Community Corner

Chipotle Mexican Grill: Fresh and Affordable Food

Chipotle Mexican Grill is on Alps Road in Athens.

Remember when Chipotle Mexican Grill opened? There was much rejoicing in the land among the peoples, at least among those peoples who had eaten at the not-so-fast Mexican grill restaurant somewhere else. We ate at Chipotle recently, and I can understand now why customers keep returning: the food is good.

It's not great, but it's good. And on a Friday night, when a difficult week has ended, good is great.

The longer I ate on my chicken burrito bowl, the better it tasted. I think it's because the ingredients they use in the dishes seem really fresh. There was no wilted cilantro, no brown-flecked lettuce or defeated looking salsa. Everything looked as though it had just been made.

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The menu is simple: you can get a burrito, a taco, a burrito bowl (the same as a burrrito, just without the tortilla) or a salad (composed of the stuff that goes in the other dishes.) You determine what goes in your burrito or taco and a pleasant person fixes it right before your very eyes. Oh, there're no desserts.

Prices are $6 and some change for everything. You can get sides of chips and salsa, chips and guacamole. That's it. We have to make so many decisions on a daily basis. I appreciate not having millions of options.

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There's even a kid's menu. It, too, is simple: a cheese quesadilla, a meat and cheese quesadilla, one taco or a build-your-own taco. The children's dishes came with sides, so both my girls chose brown rice. Brown rice? Great.

The only thing that wasn't up to the rest of the meal, I thought, were the chips that came with my daughters' food. The girls inhaled the chips that came with their food. For 86 cents, I bought a little bag so one daughter could scoop up her guacamole. And inside the bag were chips that tasted, well, strange. (Maybe because Chipotle has stopped frying in soybean oil?) Which didn't stop the child from eating all of them, of course.

The written menu has nutritional information on it, so you can pick and choose carefully if you’re watching calories. Chipotle is the first national restaurant chain to try and eliminate GMO’s from its menu. And it also tries to buy local and organic ingredients whenever possible. It's sensitive to people with gluten intolerance and who are vegan. All those things will go over well in Athens. 


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