Baja Fresh Vs Chiptole, a strange tale.

[JTsyo]

heh just had a conversation this past weekend about how opening a Chiptole runs Baja Fresh out of business. One opened in Piscataway and is packed tight and the Baja fresh is gone.

 

[sourceninja]

My wife and I love to order a bowl from Chiptole with 6 corn taco shells on the side. Feeds the two of us for very little cash. Tasty too!

 

[SP33Demon]

Hahahhaa im laughing because it's true. DC area has a ton of south and central american restaurants. Some of them are horrible. Most are just ok. A select few are excellent. Just like any other cuisine. I lived across the street from the Ballston Chipotle. Mexicans loved that place. And for good reason, it's good food. Might not be 100% authentic, but why does something have to be in order to get consideration?

I lived in Arlington for 6 years. I still can't tell you where to get good Mexican food. There were a couple of incredible Salvadoran places though.

Arlington? La Union on Wilson.
Alexandria? Los Toltecos on Duke.

The Chipotles in those areas suck but maybe that's just because I like Moes better. The veggie ingredients just seem to be higher quality, but when it comes down to it both are just oversalted fast food and can't compare to the mexican restaurants. Chipotle and others are 90% salty/buttered rice in their burritos and most of the cost of what you're paying.

 

[SamQuint]

It is all about food fads. Baja Fresh was all the rage back when they first opened. Now Chipotle is the new guy so people want something different. We also have other chain Mexican places like Wahoo Fish Taco's and Rubios.

Here in Southern California we just started getting Cafe Rio and I would say they are better than both. http://www.caferio.com/ Awesome freshly made tortillas.

But here in So Cal we have so many hole in the wall Mexican restaurants that are better than all of them.

But for all the chains;
Cafe Rio>Wahoo's>Baja Fresh>Chipotle>Rubios

 

[MarkXIX]

Arlington? La Union on Wilson.
Alexandria? Los Toltecos on Duke.

The Chipotles in those areas suck but maybe that's just because I like Moes better. The veggie ingredients just seem to be higher quality, but when it comes down to it both are just oversalted fast food and can't compare to the mexican restaurants. Chipotle and others are 90% salty/buttered rice in their burritos and most of the cost of what you're paying.

I don't find Chipotle to be salty at all. Also don't know where you get the "buttered rice" idea from either. I know what buttered rice tastes like and that's not it.

As stated earlier, most of Chipotle's ingredients by themselves are pretty bland, it's the combination of the ingredients that adds up to awesomeness.

 

[SP33Demon]

I don't find Chipotle to be salty at all. Also don't know where you get the "buttered rice" idea from either. I know what buttered rice tastes like and that's not it.

As stated earlier, most of Chipotle's ingredients by themselves are pretty bland, it's the combination of the ingredients that adds up to awesomeness.

It's either butter or vegetable oil, the recipe from Chipotle fan verified by people who worked there:
http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=rice_recipe

Also, you must be incredibly numb to salt if you can't taste it. I'd suggest laying off fast food for a month and then tasting it again and see if you can tell the difference.
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx

Seems like the tortilla is where a good chunk of the salt is coming from:

soft flour tortilla - 670mg
white rice/4oz - 200mg
chicken/4oz - 370mg
Total: 1240mg

I can tell you that they give you more rice than chicken (at mine) so their website is lying. They give me about 2X as much rice as chicken in my burrito, I'd bet it's around 8oz. I should go there today and report back the results on my postal scale. This would be about 1500mg of salt in one fcking burrito. Gross.

