Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Post Falls

I recently visited the Chipotle in Post Falls, and I have to say, it was an absolutely abysmal experience. Let me set the stage for you: I walked in, full of hope and excitement, craving the signature Chipotle flavors I’ve come to expect. What I received instead was a culinary tragedy of epic proportions.

First and foremost, let’s talk about the beans. They were sour—not a little tangy, not “maybe it’s in my head” sour, but spoiled, rancid-tasting, full-on disgusting sour. I immediately regretted every bite. It felt like the beans had been sitting out in the back of the fridge for days, if not weeks, before.

Then there was the steak. I’ve had rare steak, I’ve had medium-rare steak, but this steak was beyond undercooked. It was practically mooing. I bit into what I thought was a flavorful, well-seasoned piece of meat, only to discover it was nearly raw and so chewy I thought I might lose a tooth. It was inedible, plain and simple.

As if things couldn’t get worse, my bowl was absolutely drowned in sour cream and guacamole. Now, I love sour cream and guac as much as the next person, but what I received was a soupy mess. It was as if someone had poured half a gallon of each into the bowl and stirred them together in some cruel joke. Every other ingredient—if you could even call them that—was completely lost in the tidal wave of goopy, flavorless mush.

And to add insult to injury, the portion sizes were inconsistent, and the service was rushed and dismissive. The staff seemed more interested in gossiping with each other than ensuring customers had an enjoyable meal. I felt like I was being hurried out the door despite the glaring issues with my order.

I cannot overstate how disappointing this experience was. I left feeling nauseous, unsatisfied, and downright insulted. For the prices Chipotle charges, there’s absolutely no excuse for this level of neglect. If I wanted an overpriced disaster, I would’ve cooked at home and sabotaged my own meal.

Until this location gets its act together—starting with fresher ingredients, better cooking practices, and staff who actually care—I would strongly advise anyone to stay far away. If I could give zero...

I'm happy to say that they're improving because we generally love their food... Our daughter went to this location to pick up our dinner a few days after they opened, and the poor thing had to stand in line for over 35 minutes. I wish this was an exaggeration, but there's always a learning curve with a new location. Sadly, after all that waiting, the bowls were seriously lacking protein. Fast forward to today, and I decided to order lunch ahead via their website to avoid any wait. I also purposely arrived 10 minutes after the promised time just to avoid being upset. In addition, when placing the order I indicated that I would go inside to pick up, rather than the drive-through as I didn't want to wait in the drive through (and come to find out, the drive through is solely for order pickups, even though it's quite vague in the signage in the drive-through - makes you think that you can also order food from the drive-through... this should be made way more obvious that it's ONLY pre-order pickups.) When I got inside, the shelving that looked to be the spot for preorder pickups (there's no signage) was empty except for a pile of paperwork (yikes). I stood near the shelving that was near the cash register, and after a couple minutes the gal working the register asked me what I was waiting for. She immediately went to the drive-through window area and grabbed my bag of food. She was great, I'm just confused as to why my food was in the drive-through space instead of the shelving as I requested. My receipt even says "PICKUP AT SHELF." So, several more minutes wasted. The good news is that when I got home, my chicken bowl was substantially better than a few weeks ago. The bad news is that the chips were stale and overdosed with lime, and they forgot to give me...

I have grown up hearing constant praise heaped on this chain and the almost cult-like worship of it. It had been years since I bothered to give it a try, the first effort being pretty ‘meh’. However, after viewing the ten millionth ASMR commercial presenting an audible splat of moist guacamole bring flung onto cooked meats, naturally I had to give it another try.

Having seen this location being inundated for a few weeks upon opening, I waited until there was a more amenable queue and went later in the evening. However, this didn’t help much, clearly. Even in just getting a basic chicken burrito, they were out of multiple ingredients, the staff clearly was uninterested in being there (which I always grant some leeway since who likes dealing with hungry idiots like myself), and the menu is just too basic to be anything revolutionary. I tried to adding some spice and flavor, but there was such heavy use of rice — even asking for light rice — that it washed out the pittance of other ingredients requested.

I came away from it with the same questions as when I tried Chipotle years prior: ‘What am I missing here? Why is this so beloved in our culture? How is this cravable?’ My chicken and tortilla log was one of the most mid burritos I’ve sought nourishment from, and really not worth the money; it was one of those experiences where you come away from it with a slightly exasperated, “it’s fine…”. The options are few for what they talk up, and if the quality was top notch, I would understand that, but there’s nothing exceptional about it.

Honestly, if this style of Tex-Mex is what you want, Qdoba has always been better in my book. Slightly more expansive chooses, and bigger flavors. The whole cult following around Chipotle needs to put down the Kool-aid in...