Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Oak Park Heights

Worst casual dining experience ever! Where do I begin?

As we walked up, there was a sign on the door saying "Sorry out of guac." No problem, I don't like guac. I approached the line and ordered chicken tacos. I was very specific about the amount of rice and beans I requested, the employee just completely ignored me. Oh, they are out of chicken. I could see it cooking so decided to wait (I guess). Then I ordered my daughter's taco meal. They are out of hard taco shells (the only kind she will eat). We almost left, but she said it was ok. So I got her meal and sent her to the table while I stood and waited. And waited. And watched.

The prep area was very dirty. Food everywhere. I watched the employees, who kept going in back and not coming back. The cook kept getting asked if things were ready, and would just shrug his shoulders like "nope." He even said that a couple times, he didn't care. Finally, after a good 10-15 minutes (my daughter was almost done with her meal) the chicken came up. Again, asked specifically for amounts which was just ignored. Ok, I'll figure it out when I get to the table (I guess).

No chips on the shelf, so I didn't even bother to ask about those although I really would have liked some. Lucas was working the cash register and was very pleasant and helpful; almost seemed embarrassed with what was going on. He kept going in back to get employees, who would come out for a few minutes and then disappear again into the back. Clearly no one cared about doing their job.

I went to the drink station, no ice. The guy in front of me commented exactly what I was thinking about what was going on there. The Diet Coke was running out, and finally ran out completely. I asked Lucas (the only employee out front) about it and he had to find someone to change it. So me and the other lady who picked up her to-go order (after waiting forever for whatever she was waiting to be cooked/ready) and we waited, and waited. No one bothered to tell us it had been changed, I finally just checked and yep, it worked. Thanks for letting me know as we stood there and waited with my 10 year old who was way past her bedtime thanks to all the delays.

The drink station was ridiculously filthy. No napkins, food and condiments spilled all over, hardly any silverware, and the trash was literally overflowing to the point where people had started setting their trash on the edges of the drink station (I have photos, if you'd like to see). Clearly the employees who kept going in back weren't cleaning the dining area either, as most of the tables were disgustingly dirty.

My husband texted that he wanted me to bring him something so I got in line again, ordered a bowl, and guess what? Yep, no carnitas. Lucas asked the cook if he had any working. "Nope." So I ordered chicken.

This is by far the absolute worst experience I have ever had in a casual dining restaurant. The employees (except Lucas) were embarrassingly nonchalant and uncommitted, the restaurant was filthy, they were out of something at every single moment, and no. one. cared. I frequent this store often and I've never seen anything like this. But I won't be hurrying to go back, I can tell you that.

(and they weren't out of...

Please Save Yourself, It's to late for me. I went to place a review after my experience tonight, and say that I placed one 3 years ago that was five stars. Recently I have had terrible experiences here, so around 5 moths ago I vowed that I would never spend a cent on anything from Stillwater chipotle again. I was happy. Then earlier today I suggested that we get Chipotle for dinner. Everyone said "absolutely not, it is terrible." I suggested that maybe we drive however far it is to the nearest Chipotle that isn't in stillwater, but eventually I made the mistake of just ordering online at the stillwater location. We ordered 4 items: 2 Burritos and 2 sets of Tacos. Very simple. A trained monkey could assemble it. Literally says each ingredient on the ticket. 4 items, and somehow I expected even one to be correct. As I opened the bag I said out loud "Do Not Get Your Hopes Up". Unwrapped the burrito, bit in, and not a single thing I tasted was what I ordered. # things I didn't order on the burrito, and only half of what I did. I was the luckiest of all of our orders. The Tacos came in the burrito bowl container without shells, just a pile of food that looked like it had been scraped of the floor. Not a single shell. Rechecked the order and it explicitly said "taco" and not "random of assortment of food smashed into a paper container. I don't know what goes on in Chipotle, but there was not any meat in 3 of the orders. If you are a fan of gambling Stillwater Chipotle is the place for you. Talk about the house always wins. A 0% chance that your order is correct, or even contains all of the food you ordered. I would not be surprised at all if they just make a random item, And then match it to the order that is closest to it once they finish making it. I have never been more disappointed in a restaurant in my entire life. Never again will I order anything from chipotle. Pictured is...

The service isn’t horrible and the food is usually decent enough but dang, can they at least learn how to wrap a freaking burrito correctly?! They do it all day long so they should be pretty competent at this skill. I worked in a deli that sold burritos for five years and we were very mindful about making sure all the ingredients were spread evenly so each bite incorporated all the different food categories that you had put on there. I don’t wanna get a large bite of just plain rice over and over and over… That is basically what half of the side of my burrito is…. They should learn how to be able to roll it up so it is evenly spread…it’s not that hard of a skill to train your employees in on… come on do better people! The guy that originally helped me was polite and helpful but the lady that was helping me afterwards seemed so rushed and disingenuous; seem like she didn’t want to be there and it showed with the way she wrapped this burrito. She also let a bunch of the perfectly good chicken fall out rather than the rice when she was wrapping it. They can take 5 to 10 extra seconds extra to wrap it correctly. I used to wrap burritos bigger than this when I worked at River market for five years, and I made sure it was done correctly (and if it wasn’t, I would re-wrap the whole thing or double wrap it if they were OK with that)as well as always receiving compliments from customers for the quality. I also left my customers with a nice smile rather than with a mean muggin expression. I’m just saying…. have a little more of a strong suit with your work ethics Gen Z, no matter where you work. It’s important to always have that skill because it makes you who you are inside and out… and it’s clear as day for everyone to see. Plus it makes you feel better if you know that you did your best. Thanks for...