Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Forest Lake

There were individuals in this Chipotle restaurant in Forest Lake Minnesota who tried to give service and good food, but their efforts fell short of success because of bad management. Since Chipotle restaurants are one of my favorite places to eat, I am always willing to give them a chance to redeem themselves . If I have a bad experience with them , so on occasions that I am ready to eat, and it just happens that I am driving by the place, I stop by and try them again, just to see if I was wrong in my judgment or not! I have walked into this place 5 times ( including my last visit) and had walked out 4 times, and it is always because they have such a disordered, disorganized, and panic stricken atmosphere. The floor of the dining room is always full of paper and garbage. The garbage cans are always over filled, there are people running around in a circle and mean while there are long lines formed behind the order taking counter. This time, when I walked in, there wasn't much of a line , so I decided to stick out and wait. What a mistake that was. The poor woman behind the counter was trying to take orders for the food that was not prepared, so she kept looking back to see when the rice was going to come? Where is the chicken? And so on and so forth. All along, the manager was holding the counter by the cash register talking to a young man who seemed to be a new trainee. I knew she was a manager or a lead because the workers were asking her questions and looked to her as problems unfolded in that place When it came to me giving my order, of course, they just had to run out of chicken ( the only form of meat that I willing to eat in Chipotle ), so I told her just make my bowel, but without the meat and when the meat is ready just tell me and I will tale on the side, and this way I will not hold the line up. (Mind you by now. There are at least 10 people in line), she smiled and said ok, but the young man next to her in charge of adding condiments , thinking that he wanted to help ask the manager to go to cooler and get something, she said " JUST THIS ONE TIME" with a stearn voice . I wondered what they were up to. My solution for d the situations was practical and practiced alway(although. It was the first time for me) and the fast food restaurant employees like it better because it releives the line pressure immediately, and they are usually appreciative of such suggestions by the customers. Well, he came back with a plastic cup of cold chicken from the refrigerator, and before I knew what I was getting, he dumped in my food bowl, and that was all she wrote. I went to a table and started eating my food to find out my chicken bits were littel charged places of chicken that were bitter and blackened . I figured I should just shut up and say nothing because that manager needed to stay in the state of oblivious in her management or leading style. It seemed very obvious to me that she had pushed the self- distruct button on her career sometime ago, and she is just waiting for it to happen. Plus, I figured seeing what I was witnessing now, if I say something to her, it is just pis..... in the wind. By the way, I have worked in fast food restaurants as a manager for a few years and also worked retail in different capacities, including...

Keep in mind that this place opened around a pandemic and honestly I feel the employees are doing their best like everyone else. I love that a chipotle is so close. I have had two experiences here . One around the first time when they opened. The employees had shut down the app because of issues they were having on their end and I tried to order for and hour before I finally went to the location . I have a large family so I always have a large order. I was mildly frustrated but honestly it was a minor inconvenience with how close I am. My burritos were on the slim side but I was hungry and again it wasn't that big of a deal . This last time my issue was not with chipotle but with door dash . I wasn't really aware how chipolte delivered their food but I hadn't eaten all day and this time I was hangry , the day had just gotten away from me . Once again I have a large family so I have large order . Ordered my food around 5:15 with an estimated delivery time of 5:48. I was like I could walk there and back with food faster but ok I was tired and I wanted the convenience of the delivery . 5:58 rolls around and im waiting at the door this place is 2 min by car (yes i was being lazy ). I call the door dash guy ,its 6:00 and i ask if he has an updated delivery time he says there are several cars in front of him in drive through and he has no idea when he will be here . I asked why he didn't go inside and pick up the order? he says he cant because the lobby was closed . I said good bye and hung up called the number for door dash that was provided . The man on the other end didn't seem to get what I was asking , I had asked if door dash had changed their policies and wasn't allowing their divers inside , was placed on hold and when he came back he told me the same thing the diver did. That's not what was asked but its now like 6:05. So I asked how to cancel the order , since the guy was so far in the drive through and no one had any idea when my food would arrive. Got off the phone with door dash and ran up to chipotle . Its like 6:08. I check yep the lobby is open and they have designed side for both door dash orders and walk in orders in the open lobby, I explain what happened and told them i would just like to get my food . Chipotle was understanding and even though they were busy made my food fresh this time we had us some FAT burritos. The employee started my food around 6:12 and i was out in my car and home by like 6:30. All in all not a bad place . If you made it this far thanks for reading...

To set the Scene... (2020-2021)

This place was dog S**t... They were not very generous, Food took literally hours to be prepared, quality was terrible, the staff were usually nice, but the place was a disaster. A lot of people gave the employees disrespect, which was unfortunate because in all reality its the management you need to be saying 4 letter words too. It was almost as if the franchisees gave an apron and a high school diploma to a chimp with an extra chromosome, just so it could manage the place. Enough said, it was terrible. I recall going in there and literally saying "It smells like Up-Dog" unto which my friend replied "What's Up-Dog?" long story short it smelled like a strip club on a Tuesday night, and a hint of burning meat; You can imagine, in was nothing short of unpleasant...

2021-Present Day

This place is PHENOMONALLY better. Like seriously, they must have fired the chimp working overtime, because this place functions as it should. I now do not have to wait forever, the food is actually warm, yeah they have there issues, much of which could be blamed on staffing issues. They have a problem keeping their floors and tables clean, like I had to ask myself if they were trying to grow lettuce on the floors, because there was a lot of it.....everywhere.... That being said, the main point is they fixed their problem, which was the lack of care that went into my burrito, and seriously, I could taste it. I went there with my friend last week, they gave me the wrong burrito, seriously tasted like black mulch. Whoever ordered that thing is a second cousin to Dracula, just couldn't get the flavor out of my mouth. It wasn't even Chipotles fault, just the person who ordered after me. They were really nice about it though, I told them they gave be the wrong burrito, and they made me a new one for free, which was awesome! Enough said, give this place a second chance, because they have improved heaps and...