Chipotle Mexican Grill
February 18, 2010 by Nancy
Filed under Restaurant Reviews
Chipotle is a buffet style fast but fresh Mexican food chain. Everything they use in their restaurants is fresh and locally grown, where possible.
Their menu is simple. You start with the basis of the meal – bowl, corn tortillas, salad, or taco shells. They add a large spoonful of rice. Then you pick black or pinto beans, which are piled on. Meat is next – carnitas, shredded beef, grilled steak or chicken and then toppings such as guacamole and cheese. Chips and a variety of salsa are also available.
Everything in the restaurant is gluten free except for their flour tortillas. Their employees where gloves while preparing meals in front of you so you can oversee the possibility of cross contamination with quite a bit of confidence.
There is one near my house and when you tell them you are gluten free, they yell out “gluten free” and everyone changes their gloves, wipes the counters, halts the handling of the flour tortillas, the assembly line comes to a complete halt while they make your meal. It certainly makes you feel special and well cared for.
All the employees seem to understand and appreciate the importance of the gluten free customer, which is really rare, even at places that have a gluten free menu.
The following statement is found on their website:
“I want to avoid gluten. What can I eat at your restaurant?
Most people wanting to avoid gluten can eat anything we serve except for our wheat burrito tortillas, our soft wheat taco tortillas, and possibly our hot red tomatillo salsa (there is a small amount of distilled vinegar in it which some gluten-oriented websites still say might be problematic, although most don’t).
Everything else is fine to eat for most people wanting to avoid gluten, including our crispy corn tacos, our corn chips, and our burrito bowls (no tortilla). However, you should know that it’s possible our corn may have a small amount of gluten from potentially co-mingling with gluten-containing grains in the field.
If you are highly sensitive and would like us to change our gloves, we would be happy to do that at your request. Additionally, because our folks work with wheat tortillas all day long, there may be the possibility of cross-contact in our restaurants. We encourage you to carefully consider your dining choices.”
Thanks for letting me know about your blog. I’ve added you to my ever-growing list over at the Crispy Cook 2, where I maintain it, and I periodically republish the updated list on The Crispy Cook, my GF blog. Also, thanks for the information about Chipotle. One of these restaurants just opened near us and I would love to check it out with my celiac hubby soon.
Thanks Rachel! And I hope you like Chipotle as much as we do! They have 880 of these open right now, with more opening all the time. We have 3 or 4 in this area, and a new one going in, so they make a perfect GF fast food place for us.
They use utensils for everything except the cheese. So if you want cheese, just ask that person to change their gloves. This way, things keep moving in case there’s a long line. I’ve gone there for years with no problems. A similar place is Qdoba, which uses tongs for the cheese.
I just got diagnosed with Celiac Sprue on Friday and am fine with the diagnosis. I haven’t been suffering for years and I have the support of my friends and family. However, I have been frustrated at the thought of missing out on eating out. I am so excited to have found this site and to have found out I can eat out and still be safe. Yay! Thanks!!
I went to a Chipotle this weekend and was so put off by the cross contamination I saw happening on the line that I wouldn’t even touch my food. I’m not sure that I’d actually get really sick from a small amount of CC but I try to be really careful anyway and if I think my food might be contaminated I won’t eat it. Considering that *in theory*, a celiac should be able to eat almost everything on their menu, its quite depressing that I felt I couldn’t safely eat anything there. I am planning to write to the company to let them know how I feel and hopefully someday restaurants like these will better train their employees about allergens and CC to make it easier for people who need to avoid a certain items.
Cassie- Did you tell them you are gluten free before you ordered? As you can see from my description of what happens at the location near me, they go out of their way if you say you are gluten free. Sorry you didn’t have a good experience
I use to eat at Chipotle regularly, but stopped several months ago. I did go back twice and both times had reactions to the food later that day. I usually eat the burrito bowl, carnitas, guoc, and some other items.
I will not eat there as it gives me problems.