Chipotle Mexican Grill

I have heard so many people rave about their addiction to Chipotle since I arrived in Atlanta. Never had a desire to try it, but figured I check out what the hype was all about since I was hungry and it was close to where I was. I ordered a steak burrito with white rice and had them add some guacamole. It was a good size and hit the spot, but I can’t say that I understand what the hype is all about other than it being fast if your looking to grab something better than the typical fast food on your lunch hour. Being from SoCal, I haven’t found any Mexican food in the south that satisfies, but if I’m going to eat fast food-​type Mexican, I’d rather go to Mo’s where I can get chips for free and a choice of different salsas. No complaints, but I don’t see myself running back to have it again anytime soon.

Just got rushed thru the line, having to repeat each order multiple times as no one was listening. Ordered carnitas and there weren’t enough in the bin for the order — instead of telling me the server just scooped up some soggy dregs from the bottom for a few soaking wet pieces of meat. Asked if I could have some fresher meat and was told unless I ordered double meat then I had plenty. Other ingredients were more «thrown» into the bowl with disdain. Seems like a pretty unhappy crew, hopefully we just caught them on a off night.

Dinner last night was amazing! This is My favorite location in Atl. Fresh chips., well seasoned chicken and rice. Best burrito bowl to date. Thx Chipotle.

I can’t lie and say I’m not a fan. But I was personally scared to retry Chipotle again after my personal E. coli experience with them.
Why I went: After their reopening in February, and since I work at Ponce City Market which is literally 2 minutes away from them, I decided to try and give them another go. Plus, their meet is grassfed and fresh. Maybe too fresh? ;)
Location: This restaurant is located right next to Drunk Unicorn and right across the street from Murder Kroger. Yes, there is a Kroger named Murder Kroger. This Chipotle is located right at the corner of Ponce De Leon Place and Ponce De Leon.
Parking: The only way to enter is only on your right if you are driving on Ponce De Leon, but you can make a right turn on Ponce De Leon Place and enter also on your right. The parking lot is PRETTY small, so it’s a hit or miss. So please be warned, you might be waiting to for a spot to park for a good 5 – 10 minutes.
Venue: This Chipotle location is well kept and I love the bathroom like windows they have on their walls you immediately see then you walk in. They have a dining place where there chairs, small tables, and booths are located for you to sit at. They also have an outside dining area for nice sunny days, so you can get your Vitamin D.
Food selection: They offer burritos, burrito bowls, small tacos, and ALCOHOL. I repeat, they offer ALCOHOL. My favorite is their margaritas. This is one of the main reasons I choose them over Moes and Willys. Their meet is grassfed and they after a great selection of vegetables to put in/​on your food of choice.
I ordered: I bought a burrito bowl with half steak and half chicken. Yes, you can do that.
Price: The prices are a little steep here. For just a burrito bowl, I had to pay almost $ 10 and that was without gauc and a bag of chips. You have to pay a $ 1.25 for gauc and another payment if you want a bag of chips. That is the downside, because both Willys and Moes gives you chips for free and gauc is only an extra $ 0.99.
Aftermath: I didn’t have to go to the bathroom afterwards and my stomach didn’t hurt. So it’s a win win and the place is well worth to visit again. Yay!

I regularly visit this location because it is convenient. However, this is the filthiest Chipotle out there. The food is still good but the overall experience is not worth it. There is another chipotle a few miles away (on Peachtree st) and it is worth the drive to never step foot in this dirty chipotle ever again!

Still the most filthy place on earth wow no care! I’m posting pictures of the nasty bathroom as well! KEEP OUT NASTY!!!

I know Chipotle’s having a PR crisis still (even though the E. coli outbreak only struck in the northeast), but despite that I still like the chain and its burritos more than any of the other burrito chains. The burrito bowl in particular, actually.
And since my office is just down the street in Inman Park, right next to the Beltline (which I walk frequently at lunch), it was an easy decision to hop off the Beltline one day and walk over to Chipotle to pick up lunch.
Unlike the Chipotle that’s closest to my home, this Chipotle’s crew was on point for lunch! I was honestly in and out in five minutes flat — this literally, never happens. Even though there were three other people in front of me in line, and it was peak lunch hour, as soon as I stepped up to the counter I was greeted and moved down the line in the most efficient way I’ve ever seen. It was really, really impressive.
Plus, my burrito bowl was perfect, as usual. Good job, Chipotle. If your store is this efficient all the time, I will definitely be back.

