Chipotle has arrived in town!


 
Monday, May 10th, 2010 saw the opening of the first Chipotle restaurant in the UK and Europe at 114-116 Charing Cross Road in London.

There is quite an incredible amount of hype around Chipotle. It has a cult following in the United States where they have opened in over 900 different locations. My experience of Chipotle has been limited to a few visits to the two restaurants in downtown San Francisco on Market and New Montgomery streets. The chains entry in to SF was a little controversial given that city's burrito heritage, however I very much enjoyed the burritos from both places.
Chipotle is now on an expansion drive in to the UK and onwards in to Europe. The first restaurant is thought likely to be followed by additional sites in London and possible new openings in Paris and somewhere in Germany. Speaking of Germany, I read on Twitter that one guy actually came over from Germany just to eat at Chipotle! There's a photo somewhere on the web of an unwrapped and uneaten Chipotle burrito in Deutschland after a flight from London. Wow!

Ok, so London has a Chipotle. Great, let's investigate...
 

On opening day I headed up to the new London Chipotle to check it out. Getting there I wasn't surprised to see that many others - mainly Americans - had the same idea. When I arrived the line was almost out of the door and getting longer! It took something like 20 minutes to reach the counter from where I could place my order. Unfortunately there were no staff around to take payment from customers in line like on weekday lunchtimes in SF.

I went for my usual favourite of chicken burrito w/ guac and the obligatory hot salsa. That together with a lemon and lime This Water came to a total of £9.85. Ouch!

Chipotle Burrito #1

So what of the burrito? Well, it was ok. I found it too small in terms of filling and it was very poorly rolled. The tortilla itself was quite nice (though others report different experiences) and taste wise it was reasonably good overall. Not anything like the Chipotle in San Francisco, but not too bad.

It was certainly no better than some of London's established places despite all the hype. Most importantly Chipotle is far too expensive. Despite doing ok on taste, the poor construction of the burrito and the meagre filling made it a pretty poor showing overall. And so I left for home rather surprised that after more than 900 openings, Chipotle still haven't worked out how to get it right on day one. With that sort of experience you'd have thought they'd have cracked it by now.
 

Based on opening day I would give my first UK Chipotle burrito a rather uninspiring score of 5/10.

But it would be unfair to judge even a place as big as Chipotle just by opening day, what with the busyness and all, so...


Back I went the following Sunday...


This time there were just 10 people in line ahead of me when I arrived. There were plenty of people about but plenty of seats too so it was much less hectic than opening day. A good sign I thought.

Upon reaching the counter I decided to deviate from chicken and order a barbacoa burrito. This with guacamole and hot salsa and as usual, black beans.

The filling was a lot more generous this time round with the staff actually washing people if they wanted a little more. I got given a huge dollop (too much!) of guacamole which almost justified the rather outrageous additional cost of £1.40. Yes, that's right... £1.40.

But then things started not to go too well. My burrito was sitting on the counter for a good few minutes whilst people were bunching up by the counter waiting to pay. What caused this exactly I'm not sure but I have seen similar reports from other web reviewers. When I eventually got to the cash register I had to hand over MORE THAN ten quid for a burrito and a soft drink! I hope that Chipotle's high prices are because it is in the West End and that any future less prominent locations will be cheaper, but I doubt it.

So off to a window seat looking across at Foyles book store on the other side of Charing Cross Road to eat my second Chipotle burrito in London.

 
Chipotle Burrito #2 

Oh dear. Although it was much better constructed than the first, the taste this time round was very bland. A burrito way below standard and by Chipotle US standards - terrible!
Where do I start? The tortilla was cold, the overall taste was bland and the whole thing was drowned in the massive amount of guac! I was genuinely disappointed with this meal. Actually the best thing about it was the Smoked Tabasco suace... it's great that they have that (also have it in their US restaurants) but I'd rather be pouring that over a tastier burrito!


So despite a promising start the end result was actually worse than on opening day. What a shame.

Taste test verdict number two... 4/10.


Hopefully this is not the end of the story. There is a tremendous amount of hype around Chipotle but that's not without any basis. They are a highly successful company that has been part of the trend for much healthier fast food. They take the well sourced, sustainable food thing seriously (as do the likes of Chilango) which is of course a great thing. Also, my experience of Chipotle in the US has been positive.

So what's wrong in London? That I do not know. Certainly price is one thing. I guess that they do have some leverage due to their brand awareness and also their very prominent West End location. That still doesn't justify a hugely inflated price for guacamole though. And if they are truly planning to replicate their American success, why no soda fountains or tap water?

But the big disappointment for me was the taste and construction. After hundreds and hundreds of store openings I would expect that these guys would be experts at getting it right - straight off. But maybe my expectations were too high... Hopefully everything will improve over time but sadly it doesn't seem that this restaurant will reach the standards of its US equivalents any time soon...

I will conclude with South Park's take on Chipotle. Still laugh at this every time I watch it...