Thursday, February 5, 2009

Restaurant Review: Chipotle Mexican Grill

Chipotle Mexican Grill located at 301 W. Franklin St. has a variety of gluten free options. They also provide a list that indicates how to avoid any of the top eight allergens. You can view the menu here:

http://www.chipotle.com/Chipotle_Allergen_Card.pdf

Everything is gluten free except for the obvious wheat burrito tortillas and soft wheat taco tortillas.

In addition, under the FAQ section there is information on how Chipotle can help accommodate a vegan or vegetarian diet.

From their website (www.chipotle.com):

I am a vegan. What can I eat?
You should avoid our pinto beans (they are cooked with a small amount of bacon), meats (duh, I know), cheese, sour cream, and chipotle-honey vinaigrette.

I am a vegetarian. What can I eat?
You should avoid our pinto beans (they are cooked with a small amount of bacon) and our meats. Our cheese is made with a vegetable-based rennet, and our sour cream is 100% cultured cream. If your own personal vegetarian guidelines therefore allow you to eat these dairy items, then that's terrific. If not, then you should avoid them. Please note this information is different for those who choose a vegan diet.

The gluten free options include crispy tacos, salads, and bowls. To go with those three options you can pick from chicken, steak, barbacoa, rice, pinto beans, fajita veggies, black beans, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, guacamole, four types of salsa, etc. The plain tortilla chips are also gluten free.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Chipotle and ordered the crispy chicken tacos with pinto beans, rice, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream along with chips and fresh tomato salsa. I didn’t have any problems. Chipotle advises that you ask the employees to change gloves when preparing your meal to be sure that you avoid any cross-contamination.

I decided to use Chipotle’s online ordering system the first time I went so I would have all the time I needed to look at the gluten free options. Just make sure that you call the restaurant after placing your order online as indicated on the website.

I will definitely be going back to Chipotle again soon!

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Lauren,

Thanks for blogging about Chapel Hill. I wrote to Chipotle last year and this is what I got in return:

John,

I'm very glad to hear that our manager was able to help you design a meal that was safe for you to enjoy.

I can't share the ingredients list for our adobo, but I can assure you that it is gluten free as well as our chips and crispy corn tacos that are made with whole ground corn tortillas.

Here is the information we have on our website about gluten in case you haven't seen it.

"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."

Hope this helps. Let us know if you have further questions.


Sincerely,

Dawn Dillon
Mojo Mama
Chipotle


So, I usually get the burrito bowl and have the workers change gloves. Once I arrived at a shift change so the new peeps were donning their gloves when I walked up so that was nice!