Chipotle in London: Giving A Bad Wrap

Zach's Post

I've been living in London for about 2 months now. When I left Denver one of the things I knew I would miss the most was good Mexican food. In particular my favorite place to go is a restaurant named Chipotle. It is a higher level fast food type restaurant. Basically it’s a step or two above McDonalds and Burger King but it’s not a sit down restaurant where you have to pay more for service. This restaurant began in Denver where I grew up so I've been eating their burritos since I was a teenager. At some point in time the owner and creator of the chain sold it to McDonalds, which then led to the expansion of the chain all over the States. This made me both happy and sad. I was happy because it allowed me to eat Chipotle in college (Arizona) as well as grad school (California). The sacrifice was the portions. The burritos became a bit smaller. But Chipotle remained my favorite place to eat mostly due to the food but also because it reminded me of home. (On a side note I don’t think McDonald’s any longer owns the company)

Now when I came to London I tried to keep my expectations for the quality of their Mexican food rather low. I figured they’d have at least some choices since it is such a large city but really all I hoped for was that the choices would be better than the ones I found in China and South Korea. Honestly it would be hard for it to worse than in China. Imagine my surprise and joy when I discovered that in downtown London there were actually 3 Chipotle restaurants. I couldn't believe it my favorite food, from my favorite restaurant here in London. Needless to say it did not take me long to visit one of the locations.

When I got there the layout and décor was the same as in the States. Likewise the menu was the same. But it didn’t take long as I went down the line and watched them make burritos to realize this was not the Chipotle I knew. The salsas looked different, the rice looked a little off, the portions were even smaller than they had become in the States and there were no free refills on soda. Still I wanted a burrito and I was excited to try it. I told the servers what I wanted and they kindly obliged but as they dished each ingredient into my burrito I couldn’t help but question them…in my head. First they barely gave me any rice then they flooded it with black beans and I had to ask three times to get a respectable amount of cheese on it. Lastly came the toughest part of making a good burrito, wrapping it. The guy tried hard to keep all the ingredients inside the tortilla but he pulled so tight that the tortilla ripped slightly. He quickly wrapped it in tin foil ignoring what he had just done. I’ve had so many burritos that I knew this tiny tear would quickly grow with each bite I took. The worst part was that the tear was in the middle of the burrito rather than close to one of the ends so there was no way I was going to manage to eat my lunch without some it ending up on my hand and in my basket. Now this sort of thing happens in the States so I didn’t hold it against the server. But the next time I came back it happened again. Then the time after that the tortilla didn’t rip rather the server did not fold it properly the result being that both ends were actually open making it impossible to keep the burrito together. 

I have gone to Chipotle about 9 or 10 times since I’ve been here, far less than I have desired, and each time the thing that as bothered me the most has not been what I considered to be the lower quality of the ingredients or the different taste the burritos have rather it has been the wrapping. Yes the rice isn’t as good, the salsas are inferior especially the mild salsa, and the chips lack the lime kick one gets at home but surprisingly none of that has been as disappointing as the seeming inability of anyone here to wrap a burrito properly. Each time I have wanted to jump behind the counter and wrap it myself or at least coach them through it. Part of me wants to apply for a job at Chipotle not merely for the free burritos but so I can teach the employees how to securely wrapped the burritos to maximize the amount of food that ends up in a person’s mouth and minimize the amount of food that ends up on a person’s hand or in their bowl…particularly mine. So while I should say any Chipotle is better than no Chipotle each time I go it’s hard not to be a little sad as they continue to give me and my burrito a bad wrap.  

(The key when wrapping a burrito is lifting the end of the tortilla furthest away from you and using it to push the ingredients closer to you so that the ingredients are mostly on one half of the tortilla rather than in the middle. Then one should roll the tortilla forward (away from the server towards the customer) and fold both ends inside with the palm of your hands not your fingers. At this point the server should finish the wrap by again rolling the tortilla away from them. They must also be careful during this last part not to push in with their thumbs otherwise they will likely pierce the tortilla causing a tear, which most certainly will be the source of trouble for the person eating it. Assuming the burrito was steamed long enough all of this allows the burrito to be tightly wrapped with both ends being closed and no tears in the tortilla. But here in London that just never seems to happen)

(this is the actual Chipotle in London that I visit the most)

Priya's Post:

I can’t help but add my two cents to Zach’s burrito blurb, so I’m tagging along to the end of his. Having grown up in London, Mexican food wasn’t a luxury I could enjoy often. Yes, I said luxury – that’s because it’s not a cuisine that’s widely available here (if at all in some areas). For all our US friends and family, that probably sounds silly since you’re lucky enough to have a Mexican eatery on almost every corner (oh how I envy you!).

Recent years have seen a slow, sorry, very slow change in this with some cantinas opening up here and there, though not enough to allow anyone a decent degree of choice. These places (with the exception of Chiquitos – a poor excuse for a Mexican restaurant, with tacky over the top deco to match) is decent enough. In fact some of them are pretty good – or at least they would be had I not spoiled myself with authentic or American Mexican food while living in the States. I’m both annoyed that I’ll likely never taste as good food here in London, but also happy that I’ve had the good stuff to begin with! So it doesn’t matter how highly recommended the restaurant comes, or how many 5 stars it has, or how much the home style tortillas and salsa are to die for, they just don’t live up to the food across the pond. And if you can’t even compete with Chipotle, the McDonald’s of Mexican food, well, what hope is there?!

Perhaps it’s nostalgia? Perhaps my taste buds are remembering it better than it really was? Maybe I’d be more willing to agree with this if others with the same experiences did not agree with me.

Now Zach mentions Chipotle in particular (I was pretty amused at how quickly he found all three and then knew the best ways to get there within a week). I don’t have half as much Chipotle experience as he does (does anyone?) but from the handful of times I’ve been able to join him for a burrito in London I found myself just as frustrated as he was. Though neither of us would stop going, the trade off is still worth it.

What annoys me is not so much the lack of quality in the ingredients compared to the American counter-part as Zach mentions, not the no free re-fill policy (in fact the UK has never had a free re-fill policy, until the last year where I can only think of two fast food chains that do it), not even the lack of hearing when I say out loud “No sour cream… brown rice not white…”. It’s the amount of meat they insist on putting in each burrito. Even when you protest. You’re lucky if you get half a ladle of beans and rice, but you’ll be sure to get three or even four heaped ladles of meat. Not everyone likes lashings of meat! The times I’ve ordered a vegetarian one, I thought I’d get extra beans and rice in place of the missing meat. No, this is an extra and so you pay more to get the portion of vegetables, rice and beans that you should get in any normal burrito to begin with.

So Zach and I have pretty much used this post to rant about Chipotle’s burrito failures, which on reflection seems a bit unfair. We love Mexican food, we’d probably eat it every day if we could (and when we’re not eating noodles… ) we’re lucky to have somewhat unsatisfactory Mexican food rather than none at all. And yet we can’t help but feel disappointed, thank you America for heightening our expectations… quite rightly. So for now, the closest we’ll get to a good burrito is a poorly wrapped one with more contents outside than in.

I leave you with a few burrito facts:

-Burritos made in Mexico are made small, usually with only two fillings (maybe Chipotle here in London should go authentic, at least they’ll find them easier to wrap!)

-The word burrito means ‘little donkey’ in Spanish

-The Californian Burrito is the most popular burrito in the USA