Yeesh. I feel you, Even Sven. I don’t have any “soul foods” as you do but I sympathize with the general sentiment. There’s no need to “get a grip.”
Yeah, I wouldn’t do this if I were you. Unless of course your friends are Amish.
With a unit price share reaching close to $450 this year in the stock market, I guess you can say that it’s been… ‘successful’
As for the taste, my one and only experience at a Chipotle outlet (in Daytona Beach) has led me to conclude that they serve good, quality food even though at somewhat fairly expensive prices.
We got a Chipotle near my work last year and I am hooked on it! We don’t have “authentic” Mexican around here in Connecticut, really, so I didn’t come into it with much of an idea of how a burrito is “supposed” to be. I tend not to be too fussed in general about whether food is “authentic” this or that anyway – in my opinion, the only “authentic” thing that matters with food that I am eating is whether I authentically like it.
I rarely eat there because they don’t have drive-thru’s but Chipolte seems to be OK. Very different than Taco Bell but there’s a place for both of them.
I always laugh when people describe food as “authentic” as if that’s supposed to be a synonym for “better tasting”. Chipotle burritos are better than many of the authentic burritos that I tried. And I lived on these things during my years in Texas. I had a classmate who grew up in Texas and was a Mexican food snob. He would take us to various authentic “gems”. Many were absolutely and undeniably delicious. But others were just crappy. I remember another classmate’s famous quotes when accompanying us on a trip to another taqueria: “Does authentic mean the same thing as shite in Texan?” If you happen to know of good and authentic establishments, good for you. I’ve made the mistake of trying many crappy restaurants of all types just because they were described as authentic.
The way I see it, pretty much every sit-down Mexican restaurant I’ve had a burrito at serves it with beans and/or rice. Since Chipotle is supposed to be fast/convenient you get a larger, all in one, burrito with the bean/rice inside. I knew a guy that would put potato chips on his sandwich so kind of the same deal, though rice is a much better filler.
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…
But to answer your original question: Chipotle Burritos are the Denny’s of burritos.
There is one close to me. My Mexican and non-Mexican friends went to give them a try. We compared them to a pretty good taqueria (Taco maker/store) 2 miles south.
Taqueria de Anda - Win
Chipotle - Fail
I know what you’re talking about. The -bertos are up here in Orange/LA County too..
They do make a mean ass burrito…
It’s called a “comparison”.
There’s burrito snobs, and bashing Chipotle, and then there’s taking things a wee too seriously. If this is your “soul food”, and you can’t find a burrito out there that fits your needs, why not make them yourself? I would think that such a foodie as you would be really into cooking. Seriously.
Yup. I lived in Denver when Chipotle was a small local chain. The locations looked about the same as those built later in far-flung parts of the country, the menu was very similar, and the taste was exactly the same.
Local restaurant chains in Denver seemed very polished and scalable compared to similar chains in other parts of the country. Even when it was local, Chipotle had the look and feel of a regional or national chain. Still, the food was more than decent enough, as evidenced by its popularity in a city where there was no shortage of “authentic” Mexican restaurants, and growth beyond the Denver area. Chipotle really scaled up quite well.
In my hometown, “authentic” means “barely passed health inspection”. Generally gritty, downscale, hole-in-the-wall, etc, For example, a red-sauce Italian restaurant in a strip plaza, with a sign in Brush Script, plastic checkered tablecloths, and paper placemats depicting a cartoonish map of Italy, are generally considered more “authentic” than those places that appear more polished. There’s a phenomenon that seems unique to the area; whenever hole-in-the-wall restaurants are remodeled, business usually plunges, even when the quality and price of the food remains the same.
BTW, are there really burrito snobs?
It’s the usual SDMB pseudo-foodie circlejerk. “You can find much better burritos at this food truck nobody’s ever heard of.”
Have you tried some of the non-Chipotle places in DC?
I like Taqueria Distrito Federall, but I almost always stick to their tacos as I’m not much of a burrito fan. However, their tacos are pretty tasty, and you can get menudo on the weekends.
Chinito’s Burritosopened up a few months ago. I’ve had their burritos and I liked them, but again, I prefer tacos to Burritos generally.
I’ve heard good things about Mixtec, but I avoid Adams Morgan somewhat, and when I used to go more often, I’d go for different things there.
Mi Rancho has them on the dinner menu, but they seem to be an afterthought on the menu compared to other foods. I’ve eaten there, and I liked my food but I haven’t been back.
To be fair, DC isn’t really known for its Mexican food. I’ve heard that there are some good cheap places in Hyattsville and Riverdale, but I’ve never bothered to make the trip.
Sorry, I was riffing off a well known Patton Oswald joke–he called a certain KFC offering a “failure pile in a sadness bowl.”
I LOVE burritios, but Chipotle would be my last option if i was really jones-ing for one. For example we have a few Baja-Sol’s around here and i would pick them first 100% of the time. Chipotle burritos just taste kind of bland to me for some reason. Though i should probably disclose the following:
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I don’t really care for cilantro, and their rice is swimming in the stuff.
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I’m vegan, so maybe their beef/chicken is just dynamite and i don’t know it.
If enough people feel this way about “True” burritos, why don’t they start a chain? It fhey’re really BETTER, wouldn’t they be huge successes?
Extrapolating from the things Dopers have talked about putting in tacos, I have to ask: did you mean to have a hyphen somewhere in there?
Pork butt.