For Here or to Go?
A Review of Chipotle Mexican Grill (Joliet)

Mindi Gordon

 

Whenever the question, "What is your favorite type of food?" is asked of me, my response is always, "Mexican!"  As a half Mexican girl, I am very picky when it comes to my taste in restaurant Mexican cuisine, or "American" Mexican food as I refer to it. Let's face it, Taco Bell is not making the list.  In fact I had yet to find a chain of restaurants that met my taste.  And to be honest, the reviews of the Joliet Chipotle were not very good, but were mostly downgraded due to service, not the food. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/chipotle-mexican-grill-joliet)  I have many standards, mostly set by my grandmother, that the food must meet in order for me to eat it.  One is that the restaurant must have barbacoa as a menu item.  I do not trust a place that doesn't at least offer barbacoa!  This bit of criteria is what led me to want to try out the ever so popular Chipotle.  I must say I was a skeptic at first, but I gave it a try and in this review I will tell you about my experience; not only with the quality of the food, but the overall experience of a visit to this Mexican Grill.

 

 

                                Criteria 

 

 



• Atmosphere
• Menu selection
• Service
• Price
• Cleanliness
• Quality of food and TASTE

 

The atmosphere of Chipotle is a unique setting to say the least.  It is not a typical Mexican restaurant with bright Mexican décor or traditional Mexican music playing.  Instead the décor is very modern and kind has a "warehouse feel" to it and the music was quite indie and cool.  The walls are lined with corrugated sheet metal and wood.  The tables are fixed to the floor and made of similar materials, stainless steel and wood.  The lights seem to be made of left over piping and are set pretty low.  I liked it! It was a very laid back setting and again very unique.   

 

 

 

As I approached the counter to order my food, I noticed the menu was quite simple and basically came down to either a traditional burrito or a burrito bowl which is simply a burrito in a bowl instead of a tortilla.  The latter sounded interesting to me, so that's what I ordered.  Once you establish how you want your meal, you then decide on the ingredients.  This includes your options of rice (white or brown) beans (black or pinto) and meat (or tofu).  I initially noticed it was a slow time of day for them, so I was hoping that would mean great service.  unfortunately, this was not the case.  When I got to the  counter  was barely greeted by a server who was wiping down the line where all the ingredients were. While I appreciate the effort to be clean, I would have preferred her to stop and take my order.  So after waiting a few minutes, another girl eventually saw me awkwardly standing there and finally offered to take my order.  This girl was extremely friendly, so points were won back.  

 

 

The assembly line manner in which the burrito or bowl is created is quite efficient and ensures that you can customize it to your taste.  You want a little more rice?  Just ask for it.  They were very generous with the portions.  Next to barbacoa, steak is my favorite meat in a Mexican dish.  So I was torn between the two.  Not a problem!  She offered to make my bowl a half and half of both meats at no extra charge.  I was delighted.  I topped it off with my favorite corn salsa and cheese.  It looked delicious!

The pricing was based on which type of meat (or no meat) you ordered and considering the portions, it was very fair! While waiting to have my order taken I did notice a little sign that said Food With Integrity (shown below).  This is honestly something I had never seen in a chain restaurant before, but I was very impressed with. 

 

 

 

Now that I had my tray of food I searched for a table to sit at...this is when things went a little south.  The dining area was a mess!  the floor was riddled with all types of rice and lettuce and beans, I don't think the place had been swept once throughout the since they had opened.  Nearly every table had something on it.  A simple wipe down would have been sufficient.  When I went to the soda machine to get my ice water, there was a mess over there as well.  I would have expected the lack of cleanliness had it been swamped, but as I mentioned there was virtually no one else there!  But nonetheless, I found the cleanest table I could and sat down to enjoy. 

 

The smell was amazing.  The spices and fresh veggies were making my mouth water.  The first bite was wonderful, but then a few bites in I noticed that quite a bit of my meat had quite a bit of hard, un-chewable, gristle.  This was very disappointing as I had to throw out a lot of the meat I had ordered.  Now I probably could have complained and had them make a new bowl, but I was hungry and just worked with what I had. That being said, once I removed the pieces that were not edible, the remaining bowl was delicious.  I could not stop eating it, even when I probably should have.  I left beyond full and very satisfied with the taste of my food.  In the future I will probably not be taking my bowl "for here", but rather "to go", because the service and cleanliness was just too hard to look past.