 

[ElFenix]

It's either butter or vegetable oil, the recipe from Chipotle fan verified by people who worked there:
http://www.chipotlefan.com/index.php?id=rice_recipe

Also, you must be incredibly numb to salt if you can't taste it. I'd suggest laying off fast food for a month and then tasting it again and see if you can tell the difference.
http://www.chipotle.com/en-us/menu/nutrition_calculator/nutrition_calculator.aspx

Seems like the tortilla is where a good chunk of the salt is coming from:

soft flour tortilla - 670mg
white rice/4oz - 200mg
chicken/4oz - 370mg
Total: 1240mg

I can tell you that they give you more rice than chicken (at mine) so their website is lying. They give me about 2X as much rice as chicken in my burrito, I'd bet it's around 8oz. I should go there today and report back the results on my postal scale. This would be about 1500mg of salt in one fcking burrito. Gross.

chipotle has enough salt to choke a horse. my standard burrito has 3200 mg of sodium. that's about 8 grams of salt (approx 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt). so i often make it a bowl.

carnitas
rice (sometimes brown)
black beans
pico (salt++)
red sauce (salt++)
green sauce
cheese
guac (yes i know it's extra)
a little lettuce (it gets in the way when it's on top of a bowl)

 

[Sho'Nuff]

I like em both, but neither hold a candle to "Taco Bar" or any of the myriad mexican food trucks in Gaithersburg Maryland.

For those that googled - yes, taco bar is in a gas station and merged and doubles as a liquor store. The food is awesome though, as evidenced by the huge lines there every day.

 

[tcG]

Where in South Texas? My ex-gf's dad lives in McAllen.

Spring! (A suburb of Houston.)

Not exactly Little Mexico like a place like McAllen, but good enough for real Mexican food.

 

[tcG]

Chipotle... Gross.

Go there and get a bowl, not a burrito - you will get more of the other ingredients this way. Also, if you are a nancy boy and insist on getting plain rice and chicken, then complain that there is too much rice and not enough [sour cream, lettuce, three salsas, veggies, cheese, guac, corn], I can't help you. I can nearly freaking everything piled on high when I go to Chipotle.

Chipotle is far from "oversalted fast food." Everything is made from scratch with high-quality ingredients. This is in particular, the reason that I will forever defend Chipotle. At least where I live, there are NO other chains making the kind of quality food that Chipotle is; the wholesomeness, made-from-scratch, boldly seasoned, partially organic fare is unmatched. The only valid complaint is possible blandness at particular bad locations when the cooks don't season and cook properly. You get this variation because everything is being made from scratch. You know how they are making the guac? By mashing ripe, whole avocados, and then adding lime juice, salt, and other basic, wholesome ingredients. Ditto for the salsas and everything else. Even at other burrito places that are a step above the frozen, processed frankenfood, they are still adding fillers and MSG and shit like soy protein to their recipes. And they certainly don't have organic beans/meat.

 

[sjwaste]

Arlington? La Union on Wilson.
Alexandria? Los Toltecos on Duke.

The Chipotles in those areas suck but maybe that's just because I like Moes better. The veggie ingredients just seem to be higher quality, but when it comes down to it both are just oversalted fast food and can't compare to the mexican restaurants. Chipotle and others are 90% salty/buttered rice in their burritos and most of the cost of what you're paying.

La Union is in the Salvadoran category for me. I guess their website says Mexican and Salvadoran, so we can count that. It is good.

I still think Chipotle is pretty good, but comparing it to actual Mexican food is off the mark. It's like saying your favorite pizza joint makes lousy, non-authentic Italian food. Yup, it's likely not authentic, but it can be good in its own right.

PS. For the closest thing to a pizza in Italy in the entire DC area, check out Pupatella on Wilson and George Mason in Arlington. But that's another story.

 

[rsutoratosu]

I just had taco bell and its way better

 

[Xellos2099]

I was going to post the exact same thing. I laughed when I read his bullshit explanation as to why BF was more fresh than Chipotle.

By the way, Chipotle gets it's ingredients from local farms. That, I think, is cool.

Also, around here, in DC, where there are a shitload Of Hispanic people, Chipotle wins. You can't want into a Chipotle and not stand in a long line that will take you a good 15 minutes to finally order. The lines wrap around the interior of the restaurant. Probably 60% of that line consists of Hispanic people. I've NEVER seen that at BF.

