Chipotle Mexican Grill: a guide for Oklahoma City
by Tim | January 5, 2008 | 28 Comments
(votes: 16, average: 3.69) 
Loading ...Chipotle is located at 1569 S. Broadway in Edmond (map). There are many other locations around the country and hopefully there will be even more in the metro soon. For more information, you can visit their very cool website.
Confession time. I am a huge fan of Chipotle Mexican Grill and finally, yes finally, we shall have one in the Oklahoma City metro (the Edmond location opens on January 18, 2008).
Now, I know Chipotle is a chain and this site is about local Oklahoma City restaurants, but I make a very emphatic exception to my “no chain” rule when it comes to Chipotle, and for some very good reasons.
Passion. Even though Chipotle Mexican Grill is a corporation, they manage to keep passion alive all the way down to their local stores. If you study them and the emphasis they put on employee satisfaction, you will see that they do about as good a job as can be done at maintaining passion in spite of rapid expansion.
Simplicity. They only do a few things, and they do them extremely well.
Style. Chipotle puts a lot of thought into their design, which is a fusion of ancient and modern utilizing stainless steel mixed with earthy tones and modern sculptures of quasi-Incan figures.
Taste. Everything they craft is fresh and flavorful. They go out of their way to utilize ingredients like farm-raised pork and organic vegetables. They whip up loads of fresh guacamole each day. Every item on the line has a bold flavor so when you combine them, the results are always spectacular.
At the very least, Oklahoma City’s first Chipotle is worth a try. At most, you’ll end up like many others who visit at least once a week because it’s affordable, quality fast food that you just can’t find many other places.
The only complaint I have ever heard from people about Chipotle is that “it’s confusing.” I can understand this because most other restaurants spell out what you are going to get so visiting a place like Chipotle, which gives you so many options, can be overwhelming. So, to alleviate that concern, I’m going to give Oklahoma City my overview of Chipotle’s menu and my guide to landing that perfect meal.
Oklahoma City’s guide to Chipotle
- Enter the restaurant and take your place in line.
- Look up and you’ll see the menu.
- Choose a “vehicle”
- Burrito: a very large tortilla stuffed with your choice of meat, rice, beans and whatever else you want. Don’t get this. It’s too big and heavy with all of the rice and stuff. I will say that I’ve known people who do get the burrito to order half rice and half beans and that seems to make it better.
- Fajita Burrito: like a burrito, but with onions and peppers. Don’t get this.
- Burrito Bowl: all the stuff of a burrito without the tortilla. Don’t get this.
- Salad: like a salad. Don’t get this.
- Tacos: This is the one you want! But there’s a choice of soft or crispy. You don’t want crispy (the fillings don’t fit well in there). You want to get soft tacos. You get three of them in an order.
- Choose a meat (or go vegetarian if you like). The beauty of soft tacos is that you can experience three different meats in one meal, which you should do according to the list below:
- Chicken. Grilled, seasoned, and very tasty. Get one taco with chicken.
- Barbacoa (shredded beef). This stuff is amazing. You have to try it. Get one taco with barbacoa.
- Carnitas (shredded pork). Farm-raise pork that’s fresh and flavorful. Get one taco with carnitas.
- Steak. Honestly, this is the only thing at Chipotle that I just don’t think is very good. It’s never very tender. Don’t get steak.
- Vegetarian. If you choose this option instead of a meat, you’ll get rice, beans, and guacamole (guac is an extra charge otherwise). I prefer meat, but if you prefer veggies, I do condone substituting the vegetarian option for one or more of the meats (my wife always gets all three veggie tacos).
- When you get to the front of the line, the tortilla-press person will ask you what you want. You say “three soft tacos.”
- Tortilla person will then put three soft tortillas in a press, warm them up, and then hand them to the next person and they will ask “what type of meat?” You say “one chicken, one shredded beef, one pork” (or if you’re feeling fancy, use the Spanish words instead).
- Then say, “can I also get onions and peppers in those?” They will add grilled onions and peppers, which are awesome!
