

I’ve been here three times over the past few months, and no matter when I go, they’re always missing items. The most recent visit was 8:45 on a Sunday (over 2 hours before they close at 11). They were out of fajitas and lettuce, two of the easiest ingredients to prep. There was a line almost out the door, and yet they seemed content to simply be “out” of these ingredients during the rush and final 2 hours of business. Other times I’ve been there, they’ve been out of rice, beans, and tortilla chips at various times, always many hours before they close.

Not only were they too lazy to cook more fajitas or rinse/chop more lettuce, the workers and manager were aggressive towards my wife when she asked if they could use the lettuce from the salads instead since they’re out. They let us know they could give us some lettuce for an up charge since they needed to “save” that lettuce for people ordering salads.

Missing ingredients, poor management, and attitude aside, the worst part of this Chipotle is definitely how dirty it is. No one is cleaning the counter tops, the floor is filthy, and the kitchen is a disaster area. Further, the workers cross-contaminate the meat and ingredients. I watched a worker take a spoon from the corn salsa, press it into my chicken al pastor, and place the chicken-contaminated spoon back into the corn salsa container. I’m not a vegetarian, but I feel obligated to warn people that you absolutely cannot trust this location. Their sloppiness and lack of attention to detail means that you should expect cross contamination with meat.

Seeing this in real time brings up so many questions about the way the food is prepped in general. If they’re cross contaminating cooked chicken with vegetarian ingredients, how do I know the same workers aren’t cross-contaminating raw chicken with everything else?

I’m a fan of Chipotle, and it’s a shame that this one is so poorly run. There’s clearly a demand for Chipotle in the area, as it’s always incredibly busy. If Chipotle’s corporate office was aware of how this location is being run, you can bet there would be serious consequences for how this store’s disgusting practices reflect on the Chipotle brand. Do yourself a favor, and skip this location. There’s a Moe’s in the...

I'm not typically someone who ever writes a review. However, I felt that it was very necessary to write one after my latest visit. Sunday night I went to the Chipotle in Viera and it was absolute chaos. I arrived at 6:52pm and there was a huge line. I decided to wait in line figuring that it would take about 30 mins. I ended up waiting 1 hr and 4 mins to get through the line.

1. A customer had his dog on the table and staff didn't tell the gentleman to remove his dog from the table WHERE PEOPLE EAT!

2. Individuals that had ordered online where also waiting for a long time. One woman complained that her food had not yet come out; stating that she had been waiting 35 minutes. One of the staff members was so rude when she responded to the customer. She looked at her and said, "Can't you tell how busy we are?! If you don't want to wait, then leave. Just go!"

3. By the time I got to the front of the line (50 minutes later), the same staff member started demanding that the other staff members work on the to-go orders. She was asking the customers that were waiting for their online order when they placed their orders. People were yelling out 7:00pm, 7:05pm, 7:10pm, etc. The same staff member told them, "Don't you worry, we will make your food right now." What she failed to realize was that myself and several people behind me had been waiting for almost an hour! Some of the staff was nice and you could tell they were working hard, but there was just no organization and it was completely unacceptable.

4. By the time I made it to the front of the line, they were out of steak and told me that it would be out in another 10 minutes. I ended up ordering something else because I didn't want to have to wait even longer for my food.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed in my experience at this Chipotle. The food always tastes good, but the restaurant needs better management and a better plan to accommodate...