Chipotle Mexican Grill

Checked in today for my free burrito bowl! I was always skeptical of Chipotle food, especially when my first instance of Chipotle resulted in a 2 hour trip in the bathroom. But free food is best food, right?
It seems so, cause it was great. I got the barbocoa bowl (wanted steak, but would have had to wait awhile) to go and it exceeded my expectations (as far as a Mexican chain restaurant goes?).
The employees were nice and attentive, despite the hundreds of students coming in to reclaim their free coupon.
I probably won’t come again anytime soon, as there are plenty of cheaper alternatives nearby. But for what you get, I think you get your money’s worth. but don’t come often, unless you have the wallet for it.

Out of all the Chipotle in the world, this one taste the best for me. Sorry, haters gonna hate.

I love Chipotle but this has got to be the worst location. Of course it’s busy all the time but the service is ridiculously slow. Good Chipotles pump people through lines as fast as they can but the staff at this one walks around, chats with each other another, constantly runs out of ingredients you have to wait for. Not to mention that it’s always dirty! Once, to avoid the lines I ordered via the app and showed up 15 mins early and my food was ready (I guess I’m glad I didn’t show up on time and have it sitting there). After several attempts hoping it would improve, I’ve decided I’m better off driving to Albany.

I really never understood the hype for this place. Sure you get a ton of food for your dollar, but the rice is pretty terrible at least by my Asian standards, and the rest of the at least vegetarian option is pretty medicore.

Tip1: Get there around xx:45−50 (i.e. 12:50 or 1:50 or 2:45 etc.) to dodge the long lines. They tend to be a lot shorter as people who get out of class will be heading for food at the beginning of the hour.
Tip2: Don’t order delivery or postmates — they will mess up your order or your burrito bowl will be half the portion you could be getting.
Tip3: You can ask for a side of vinaigrette, a side of tortilla with your burrito bowl, and extra _​_​_​_​. Make sure to be nice when you do so and the server will give you what you want!
I love chipotle and one thing I’ve learned is that each chipotle is different. The way they make the stuff, the service (the amount of food you get), the lines, etc are all different.
Berkeley’s chipotle is leaning towards more of the average side.
Dish: I always get the burrito bowl with steak or chicken. The rice is usually good, their steak is sometimes way too over cooked, and everything else seems to be okay. Overall it is still «Chipotle» after all.
Service: The amount of food they give is dependent on how rushed they seem to be. Make sure you ask for extra of something if you feel like you are getting swindled (even then they are really stingy). They won’t add that much guacamole sometimes. Also during closing hours they run out of a lot of ingredients so that sucks if you get out of class late or just plain hungry around 9~ so plan for that.
Lines are really long during school hours. Expect to wait 20 minutes+ during the school year. For parking just go to the parking lot on durant/​channing for 1 hour free parking.

Four stars from years ago was generous. With Gordo’s down the street, this chain isn’t a necessary visit for assembly line burritos on Telegraph.

This guy that made my food doesn’t listen. He literally gave me the opposite food items that I wanted and when I corrected him, he just threw the food away. Would not recommend him. But the cashier was nice and friendly.

Well if your in the mood for chipotle then there’s one at Berkeley. The chicken bowl was tasy as always and the vegetables tasted pretty fresh. The only negative part is that I think they serve smaller portions than usual and there is always such a big line no matter what time you go lol

Gotta love Chipotle. As with any other location the food is solid and for the portion, size, and speed, it’s definitely the best way to go. My gripes have to do with this location in particular. The employees have a bad habit of sporadically refusing basic requests, for what feels like very random and contrived reasons. Once I asked for extra fajitas, and I couldn’t have it because «the bowl won’t close then» (despite me never having that issue at any other Chipotle). Another time I asked for extra rice and beans after I was given half a scoop and I was told if I wanted anymore, I couldn’t have meat because it would be considered a «rice bowl».
Still to this day Im trying to figure that one out.
I concur also with an earlier reviewer. I once had an employee at around 9PM throw away my entire bag, with my still-​not-​eaten bowl, in the trash. «Oh is this yours?» «Yessir!»
In all fairness there’s some really solid and nice employees here and I feel like the slowness of the line is less their fault and more a lack of employees. I’ve sat in line for 30 minutes+ on several occasions.
Overall, solid food, tepid service, but it’s the closest Chipotle to campus… so despite my gripes, I’ll probably keep going.

