Do Chipotle burritos really suck as some burrito snobs would have us believe?

[Algher]

My son loves Chipotle, and we also hit a variety of Mexican places in Orange County. A few notes of correction though.

You don't have to get the rice.
You don't have to get the beans.
You can have them melt the cheese first (ask for the unlisted quesadilla to start your order)
There are 3 salsas, once of which has decent enough heat.

My standard order is carne asada, double veggies, melted cheese and all 3 salsas.
My son is double meat (carne asada again), lite veggies, cheese, all salsas, sour cream and their guac.

If you play with their offerings, you can put together a decent enough burrito.

[Peremensoe]

Originally Posted by ministryman

Sorry. As a native of Northern Mexico (Southern California), I must toss out your entire premise.

The phrases "decent Mexican restaurant" and "eastern shore of Maryland" cannot be used in the same sentence the way you did.

That's like saying, "I eat at this wonderful Maryland Crabcake shack in Orange County".

Not buying it. Nope. Not today....

Not really comparable. Maryland crabs are just not available in California (not in edible condition, anyway). But no burrito ingredients are similarly limited by source (true, we don't grow avocados, but those ship a lot better than crabs). And Maryland and DC do have authentic Mexican people who make food there, if that's what you're looking for.

[Peremensoe]

Originally Posted by even sven

As a Californian exiled to DC, it's taken me a while to come to terms with fact that if I want a burrito, I pretty much have to go to Chipotle.

This is ridiculous. Get out more. DC may not be known for Mexican food, but it's a metro area of a few million people. Of course there are other Mexican restaurants.

And, of course, grocery stores. :science:

[levdrakon]

Originally Posted by Peremensoe

This is ridiculous. Get out more. DC may not be known for Mexican food, but it's a metro area of a few million people. Of course there are other Mexican restaurants.

And, of course, grocery stores. :science:

I'll have to second this. Head down to Adam's Morgan or someplace. If you can't find tasty international food of every kind in DC, you aren't looking.

[Sister Vigilante]

Originally Posted by Lamar Mundane

You prefer Moe's to a burrito you've never had? That's interesting, or something.

Excuse me, I meant to say "I prefer Moe's to all of the other fast food burrito places I have ever tried." And earlier in the post I explained why I am reluctant to try them.

[even sven]

Originally Posted by Peremensoe

Not really comparable. Maryland crabs are just not available in California (not in edible condition, anyway). But no burrito ingredients are similarly limited by source (true, we don't grow avocados, but those ship a lot better than crabs). And Maryland and DC do have authentic Mexican people who make food there, if that's what you're looking for.

I think we are talking about different things here. Yes, I can go to Rosa Mexicana and spend $50 on some pretty good Mexican food. And yes, I can make reservations at the home taqueria in Columbia Heights and enjoy some seriously good tacos cooked up by somebody's Mexican mother. And yes, District Federal makes great tacos.

What I am missing, though, is accessible, affordable, quick Mexican food. From my house in Santa Cruz, I could walk to 11 different taquerias. Taquerias filled the place the delis seem to fill here. They are ubiquitous, cheap, and a seamless part of your everyday life. It's where you grab lunch at work, or meet friends before a concert, where your mom takes you for dinner when she's too tired to cook and where you got to spend some time studying over nachos. The idea of "going out" specifically to Mexican food is as strange as saying "Hey honey, do you want to go out to turkey sandwiches and coleslaw tonight?" or "Hey, this is really exciting! I heard there is a great joint that serves real bacon and eggs in Eastern Market!" If I want Mexican food, yeah, it can be done. But if I want to grab a burrito, my choice is pretty much Chipotle.

Actually, I think DC on the whole is deficient in the "cheap, quick, real" food category. It's hard to get lunch for under $10 outside of delis and fast food. I think California has a lot more options for a cooked meal in the $5.00-$8.00 range.

[elmwood]

Originally Posted by levdrakon

I'll have to second this. Head down to Adam's Morgan or someplace. If you can't find tasty international food of every kind in DC, you aren't looking.

Colleagues in the DC area tell me there's problems with neighborhood parking and overcrowded housing in parts of Fairfax County, where workers from Mexico and Central America are renting houses. That's probably an indicator of the availability of some decent burritos.

Originally Posted by even sven

What I am missing, though, is accessible, affordable, quick Mexican food. From my house in Santa Cruz, I could walk to 11 different taquerias. Taquerias filled the place the delis seem to fill here. They are ubiquitous, cheap, and a seamless part of your everyday life.

And Washington is not Santa Cruz. When I moved to Las Cruces after I graduated from college, I could no longer walk to 10 different pizzerias and red sauce Italian restaurants, or five different Greek diners. I had easy access to the best Mexican food on the planet, though. Burritos? Didn't even have to put any effort into it; at least two or three breakfast burrito ladies stopped by my office every morning. Pizza and Italian food? What little out there was awful.

