Chipotle or Qdoba?

[pancakes3]

@Wendell_Wagner

Here are the Mexican restaurants in this area that I would recommend:

Taqueria La Placita
Hyattsville, MD

La Sirenita
Hyattsville, MD

El Tapatio
Bladensburg, MD

La Fondita
Edmonston, MD

And a little further trip is this:

R & R Tacqueria
Elkridge, MD

This is the strangest location for a good restaurant. You drive to the address listed and you see a gas station. You drive around the gas station and you see a little convenience store. You drive around the store and you see a little diner with a few seats, but it’s mostly a take-out place. Many people say it’s the best reasonable cheap Mexican place in the Baltimore-Washington area. There are some more expensive places that are better, but you supposedly can’t beat it for the price.

I’ll plug Taco Bar (gas station location) and Tortaco’s for Montgomery County.

And pupusas? I really don’t get the love.

edit to add: I forgot why I clicked on the thread to begin with! Some Qdoba locations make breakfast burritos but they’re not very good. In fact, I’ve had much better Korean-deli-made breakfast burritos just the other day.

[even_sven]

I used to work at a photo shop in Oakland, and next door was a decent little hole in the wall taqueria. The owner took real pride, and would tell anyone who cared to listen that he made all the sauces himself daily.

One day I mentioned that I was looking for a new apartment, and he recommended a place, adding that there are “no blacks or Mexicans in it.” I left a little baffled, and eventually learned that the owner was from Afghanistan.

Looks like they are still in business, and have embraced being one of the few Afghani Taquerias in the world. Good for them! Hopefully they got over the racism thing.

[kaylasdad99]

What is Qdoba? I’ve never heard of them.

More to the point, is it possible to simply order off the menu like at McDonalds, or does the customer have to direct the assembly of the food like at Subway (and Chipotle)?

If it’s the latter, put me down for “Neither.”

[DCnDC]

@kaylasdad99

What is Qdoba? I’ve never heard of them.

More to the point, is it possible to simply order off the menu like at McDonalds, or does the customer have to direct the assembly of the food like at Subway (and Chipotle)?

If it’s the latter, put me down for “Neither.”

It’s the latter. You get to the front of the line, you tell them you want a burrito/bowl/tacos/salad with chicken, pork, beef, some combination of, or none of the above, then they push you off to the next person and add rice, beans, salsa, etc.

And apparently there are people who (emphatically) have an preference, but as not one of those people, I assure you they are exactly the same.

[kaylasdad99]

Yeah, I’ll happily take your word for it. When I’m buying fast food, I’m not interested in having a role in the preparation thereof.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Tapioca_Dextrin

Neither. In Austin we have Freebirds. It’s like comparing chalk and cheese.

Freebirds is the cheese

Thanks for posting this. I’ve seen the sign for this, but didn’t know what it was. I have a new place to try out now. Thanks!

My vote is Chipotle. But I haven’t tried Freebirds yet.

[Wendell_Wagner]

There’s a Peruvian place nearby that’s run by an Iranian. A small chain of restaurants in the D.C. area that are run by someone with an unexpected ethnic ancestry is Busboys and Poets. The theme of the restaurants seems to be something to do with American civil rights activism. The name is based on Langston Hughes, who was a busboy and a poet. The owner was born in Iraq.

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@Heffalump_and_Roo

My vote is Chipotle. But I haven’t tried Freebirds yet.

Tonight I went to check out Freebirds. I really wanted to like it as an alternative to Chipotle. But that food looked awful. The rice looked hard. The beans looked watery and everything else looked like it had been sitting there for many hours. Maybe if the food was fresher, I would have liked the taste of it better than Chipotle, but I can’t know that yet.

I couldn’t even get myself to order anything. I walked out and went to Chipotle.

I was pretty disappointed. I’m going to try again at an earlier hour, but my vote remains with Chipotle for the moment.

[Quimby]

@Smapti

Neither - they’re both bland, uninspired, and nowhere near as good as any mom-and-pop quick service Mexican restaurant you can find.

(FWIW, Qdoba is owned by Jack in the Box, and Chipotle was owned for many years by McDonald’s.)

Restaurants I’m sure I never heard of…

I like Qdoba even though they just raised their prices…

[GrumpyBunny]

Qdoba, if there are no actual Mexican food options around.