Look, Chipotle, I love you, but why you gotta be taking me for granted like that? Why does it take you so long to acknowledge that I’m next in line? Why do you halt progress on my burrito to restock everything? Why are you stopping things yet again to do the drawer-​swap thing on the cash register? Why is my burrito so small? And why does my small burrito cost cost so much?

If you can avoid it, do not drive! The parking lot is very small. I have been wedged in before. When one person left (so I could finally get out!), another person tried to take their spot. I gave him a what the hell look and then he realized that he was blocking me in. So he moved so I could get out. Frequently, you will see people parked on Ponce de Leon Place or on a nearby side road. It is crazy! Also, do not try to turn left onto Ponce from the lot during rush times. It is very difficult. OK so what can Chipotle do about all this? I don’t know. They got a prime location and there is only so much land to use. It is what it is. I usually walk since I live nearby.
Lines are, as you can expect, usually long. Especially around closing time. Portion sizes tend to vary by time of day/​how busy they are. Though it isn’t supposed to be that way. You can always ask for more of everything expect the meat and guac unless you are willing to pay more. Everything else is free for extra amounts.
I used to get the chicken burrito or burrito bowl. But I got sick once due to undercooked chicken. *boo* So I switched to steak. Now I get the salad as I am cutting back on calories. No more rice for me at Chipotle. Check out the calorie counter. So helpful. The food here is quite good. And they have the best guac around. But guac and chips are really high in calories! You are warned. I took my parents here for their first Chipotle experience. My dad got tacos and my mom got a burrito bowl. They both really liked it.
There have been a few issues over the years I have gone here. Once there were puddles of water on the floor. A leak, maybe? Once or twice the air conditioning was out. They tried to make it cool, but it wasn’t working. Service is all over the place depending on who you get. The staff is constantly changing.
Chipotle is my fave fast food, so there will be many more visits to come.

WHILE I LOVE CHIPOTLE, this one is the epitome of subpar. And I am just talking about the food, nothing to do with parking or location
The meat is room temp, and chewy.
The lettuce is wilting
The salsa is watery AF.
There are much much better chipotle’s in the world.

This is a one time experience review, usually it’s a 5 star at this location but this time was ridiculous…
This is in regards to an employee working there, for the manager who may be reading this, the introducing server working on Sunday, October 11 at 2:50PM was not well trained and doesn’t adhere to standards and health codes. I had asked for half steak, half barbacoa… She serves the steak and the barbacoa and then proceeds to the next customer, but decides she put on too much barbacoa and goes back and takes off basically ALL of the barbacoa!
1) isn’t that a violation of health codes???
2) what person in the industry would do such a heinous thing? Right IN FRONT of the customer.
Maybe you gave me a little too much barbacoa but now I’m eating a «half steak» bowl since there’s practically no barbacoa left on my bowl. Not to mention, the next person who ordered barbacoa got contaminated meat from being on a different bowl next to the steak, beans, and rice.
If the manager is reading this, you need to fire that Asian girl or make sure she doesn’t deal with the clients anymore, she simply doesn’t get.
The people around me all looked at me like «what the hell just happened» and it was discusting.
She’s bad for business and bad for chipotle… Take her out of the equation and I’ll come back and give 5 stars.
If I see her working again I WILL ask for another employee to help me.
Edit: the stars aligned and she is now gone, no longer terrorizing the chipotle clients. 5 stars.

Manager is rude. I’ll be taking my business elsewhere now.
I asked a few questions about the restaurant to the manager and he didn’t even give me the time or day, super rude, and gave me these one word answers and telling me hurry up and pay or leave.