- Then, you’ll go on down the line and get to pick from the rest of the ingredients. Here’s what you want — corn salsa (trust me), lettuce, and cheese. That’s it! No more.
- Then you’ll get to the person at the register who will ask if you want anything else. I always get iced tea (which is great), and often I get chips and guacamole. The chips at Chipotle cost extra but they are freshly made, and the guacamole is INCREDIBLE! You have to try it.
That’s it! If you follow the simple plan above, you will get to experience the very best Chipotle has to offer. Then later, if you want, you can experiment with other combinations and choices, but they won’t be as good. Trust me, this plan is the result of many visits. It is fine-tuned to perfection.
Get ready, Oklahoma City. January 18th is a monumental date when we will forever be able to get Chipotle any time we want, so long as we are willing to drive to Edmond.
Let me know your thoughts on Chipotle Mexican Grill in the comments.
We want to hear from you!
So far, 28 people have responded to this article. Won't you join in?January 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Update: I sent a note to the folks at Chipotle with a link to this article and they were kind enough to write back. They gave me a couple new pieces of information.
First, they have recently modified the crispy taco shells to have wider openings so that they are better able to hold the fillings. Interesting. Might be worth another try for me.
Second, they indicated that our new Edmond restaurant will be serving all naturally raised meats (chicken, steak, barbacoa and carnitas).
Sounds good!
January 10th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Can’t wait. Called the phone number for the new restaurant the other day, and they said they are still on schedule to open the doors on 1-18.
Oh, I have to disagree on menu choice. Burrito Bowl, with little or no rice (while it is oh so good), to be eaten with a side of chips, dip/nacho style is the way to go.
January 11th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Fair enough, Matt. I’d love to hear everyone’s favorite Chipotle choices. Please keep them coming.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
I must respectfully disagree with opting out of the burrito. That burrito is the fattest, best tasting burrito that money can buy. I would not tell folks that the tacos are the only item they should get. I would just let the public know that all of the burrito portions are big and that the taco portions may be more suitable for those with a lighter appetite. Thanks for listening.
January 15th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
By the way, Burrito with carnitas, rice, black beans, guacamole, and cilantro for me.
January 15th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Sonny, thanks for giving us the burrito-lover’s perspective. I’m sure there are many millions out there who agree with you!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:31 am
Matt is right… Get a burrito bowl with everything that you want. Then get chips and eat it like a seven-layer dip. It’s easily enough food for two.
January 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Matt / Guy — you guys are just about to convince me to give the chip and dip option a try. Sounds good.
January 17th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
First off, I’m excited! Second off, the burrito is THE item to get. I can be swayed though. As Tim said above you guys have a very convincing argument for getting the burrito bowl. I think that OKC still needs a Chipotle to call their own.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I’m excited about their financial reviews. Double digit growth in a soft economy. Impressive. And they are Denver based. I bet they are Bronco fans. For that, I will try them out.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
I sometimes do the same thing as Matt / Guy using the chips, only with the salad. With barbacoa. I like having the lettuce in there, and they use the good stuff (not iceberg). I agree the corn salsa is good stuff.
February 13th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
We love Chipotle’s. My fav is getting one soft and one crispy shredded beef taco. Great! The guac and chips are the best ‘outside-my-home’ guac and chips I’ve tasted. I’m Spanish I know good Mexican food and this is pretty good .. love, love, Chipotle!
February 17th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Tim, we ate at Qdoba last night and it was also good. Have you ever been? It’s the same type set up as Chipotle’s. We had the Mexican gumbo, which sounds like the burrito bowl. Their website is cool in that it has a nutritional calculator - you can find out what you need to know nutrition-wise before you go.
February 18th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Sarah, I’ve been to Qdoba. It is similar in concept but I think Chipotle outperforms in two main areas.
First, I think Chipotle just gets a little bit of extra flavor into each ingredient (Qdoba is a little bland to me in comparison). Second, I think Chipotle has much better design style than Qdoba. That said, I still respect people who like Qdoba.
BTW, Qdoba is a a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jack in the Box.
