Chipotle
$ - inexpensive
Mexican
Sick of Taco Bell? Check out this cleaner, slightly more expensive alternative if you're fiending for a nice burrito or tacos...
Chipotle restaurants have been sprouting up across the Twin Cities everywhere you turn. Run like a Subway, you get to choose which toppings go on your burrito and which stay off. A delicious vegetarian burrito/fajita is offered that can include roasted green peppers, black beans, rice, a choice of various salsas, guacomole, and shredded lettuce (for non-vegans there is also sour cream and shredded cheese). One of these monsters is enough to fill anyone's appetite and they come down to a mere $5. Beer and fountain drinks are available, along with nachos and other appetizer type dishes.
Added by GBS on Mar 3 04 (updated Apr 30)
Reviews
I would give this place a higher rating if it weren't for the fact that they're owned by McDonald's. I like it, but I would like it more if they were their own chain, I guess. The food is pretty good, considering it's fast food. The tortilla chips have a hint of lime to them, which I liked a lot. The burritos are huge, and easily made two meals for me. We were in and out really fast, and the place was clean. I got a little nervous when the workers were passing big spoons full of meat over my open burrito, but nothing dropped, and the upshot is that I would be able to ask for a new one if meat had fallen into it, and I have no idea what happens in the kitchens in other restaraunts. I will go again.
chipotle isn't owned by mcdonalds, and although the owner did get some funding from the big mac, he's committed to the opposite sort of non-vegetarian farming than mcdonalds, (to say in the least-likely-to-upset-vegetarian sort of way as possible). in my mind, its sort of like taking some scholarship money from an oil man... to study environmental law.
but who cares, anyway? chipotle always satisfies! everything you'd think could be vegan is, except the pinto beans. and once when i bought a veggie burrito for a friend who wanted pinto beans, the woman working the cash register ran after me, outside into the cold, asked me if i was a vegetarian, and made sure i knew the pinto beans weren't vegetarian. that's commitment.
but i'm mostly writing this entry because i recently discovered that you can order tacos singly, which they don't publish on their menus. so when you're hungry, but not hungry enough for chipotle, you can still do it! some might be annoyed that this isn't advertised, but i'm just so excited that i don't have to be starving to get some tacos that i might actually faint from happiness. because chipotle is that good.