Walked in at about 4pm, and it was neither empty nor super busy. Under the normal smell of fast food Mexican there was an underlying aroma of moist garbage. That could have been one of the other guests, but it wasn’t the pleasant greeting I get at moe’s.
Anyway, I ordered a burrito. I ask for white rice and get brown. Whatever. Rice is rice to me. I ask for pinto beans, and the guy skips past them and tries to pass my food off to the next girl on the line. I get her to reach back over to the guy’s part of the line and put some beans on with my rice. I get barbacoa and some other stuff. I ask for guacamole three times, but the girl refuses to acknowledge it, or put any on. It’s at this point that I noticed she is loudly, open-​mouth chewing a piece of gum. Gross. She ignores my final request for guacamole, and gives me some lettuce. She didn’t roll my burrito so much as she just crumpled the tortilla around like a balled up piece of paper.
The cashier was about as pleasant and cheerful as a cat in the rain. She struggled with my card, but got it handled. I thanked her and started to walk over to the dining area when she very curtly yelled «have a good day» at me in what was clearly a condescending tone of voice.
So, I go to the soda fountain to get a drink. It’s a mess. Looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a week. I get my beverage and go sit down at a dirty table, as none were clean. There are 4 employees sitting around having a loud conversation, then the guy who tried to withhold the beans sits down and starts eating his food.
I unwrap my burrito ball from the foil, and re-​roll the damn thing properly, so I can eat it without it falling apart.
It tasted fine, but was somehow super watery. The tortilla got too soggy, and began to split. I got burrito juice all over both my hands. I can accept that fast food isn’t going to be of the highest quality, but the service and atmosphere were terrible. I won’t go back to that location, and probably won’t go back to chipotle at all.
On the plus side, their disposable forks were pretty nice.

I’d say I’m disappointed every time I come into this chipotle even if when I’ve ordered online, the staff is not pleasant and they don’t make you feel welcomed at all, you get more of a rushed vibe to get out of the restaurant.
parking is a hassle and sometimes does lead me to not want to stay.

I love love love Chipotle! I can never get enough of it! Unfortunately, this location sucks… It is always busy here! There is never any parking here! You literally have to be lucky or fight for a parking spot! The line is always long here and it takes forever! The staff is really rude– and they are stingy with their portions. My friend and I love getting Chipotle for lunch. We stopped coming to this location and we now go to the Emory Village location.

Stay away from this place had horrible service… the girls that work the line all have an attitude… And the proportion of meat when ordering a bowl or burritos are not consistent they give a full scoop to some then half a scoop to others when you say something they tell you if they put more it’s extra… I was out done how snotty and condescending they spoke to people… IF YOU LIKE CHIPOTLE… STAY AWAY FROM THIS LOCATION, furthermore the tables are dirty & the restroom needed attending…

There’s been a substantial amount of time lapse between my last review and this one, owing mainly to disclaimer/​disclosure the at the bottom of this review.
I’ll be happy to re-​review this restaurant when some management issues are fixed, but last night was a customer-​unfriendly experience that causes this one star review. If you look at my history, you’ll see that one star reviews are a rarity for me; they’re reserved for those times when «customer beware» is present in the dining experience.
Signage. It’s important. It sets expectations. So when we arrived and found that the pork carnitas were unavailable, we were disappointed UNTIL we saw the sign explaining that, due to the humane standards required for their pork, there was a shortage. Bravo! Big kudos for that, Chipotle! This is one of the reasons we love you!
But one very important sign was oddly missing — the one that instructed the long line of expectant customers that once they left the nicely air conditioned ordering area, they’d be headed to a furnace of a dining room. It’s not an exaggeration to say that something big was wrong. It felt like the heater was blowing and they couldn’t figure out how to turn it off.
When we took our food outside to sit, all outdoor seating was occupied, and though the evening was a typical hot Atlanta one, that would have been at least bearable. People, we noticed, were sitting on the outside concrete floor to avoid the dining room experience.
I asked a line person why he didn’t tell people what to expect before ordering, and he said «We’ve been told not to do that.» I then asked for the manager, who explained that someone «must have taken the sign down.» This doesn’t ring true for me. You be the judge.
FULL DISCLOSURE: Several years ago I was chairman of the board of a professional association that represents over 4,000 restaurants. I currently run a large food operation, and I serve as an alumnus of the Small Business Advisory Council for Unilocal.It’s important for me to disclose this because A) I have many friends in this business who might take a dim view of the integrity of not providing full disclosure, and B) I have up-​close knowledge of what it takes to make customers happy with their dining experience.
P. S. TO MANAGEMENT: If you’ll let me know when your issues are fixed, I’ll come back unannounced (and without any discounts — please don’t offer… it’s not about that!) If your dining room is in working order, I’ll revisit this review.