I downloaded the Unilocal app and made an account just to say this and I have never written a review in my life.
This is regarding the blond Asian lady closing on saturday 9÷12÷15.
Last night at about 9:40 pm I was here, had ordered a bowl and was sitting at the outside tables eating it when I decided I wanted a side of guac to go with it. For reference i had eaten maybe ¼ of the bowl. I went inside and got guac, and by the time I came back my bowl was gone. I asked the lady outside cleaning where it went.
Her: Was that yours?
me: yes.
Her: oh, it’s gone…
Me: like in the trash?
Her: well yea, but it’s still in the bag if you want it.
Me ??? Uhhhhh but it’s in the trash
Her:it’s still in the bag, it should be fine
She had literally just asked me to dig my food out of the trash and eat it.
By this point other people were staring incredulously. They chimed in asking if she could have them make me a new one.
She said
«I don’t think so»
Me:???
Me: well can you ask?
To her credit she did ask and came back with an order form, which I filled out and I got a replacement bowl for free. The man working at the register with dreadlocks was very nice about it, so thank you to him.
Even though the first bowl was largely uneaten and I’m pretty sure she saw me run inside, I can understand if she mistook it for trash. But she could have handled it any number of better ways than telling me to just pick it out of the trash and she can’t get me a new one.
That employee did another rude thing that night while I was there. A girl had got her food and the employee was folding up the chairs outside. The customer asked if she could sit here to which the employee said «umm…no I’m about to close.» Chipotle closes at 10. It was 9:40. The customer asked what time it was and the employee admitted it was 9:40 but still did not make any move to allow the girl to sit down. Finally somehow she ended up letting her sit down.
Clearly she valued closing and getting out of there (20 min early really???) More than customer service.
I’ve never had such bad service, anywhere in my life. All the other people sitting outside with me commented how rude and messed up she was.
I’ll still come here because I like the food. But I’ll keep my eye out for her and if she does something so messed up again I’ll take it up with management.

I think this is only my second time eating at a Chipotle Grill. The first time being when they first got started a few years ago.
I don’t remember it being so good but it was. I got a Barbacoa Bowl and it was delicious.
This was the weekend over 37,000 students were arriving for the new school year at UC Berkeley so you can imagine how busy this place was.
A thirty minute wait in line but well worth it.
Fresh food and friendly staff. Can’t go wrong.

Ok so I’m writing this review as i am waiting in line. Let’s see if I will be served by the time i finish writing.
This used to be my favourite Chipotle but in recent months it has gone down the drain. I haven’t been to this particular Chipotle for months because of the service here. Of all the Chipotles I’ve been to this has to be the slowest of the all. The staff here are slow and seem more interested in chatting with each other or closing their doors a minute before closing time than focusing providing good, fast service. One of the staff even asked a customer to lock the door for her when another customer unlocked the door to get out. Another staff in line wears her mandatory latex gloves but touches almost every surface around the restaurant (doors, tables, her pants, etc) without changing her gloves. Guess the concept of hygiene isn’t strong with this one.
I have since decided to go to the chipotle in Albany instead of this one. Takes less time to drive all the way there and drive back.
And still, after writing this whole review while waiting in line, I still haven’t been served. Case closed.

I ordered online like I always do bc trying to get Chipotle past 7pm will take forever if you’re standing in line. I’ve also never eaten at this location before, so maybe it was an off night.
The quality of the food I received was good, my 2 stars was on the fact that they did not have any corn salsa, which I actually wanted extra of. And the fact that I received such a small portion. I don’t know if it’s bc we’re at Cal and students can use their «bear bucks» or whatever it is on this place, but I received such a small portion that I actually ate my bowl in one sitting. Normally I am stuffed halfway thru and finish the other half later, but not this time, so I just felt super jipped on getting a small ass portion with no corn salsa, and I’m still actually a little hungry. I won’t be back to this location.

It’s never fun when your caterer bails on you at the last minute and you’re sent into a panic trying to think of a clever solution to feed 50 people for an important staff party. But thankfully, Chipotle came to the rescue! They were able to turn our order around in just 24 hours (but please give them more time than we did!). The catering manager John was fantastic and made sure everything was ready to go on time and loaded into my car.
Thank you so much for helping us out!