Now, I'm in a hippie-dominated college town. Mexican food? Generally upscale; decent, but not what one would call "authentic". There's a Chipotle, and it's usually busy. Barbecue? Sucks. Vegetarian and vegan cuisine? Everywhere you look, and outstanding. The little Indian, Thai and Korean restaurants near the colleges, catering to foreign students? The online reviews usually aren't glowing, but the places are usually filled with customers of the same ethnicity as the food, which might mean something.

[Jaledin]

Wow. Are rich people really complaining they can't find someone to cook for money close enough to where they live and fast enough for their hyper-type-A douche lifestyles? No kidding grocery store. FTR I also think better bosses have spent some time in the salt mines, and politicians who know what war is might be less trigger-happy than their foodie counterparts who can't heat water.

[even sven]

Originally Posted by elmwood

Colleagues in the DC area tell me there's problems with neighborhood parking and overcrowded housing in parts of Fairfax County, where workers from Mexico and Central America are renting houses. That's probably an indicator of the availability of some decent burritos.

Salvadorian cusine =/= Mexican cusine. DC has a very large and thriving Central and South American community. I gave up on walking into unresearched Mexican restaurants because so many "Mexican" restuarants here have amazing pupusas and panes relleno, but little in the way of actual Mexican food. Salvadorian food is great, but if pupusas are a place's specialty, it's not a Mexican restaurant.

Anyway, this has gone on too long. Poor burrito access isn't exactly something I'm loosing sleep over, I just wish Chipotle was a little bit cheaper and tastier, because otherwise it'd be a great way to fill my perpetual burrito craving.

[elmwood]

Originally Posted by even sven

Salvadorian cusine =/= Mexican cusine. DC has a very large and thriving Central and South American community. I gave up on walking into unresearched Mexican restaurants because so many "Mexican" restuarants here have amazing pupusas and panes relleno, but little in the way of actual Mexican food. Salvadorian food is great, but if pupusas are a place's specialty, it's not a Mexican restaurant.

Sounds much in the same way that "Greek" restaurants tend to serve mostly diner fare with the obligatory souvlaki to maintain their ethnic cred, or some "Vietnamese", "Tibetan" and "Thai" restaurants still have menus dominated by American Chinese.

[Marley23]

Originally Posted by elmwood

It's the usual SDMB pseudo-foodie circlejerk. "You can find much better burritos at this food truck nobody's ever heard of."

Originally Posted by Jaledin

Wow. Are rich people really complaining they can't find someone to cook for money close enough to where they live and fast enough for their hyper-type-A douche lifestyles?

You're both threadshitting. Knock it off.

[Caffeine.addict]

Originally Posted by even sven

Salvadorian cusine =/= Mexican cusine. DC has a very large and thriving Central and South American community. I gave up on walking into unresearched Mexican restaurants because so many "Mexican" restuarants here have amazing pupusas and panes relleno, but little in the way of actual Mexican food. Salvadorian food is great, but if pupusas are a place's specialty, it's not a Mexican restaurant.

Anyway, this has gone on too long. Poor burrito access isn't exactly something I'm loosing sleep over, I just wish Chipotle was a little bit cheaper and tastier, because otherwise it'd be a great way to fill my perpetual burrito craving.

I agree with your earlier post that DC has a dearth of cheap, quick, and good lunch options. If you are lucky, the food trucks will come by your office, but that doesn't apply everywhere. Part of the issue is that the rents on commercial real estate in DC are fairly high so it seems to be mainly chains or somewhat upscale places that can open up in DC. There aren't many of the old school lunch places left. Ben's Chili Bowl is still around and they seem to be monumentally busy all the time. Florida Grill is around as well, although I wouldn't make a habit of eating there regularly as I would like to avoid multiple heart attacks by the age of 50.

[Ephemera]

Originally Posted by pulykamell

Har har.

What I'm saying is, in my experience, people who like food seem to have a wide range of tastes that includes fast food and junk food. For example, I think I would probably qualify as a "foodie" of some sort. But I enjoy McDonald's, White Castle, Jimmy's John's, etc. Then there is fast food I don't like, like Burger King, Subway, and Taco Bell. But, in my experience, "foodies" run the gamut of low-brow to high-brow tastes. Maybe y'all are just meeting a bunch of dicks and the Chicago "foodies" are much more down-to-earth. The only "foodies" I've met that were douchebags were simply douchebags in general. Their opinion on food had nothing to do with it.

I find the same thing with the stereotype about hipster kids. Some of my brother's friends who are in their late 20s and early 30s would qualify as hipsters. There seems to be a meme that hipsters are only interested in obscure music that the average person couldn't possibly ever have heard of. Yet, without exception, every single "hipster" type I've met personally was as into the latest Jay-Z, Kanye, or Beyonce record as whateverthefuck it is as Bon Iver, Gotye, or whatever it is they listen to these days.

This post is representative of why you are one of my favorite posters.