I have eaten at several Chipotle locations and have rarely had a bad experience. This was the worst.
I ordered a barbacoa burrito bowl. The server was not polite. The rice portion was normal. The black bean portion was light but I didn’t mind. The barbacoa portion was extremely small. I asked the server if she could add more barbacoa. She said I would have to pay extra. I said that it did not look like the proper portion.
I asked the next server if I could speak to the manager. He said he was the manager. I asked if that was the proper portion of barbacoa. He said it was. He did not look like a manager and did not appear to look closely at the serving portion. The customer behind me agreed that the portion looked extremely small.
There was very little barbacoa in the servers pan so it appeared that she was limiting portions so she would not have to refill the pan before closing. The location closed in 15 minutes. The food was lukewarm and not a full order.

I don’t know if I’m just used to good quality in arizona, but I’ve had a dry spell with tasteless food at this chipotle and Howell mill location. The lines are out the door if it is during peek hours so don’t waste your time. If you are by emory, there’s a good chipotle there.
I am a huge chipotle advocate but bad quality is majority of what I’ve had at this location

Yes, this Chipotle has long lines, but I’ve seen longer lines at Chipotle locations towards the OTP suburbs. Poncey-​Highland Chipotle is located along a very busy stretch of Ponce, next door to Friends on Ponce, and across the street from Green’s and Murder Kroger. The clientele at this Chipotle is often young, hip, and urban.
The parking lot is small. The restaurant acknowledges this with signs that say, words to the effect of: «Our burritos are big, but our parking lot is small.» It’s not uncommon to see a panhandler directing traffic in the parking lot and asking for money later. If you can’t find parking, I suggest parallel parking along Maiden Ln. behind the restaurant. I don’t know how strict Friends and other neighboring businesses are with towing Chipotle customers, so be careful.
Compared to other locations, this Chipotle is relatively small. It does have a nice enclosed and elevated patio which is a prime spot for people watching (traffic watching?) on Ponce.
I’ve generally found the food and service to be good, which is consistent with other locations. Chipotle takes pride in its naturally raised meats, organic vegetables, and sustainable building practices. Tastewise, I can’t tell a significant difference between a burrito at Chipotle and a burrito at Moe’s or Willy’s — they all taste good to me – but it doesn’t hurt to know that you’re eating better stuff at Chipotle.
Burritos, burrito bowls, tacos, and salads range in price from $ 6.25 to $ 6.65 per order depending on the meat selection. Meats include chicken, steak, carnitas, and barbacoa. Cilantro-​lime rice, black beans, pinto beans, salsa, cheese, sour cream, and other toppings are included. Guacamole is $ 1.80 extra. I’m a fan of the rice.
Like other burrito joints, Chipotle has a made-​to-​order, line ordering format. You control what goes into your burrito from the very beginning. The open kitchen is located behind the ordering counter, so you can see all the meats and other ingredients being prepared and cooked fresh. During peak times, it’s possible for the ordering line to run out of certain ingredients when it’s your turn to order.
One of my favorite items to get is the burrito bowl because it’s simple, tasty, and relatively healthy. It’s also easy to transport on-​the-​go. I like to get chicken or steak. All of the meats aren’t bad. The chicken is surprisingly tender. I usually load my burrito bowls with all available toppings, particularly corn salsa and spicy salsa (in addition to the standard pico de gallo). The spicy salsa is indeed spicy. If that’s not enough, hot sauce is available.
Drinks, condiments, and silverware are self-​serve. Satisfactory service.
Overall, not a bad in-​town Chipotle. Just wish the parking situation was better.