No doubt one of the best fast food restaurant in the world.
They keep you full and it tastes very great.
However today I must point out that one of the staff serving sallad & sauce today at around 2:50 pm (April 13 — 2015) was very rude to the other staff serving the meat/​beans.
The staff that was rude is older and had a braided ponytail.
This makes the experience worse for everyone that visits because if the staff gets in a bad mood will lead to customers having a bad experience there.
Usually Chipotle is a very happy place!

Berkeley Method of ordering Chipotle (since you’ve invested 20 minutes waiting in that line starting by the door):
— Bowl with tortilla on the side (most bang for your buck since you maximize the food you can pack in a bowl)
— Brown rice (trying to be healthy)
— Black beans — double that
— Meat — can’t afford to get extra of that
— Fajita veggies — more of that please
— ALL the sauces
— Corn — make that two scoops
— A LOT of cheese
— yea, okay, lettuce
Basically, if the server isn’t struggling to cram all that food in to the bowl with that aluminum foil cover, then you haven’t done it right. Usually get it to go since there’s never enough seating on that one floor and the stairs lead to nowhere. If you were smart enough to order through the app for pickup, well you just missed out on all the extras!

First, let me say that Chipotle is one of my favorite fast food chains. However, this location is notably bad.
Here’s a list of this particular location’s transgressions (it’s not exactly Martin Luther’s 95 Theses but maybe it will catalyze some reform):
–Once they overcharged me for my burrito (they rang it up as barbacoa instead of chicken). I only noticed after they handed me my receipt. When I mentioned it to the cashier, he acted like fixing the mistake was a huge imposition. He looked at me like he had just finished building a lighthouse and I had asked him to move it a few feet to the left. I took the advice of the song in Frozen and just ‘let it go’ and left the store.
–They amount of meat that they put on each burrito can only be accurately described as a pittance.
–In spite of the insufficient portions of ingredients, sometimes the burritos have been rolled improperly and filling has been spilling out. I highly doubt that the employees are as sloppy with their rolling technique outside of work.
–Lines at Chipotle’s everywhere can be fairly long. It makes sense as Chipotle is awesome. However, the line at this particular location is long because service is so slow.
–This probably isn’t their fault, but cell phone reception is really bad inside Chipotle. This is particularly annoying because you have to spend such a long amount of time in the line.
–The seating area at this location is smaller than at other Chipotle locations.
Long story short: Chipotle is great, but this location is not the best. Also, it’s not impossible to move a lighthouse. If you’d like to learn about an outstanding feat of engineering, google ‘moving the cape hatteras lighthouse.’

The only reason I would ever go to chipotle is to get quick food. And by quick I mean like I can’t take the time to go to asian ghetto so ill walk here. I mean, I used to like their steak bowls, but that was before inflation. I mean I can’t blame this place for the price hikes, but 9 $ for steak stuff is too damn high.
Update: damn, forget this long line. Especially during the evening, the service is epically slow. I feel like the workers are taking their sweet time. Please hurry up man. I’m also not sure if the online ordering is effective because it just slows down service for everyone else waiting in line

«I lovee Chipotle. Chipotle is my lifeee» (please YouTube the video)
But in seriousness, who doesn’t like Chipotle? Although, I always have to ask for extra rice, beans, salsa, etc. because they are so much more stingy with their portions than other Chipotle’s (hence the 3 stars).
The major plus for this location is it’s proximity to campus.

Although this is not the most authentic Mexican, it is definitely an authentic and interesting fusion (Cali-​Mex?).
Actually, to be correct, Mexican people don’t consider burritos to be a part of Mexican cuisine. That’s more of a Tex-​Mex thing, like nachos, and cowboys, and Selena.
Cons:
–White rice? Should be red/​orange.
–Black beans? Should be whole or mashed pintos if it is a Mexican dish. Black beans are only cool if you’re Cuban.
–Prices pretty high.
–Meat servings are skimpy.
–Cold tortilla? Needs to be toasted.
–Chips were too few for what I paid for.
–red salsa had too much cumin.
Pros:
–No more cons
I expected much more for the nearly $ 20 I paid for 2 burritos and 1 order of chips, but instead got heaps of all this white rice and lettuce. So I’m not sure my overall happiness level has gone up (probably hasn’t).