March 14th, 2008 at 11:43 am
I prefer Qdoba over Chipotle. I feel that they have fresher ingredients and better salsa. Also as an aside, I believe that Chipotle’s is owned by McD’s.
March 15th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Kaye, thanks for the input on Qdoba. I know there are others out there who agree with you.
Concerning ownership, Chipotle is actually an independent, publicly traded company (ticker CMG). McDonald’s was an early investor in the company before it went public, which is where the common misconception that they own Chipotle comes from.
March 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Any word on when the stores will open up in Oklahoma City? On opening day I talked to the manager and he said that four were planned for Oklahoma City proper, and one down in Norman.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Scott, I haven’t heard any word on the time frame for more OKC stores, but I’m glad to hear they’ve got them in the plans. I’d have to imagine that once you get a single store in a city, it’s a fairly rapid path to expansion, but I’m sure they are measuring traffic and everything to determine our city’s appetite for their brand.
March 25th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
If they get a Chipotle somewhere, like downtown, I may need to buy bigger pants. I first learned of them in Maryland. Since I moved back to OK three yrs ago, I’ve eaten at Taco Bell maybe twice.
March 28th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I completely disagree about the burrito! Go for it. If you can’t eat it all in one sitting, Chipotle burritos are even better leftover the next day. I always get the pork- it’s heavenly. And I’m so so so happy to hear that they’re coming to Norman! Freebirds and Moe’s need some competition…
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
After reading this, I will try Chipotle again. My experience was at a location in Minneapolis. The only good thing about that visit was the guac. It was just about the best I’ve ever had.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Ok, I was just at Panera on NW Highway last night. I looked out the window and noticed “Chipotle Mexican Grill” written in shoe polish on the strip mall space right next door. Took a closer look and, sure enough, it really looks like they’ll be putting one in there soon.
This is pretty exciting for me as it is really, really close to my office.
August 19th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
I to fell in love with Chipotle when i lived in Maryland(mont co). And flipped when i found one in Tulsa. Last summer I stayed in Houston and i thought I died vand went to burrito heaven with a chipotle seemingly everywhere. When the one open in Edmond I was there day 2 in business, and go 2-4 times a month.
My fave is the burrito. I get it half chicken half steak with guac, beans, grilled veggies, lettuce, cheese , sour cream, the mild and hot salsa. It sounds alot and it is but *explicitive* its GOOD!!
The only other thing I order is the salad and load it like my burrito but in stead of the dressing i get a cup of the mild(tomato based sorta pico de gallo style) salsa and a bag of chips and guac and call it a taco salad.
September 21st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Last week we were in Denver - home of Chipotle - so I called Tim from the Chipotle parking lot to have him remind me of what to order. I had a pork, chicken and veggie taco with his recommendation of toppings, except that I forgot to ask for the onions and peppers. I think the onions and peppers are key as it would have added some needed moistness to the rest of the ingredients. The three tacos and a side of guac and chips were just right. OH - and they also asked me what kind of tortilla I wanted and rattled off several choices. I chose the flour tortilla with safflower. It was great.
September 21st, 2008 at 8:28 pm
@Sarah, interesting. I’ve never seen tortilla choices (other than big for burritos and small for tacos). Maybe that’s only a Denver thing. Yeah, onions and peppers are a must.
October 2nd, 2008 at 10:10 am
Anyone had any luck finding out when the one on NW Expressway is opening?
I wrote to corporate via the website and got back a plain very soon, go wait in line and you can be the first served.
Drove by the other day and it didn’t look too close to being open, so who knows. Really looking forward to not having to drive to Edmond.
October 5th, 2008 at 9:21 am
@mattjank, I haven’t heard officially either. Construction seems to me to be going a little slower than expected though the other day I noticed they were getting some stuff outside on the facade. If I had to guess, I’d say first quarter of 2009.
October 9th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
This was so useful, I wish I read this before I went. I ordered the burrito and then vegetarian. It was overfilling and what ended up happening was I ate it as if it was just rice and the vegetables I put in it. It was delicious regardless and one burrito made me incredibly full.
Please tell us what you think.