Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Garfield Heights

My review is based on 5 years of eating at this location at least once a month sometimes as much as twice a week. I work 2 minutes away. This review comes with a heavy heart, but today was the last straw.. I've had Chipotle all across Ohio and different states all over the US. Even little Podunk towns in the middle of nowhere and gotten great Chipotle. Unfortunately this is one of the lowest ranking locations I've ever been to.

To be clear I think 90 percent of these issues could be addressed and fixed by the owner, manager, and or staffing. I could literally fix most of this in one day. Not sure how they consistently keep F'ing this up for 5 years.

CHIPS ARE STALE AND OR BURNT. On average 50%-75% of the time chips are STALE, like hard wet chewy rubber and BURNT brown like the paper bag with a nasty taste, then bathed in wayyyyyy too much salt every time..... I paid $6 for a shot glass size cup that's 3/4 full of guacamole and then got served with paper bag tasting burnt wet and chewy stale chips....

ALMOST ALWAYS OUT OF SOMETHING, OR MANY THINGS. Literally 9/10 visits they are out of something, not exaggerating. So its take it or leave it, if you like you meal a certain way than odds are you'll have to make some compromises here. Its usually some type of meat, rice, or beans, but if its not one of those three things its for sure randomly something else. Not kidding

BOTTLED DRINKS ARE NEVER REALLY COLD. They come out of the cooler and are always barely cold. Realistically maybe 10 degrees lower than room temp that's it. The cooler is either broke, not set correctly, or they only pull drinks that are immediately restocked. On top of that the ice machine for fountain drinks wasn't working again today and the soda sugar/suds mix isn't right often times.

PICKUP OR DELIVERY ORDERS ARE A DISASTER. Its faster for me to go in and order after trying to find a spot in one of the tightest smallest most packed parking lots in Independence during lunch than order it online. Ill leave work after the pickup time and still wait 10 minutes in store for the food. Then if you DoorDash it there's 50/50 odds they wont make it right (probably out of that ingredient like everything else), forget to include a side or drink, and it looks like my messy 3yr old daughter made my burrito with 1/2 the portion sizes.

SERVICE IS LIKE A MORGE AND THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF NY TV SHOW PUT TOGETHER. I come from the food industry so that being said I do understand what its like. Respectfully, staffing looks at me with a blank/annoyed face like they would rather be anywhere on the planet but there helping me. The line is staffed with one person usually, maybe two, making the food and also cashing all the people out at turtle speed. They spend more time talking drama BS to each other, or not communicating at all, or talking on the phone, or just not doing anything productive. Zero leadership, zero effort, no true grit to get anything done correctly.

The place is a messy disaster, the food looks desolated, the staff looks at you frustrated, what little food is left isn't what you wanted, or its barely edible.

PLEASE MAKE THE FOOD AT THIS LOCATION GREAT AGAIN (assuming it ever was at one point), order the correct amount of food needed per this locations demand, fix the drink cooler, AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD - FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE THE F'ING CHIPS CORRECTLY.

The Chipotle in Garfield Heights is only 5 minutes farther. That's where I'm going from now on. Might not be much better than this place but there's no way it...

Alright I’ve been going to this chipotle in Garfield for quite some time. This establishment gets a bad rap and I do the utmost to tell people this chipotle is not bad at all. I’ve been a regular customer for years and I’m known as the “plain white guy” for the reason I get plain white rice.

Today (10/4/24, 5pm-6pm) has really reached my breaking point with this place. I come about 4 times a week and right after a long day of work which is a +40min commute. While I showed up around 5 today I understand that is a peak time and that’s fine, long lines do not intimidate me I’m very patient. However waiting in line wasn’t the issue. I asked for plain white like I always do and was told to be put aside till the cooks bring it out cause the line workers did not want to go back and get it. So I did. And preceded to wait another 40min. The girl who told me to wait never acknowledged me and when I asked if she could just go back and grab or check she denied and told me I just have to wait cause they are short staffed. I understand being short staffed but I am a customer and I already waited in the line for over 20min to begin with and yet another 40.

I had to walk out and was frustrated. These girls were also messing up orders and having to redo them since customers were upset with them rushing and putting food they did not want in. So from my perspective it’s really disheartening to redo orders and hold up a line and ignore me which was forced to wait.

I am very cool with the management staff and I will be reaching out next time I come here because this was just a terrible experience for me and I already boycotted the chipotle in independence I’d hate to do the same for this one cause since its my go to...

I wish I could give them more stars because this review has nothing to do with the employees (which i appreciate them all for working and being kind even under pressure) but it has everything to do with the food quality. I have tried to give this location the benefit of the doubt time and time again but every single time I try, this location fails me when it comes to the food quality. I found myself judging other Chipotle locations based on this particular one and found out that this location just has really bad food. It's not a Chipotle thing. Overall, the employees there were very nice and I could tell that they were very swamped with online and mobile orders. They were speedily making orders with only three people on the line and it appeared to be only one person cooking. I went inside for my order today and unfortunately even though there was only one person in front of me it took me about 20 or so minutes to get in and get out. it was close to closing so unfortunately they also did not have any more lettuce for salad or any more vinaigrettes. So I got a bowl with white and brown rice and sofritas, salsa, and guac on side. Once it was time to eat, I realized that the rice was clumped together and was not flavored at all. The sofritas had way too much cilantro in it. Halfway into eating my bowl I became nauseous because the rice was just too mushy for my liking. Overall I love Chipotle but this is not the first time I've had this type of experience with my food from this location. This is the closest location to where I live so that means that I will have to drive out a little further in order to get a decent Chipotle salad or bowl...