Chipotle

                I recently went to Chipotle with my friend for the first time. I was a newbie to Chipotle, while a bunch of my friends have been experts. Chipotle must be popular with us college kids, because that is all I hear anyone talking about. But anyways, onto my experience.

                Chipotle is like Subway, but in Mexican food form. This means, “Each ingredient is laid out in front of you so you can choose the perfect combination to make your perfect meal. You can watch the process as your burrito, bowl, tacos, or salad is prepared exactly the way you want it and handed to you almost instantly.” Since I hadn’t been to Chipotle before, I felt a little unsure of what to order and how to order it, but the people working there were really friendly and helpful. So even though it was obvious of how out of place I was, they helped me along.

                So as you saw above, Chipotle offers burritos, tacos, burrito bowls, and salads, which you basically build on your own with whatever you want. For the burritos, you have the “choice of rice, beans, meat, salsa and cheese or sour cream. Add peppers and onions instead of beans for a fajita burrito.”  For the burrito bowls, it’s “just like a burrito, but served in a bowl with no tortilla.” Then with the tacos, you have “your choice of three crispy corn or soft flour tortillas with meat, salsa, cheese or sour cream and romaine lettuce.” Finally, with the salads you have “chopped romaine lettuce with choice of beans, meat, salsa and cheese, with chipotle-honey vinaigrette.” So you pick your type of meat (chicken, steak, beef, pork, or vegetarian), type of salsa (fresh tomato [mild], roasted chili-corn [medium], tomatillo-green chili [medium hot], and tomatillo-red chili [hot]), and all the extras.

                I ended up ordering three soft tacos with chicken. The guy working there talked me into getting guacamole on one of my tacos (I had never had it before) without charging me extra (which they normally do). I thought that was nice of him, letting the newbie try new things. I had cheese and lettuce on my tacos, along with the hot salsa, which was hot, but not too hot. I like spicy stuff so I liked it. Thankfully I got the guacamole for free, because I wasn’t much of a fan of it. But other than that, I really liked my chicken tacos. It was something new for me (I have never had chicken tacos), and I am sure to get them again.

                Something cool about Chipotle is their “Food with Integrity” program. “It means serving the very best sustainably raised food possible with an eye to great taste, great nutrition and great value. It means that we support and sustain family farmers who respect the land and the animals in their care. It means that whenever possible we use meat from animals raised without the use of antibiotics or added hormones. And it means that we source organic and local produce when practical. And that we use dairy from cows raised without the use of synthetic hormones.”

                Chipotle wasn’t too expensive either, which surprised me, especially with the food’s seemingly high quality. Chipotle is a huge hit with my friends and I will surely be joining them on many trips there again!

photo from: http://www.chipotle.com