Chipotle Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

Bottom line: Awful. Details below.

Edit: I will not "reach out" to a corporation's bot or website. I invite Chipotle to respond to my review openly, here.

Last evening, upon arrival to the head of the queue and with no one behind me, I saw three employees: one taller person, one shorter person, and one person bringing food from the back.

The taller person was helping the customer in front of me and was in the middle of fulfilling their order. The shorter person was just standing back and away from the service bar, looking rather sullen and annoyed to be there to me. It was not until two other groups came in behind me that the person even stepped up to acknowledge me in any fashion. I got the impression that the shorter person was hoping the taller person would finish with their order in time to help everyone else.

The shorter person proceeded to very quickly move through the process of putting together my order, but I had to request that they go back because I wanted grilled vegetables and they had already moved on to the other section of the food service bar. They projected annoyance when I made this request. After serving the vegetables, they asked me what kind of salsa I wanted before I stepped over to that section and when I answered, they slopped on way more than I would have wanted in a rather careless fashion. Both the vegetables and the salsa were dumped on my food without draining excess liquid from the serving spoon.

The food itself was awful as well, with the chips that I ordered being burnt, the guacamole not well mixed (lots of large chunks of avocado, not terrible, but not consistent texture, requiring additional mixing by hand) and the grilled vegetables not chopped nearly well enough (slices were over-large and there was even an onion that had not been chopped all the way and was still connected to other over-large strips). Nor was there much beyond onions for vegetables, as the container that held them at the service bar was almost empty. Added to the meal was the runoff liquid from the vegetables and salsa, making a rather (unpleasantly) sloppy/damp meal.

It should have been a much better experience and meal, especially for the...

Terrible mobile order experience. These workers are unapologetic. Using the chipotle app, I ordered 3 items: 2 burritos and 1 kids meal. The 2 burritos were not double wrapped as I ordered, the meats were switched between the burritos, the kids meal did not have the kids drinking cup or fruit that I ordered. When we ate the burritos it was extremely messy and spilled everywhere because they were not double wrapped and too much liquid from the salsas were dumped into the burritos. I reported all this to the worker and he just coldly smiled at me with no apology - offered to refund me for the lack of double wrapping though what good would that do? Also, one of the two burritos was disproportionately smaller than the other one. What did I tip you for? Didn’t they just get a minimum wage increase to $20? Not to mention literally all the trash containers were filled to the brim. There was no lemonade or many other drinks available in the dispensers. I had to ask for utensils and napkins even though it’s listed in the order receipt. It seems this location hires people who perform subpar work and it reflects on the manager, regional manager and franchise as a whole. What can I expect from a franchise who once had an E. coli. Outbreak in their food - does anybody remember that? If you want the worker to smile at you as you complain about their service short comings please come spend your hard earned money here. I came here on a Saturday night April 2024. I’ve had other instances of poor service here but this was the last straw. Not coming here anymore. Managers, train your workers better or hire better quality...

Take a typical taqueria, remove everything but tacos, quesadillas, and burritos ("bowls" are available for the carb counters), add a sleek, contemporary, stainless steel and wood motif, and top it off with "fresh"/healthier versions of typical ingredients that, save for the meat, are vegetarian friendly. Now, add an assembly line of Subway-esque burrito builders.

Boom. Chipotle.

It's all very hip, and it's an immensely popular chain in Northern California, but many of its millennial savvy strengths are detractors, for me. Oh, by the way, I'm also a millennial.

It's a new spin on a perfect build, and you can't fix what isn't broken. Well, they've fixed it for people who actually want brown rice or practically unseasoned jasmine rice in their burritos, or pinto beans that are basically just boiled long enough to get a little soupy.

I get it. The traditional preparation of pinto beans involves lard, which exiles a whole category of very prevalent buyers in California, but there are also black beans, similarly unseasoned in any way.

The meat is the only place I can find even a semblance of expression in the flavor profile before adding salsa. Even then, it's mostly the carne asada and barbacoa. I think someone told the chicken a story about seasoning, then promptly threw out the spice rack.

Salsa should highlight flavors, not dominate them in its smallest portions.

If you enjoy a minimalist approach to cooking, or just want a quick, "healthy" or vegetarian friendly option, you'll probably love Chipotle. I only visit because my wife can barely handle...