Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Manheim Township

Chipotle, as a concept, is a wonderful restaurant. In reality, though, this particular location is a bit of a disaster.

The food looks and tastes fine -- clean enough work stations, fresh enough ingredients, tasty enough food.

The atmosphere is the same as every other Chipotle -- ambient music, the buzz of workers and customers, mostly clean dining area.

The main issue is -- and has been for years -- the service. This location is notoriously slow. Worse yet, the staff is not very personable or eager to move things along. I don't mind waiting for good food, and if the staff makes my experience with them enjoyable, it makes any delay seem negligible. Whenever I come to this location -- which isn't very often due to many previous disappointments -- I am a bit ashamed of myself for giving it another chance, as well as bit surprised they are still open.

To wit: I arrived at 5:15 pm on a Tuesday. Four people were ahead of me in line. I waited 30 minutes to put in my order, and another 15 just for a cashier to come over and take my payment. There were people waiting for takeout that had been there since 4:30. One employee took orders. One cooked meat. Another prepared to-go items for people that weren't even there. No one was taking payment. Orders piled up, and no one could leave.

Finally, one customer asked who was actually going to give us our food and take our money so we could leave. The employees all exchanged looks, but no one jumped into action. After a few minutes, one worker reluctant took off her gloves and took one payment before returning to her station. No personality, no apologies, no attempts to explain the delay.

Here's my call to action: stop giving this location your business. As long as we keep coming back, they will continue to limp along. This is unfair to us as customers, and unfair to the countless better dining options in the area that lose business to this location. There are a LOT of good places to eat around here. I have seen many wonderful restaurants come and go in the time that this Chipotle has existed. It seems a crime to keep this underperforming franchise afloat when there are much more deserving eateries that provide better food, service, and atmosphere than this place that is coasting on brand recognition.

TLDR: Don't eat here. Go to Silantra, just down the road, and enjoy fast, flavorful food, served by friendly staff in a bright,...

Until recently, I’ve never had anything bad to say about this Chipotle. That is until I had a less than pleasant experience.

Food is always good and the value is always appreciated. However, some tips when ordering :

Never ask for double meat until they already put their regular amount of meat on first. Each employee will add meat on at different rates and if you ask for double right off the bat, it may not be as much as you were hoping for. Extra everything (except meat, queso, and guacamole) is always free. You can literally ask for as much cheese as you want. If you have multiple people in your party and want chips and queso, don’t even bother with the regular size. Get the large because the regular is the size for a child.

As for my unpleasant experience - I was visiting and ordering a bowl and the young lady working in the back was interrupting the other lady taking my order to gossip and show her phone to. It was so bad to the extent that other employees were interjecting, telling her she should be working and apologizing to me for her behavior. When I went to get my drink it was out of ice and the girl scoffed and said oh well to me. The manager grabbed some ice from the back and was visibly upset with her employee. It wasn’t so much an experience towards me, it was the experience to see all this play out and then come back and see the same employee still there another time - still acting...

Upon entering I was assaulted by an acoustical nightmare of echoes and and the feeling of being at the bottom of a very narrow cement canyon. Somehow the building seemed to get smaller upon entering. After a tedious cue in a line of suburban elitists and their screaming offspring, I was presented with a gaggle of clueless teenagers shoveling completely ordinary mexican-like fare. After much confusion, my order was passed back and forth between the new generation of minimum wage worker and I discovered everything was at least 1-2 dollars more than expected. By now the decibel level had begun to bore into my brain and all I could think of was getting the hell out. I ate at the nearby park enjoying the beautiful day and my blood pressure lowering in an environment more suited to digestion, only do be further disappointed by the taste. It was then that I realized I could have gotten the same thing at Neato Burrito for $2 less and it would have had fresher and tastier ingredients. Still better, would have been a trip downtown to Robiritos as they have a larger dining room that you can have a conversation in without shouting. Even if I wore earplugs, I would have had to share my meal with crowds of strangers at their long picnic table-like counters in a prison cafeteria-style arrangement. There are far better local eateries that are far cheaper and tastier. Don't...