I already clarify that I mean it is steam table heated after grill, compare to the freshly grilled shrimp at Baja. And the fact they only use cold lettuce, which bring down the temperature even more. I guess in a sense Chipotle is a better "fast" food place since it work better in an assemble line method thus it is fast in, fast out. One time my mom got a cold burrito/bowl and they refuse to heat it up.

 

[mple]

Favorite Chipotle hacks

Burrito bowl, tortilla on the side, extra rice, both beans, fajita veggies, half barbacoa, half carnitas (usually end up with ~1.5x serving size), all four salsas. About 1400 calories worth of food. I eat half for lunch, other half for dinner mixed with whatever protein I've got in the fridge.

I live in the Chicago suburbs so there is no shortage of real, and really good, Mexican food around me. Eff that chain garbage.

I've been frequenting the same Mexican joints out in the burbs often enough for them to honor some special requests.

Burrito al pastor with cilantro, onions, cheese, guac. Add rice and sour cream if I'm in the mood. They've also started making carne asada fries on request as well.

 

[cheezy321]

My local burrito shop is better than your local burrito shop.

 

[cheezy321]

We have a Cafe Rio here as well and I will put in a good word for them. I am a chipotle addict (used to eat at least 1x/week) but now Cafe Rio is my new addiction

 

[torpid]

Q'doba is utterly vile. I don't know how anyone could prefer that restaurant to baja or chipotle. I am not a huge fan of those places but at least they are not completely disgusting cesspools of vomit like Q'doba is.

 

[Gunbuster]

Baja Fresh: Stand in line -> order -> pay ------> wait for Mr. Mexican mumbles to announce food is ready.

Chipotle: Stand in line -> order -> pay -> take food.

This is why Chipotle wins.

 

[HopJokey]

Baja Fresh: Stand in line -> order -> pay ------> wait for Mr. Mexican mumbles to announce food is ready.

Chipotle: Stand in line -> order -> pay -> take food.

This is why Chipotle wins.

This. It is way faster than McDs unless the line is out the door (which it usually is during lunchtime).

 

[marincounty]

I cry inside everytime I see a Mexican go to Chipotle. Bland Mex.
There are real Mexican restaurants all around here, no need to go to a fake Mexican one.
El Farolito ftw.

 

[zerocool84]

Go there and get a bowl, not a burrito - you will get more of the other ingredients this way. Also, if you are a nancy boy and insist on getting plain rice and chicken, then complain that there is too much rice and not enough [sour cream, lettuce, three salsas, veggies, cheese, guac, corn], I can't help you. I can nearly freaking everything piled on high when I go to Chipotle.

Chipotle is far from "oversalted fast food." Everything is made from scratch with high-quality ingredients. This is in particular, the reason that I will forever defend Chipotle. At least where I live, there are NO other chains making the kind of quality food that Chipotle is; the wholesomeness, made-from-scratch, boldly seasoned, partially organic fare is unmatched. The only valid complaint is possible blandness at particular bad locations when the cooks don't season and cook properly. You get this variation because everything is being made from scratch. You know how they are making the guac? By mashing ripe, whole avocados, and then adding lime juice, salt, and other basic, wholesome ingredients. Ditto for the salsas and everything else. Even at other burrito places that are a step above the frozen, processed frankenfood, they are still adding fillers and MSG and shit like soy protein to their recipes. And they certainly don't have organic beans/meat.

I'll take lower quality better tasting food than Chipotle's so called higher quality worse tasting food.

 

[JBT]

Different Chipotle's very in quality for sure. A good one owns Baja Fresh. A bad one gets owned.

 

[Midwayman]

Taco Burrito King is better than either of those, though I like Chipotle better than Baja fresh.

 

[edro]

Chipotle has great quality control, so their product is very repeatable.
It tastes the same at every location (and great imo).

I never really liked Baja Fresh.

 

[purbeast0]

I cry inside everytime I see a Mexican go to Chipotle. Bland Mex.
There are real Mexican restaurants all around here, no need to go to a fake Mexican one.
El Farolito ftw.

i cry inside everytime i see people call chipotle mexican food then try to compare mexican restaurants to it.