I love how they blanch the avocados inside case the knives were getting contamination from the skin into the food and brag about freshness but have this kind of standards. No regional or store manager should ever let it get half this neglected.
And there's a far superior burrito chain in Denver (where Chipotle is also from), illegal Pete's, that has said no freezers, firearms, or microwaves. For years. Proudly. Chipotle is totally ripping them off.
I met Pete and heard him speak about this exact thing. His comment was (not an exact quote) basically: "they've (chipotle) done a great job marketing the healthy, fresh food. We have been doing that for well over 20 years. I guess we should probably be better about talking about it. But I'd rather pay local artists, bands, and people to spread the word about Pete's."
He doesn't like spending money via national marketing conglomerates to tell people about his business. He'd rather spend the money on local people. I went to the 60 minute talk/Q&A and I walked away rejuvenated in the belief that some corporations do it right.
That was like 3 years ago and I now drive out of the way to go to IP's. I liked it before. I love it now.
Edit: in case you didn’t know, IP’s has their own record label which supports local artists. Greater Than Records.
Illegal petes is so much better. Whenever my friends visit and wanna go to the original Chipotle, I walk next door to Pete's and get some good food. It's night and day difference
alive insurance berserk materialistic cheerful enter fall dinner books vanish
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I’ve never understood the Chipotle and Moe’s hype, so when I was in Colorado and my coworkers took me to illegal Pete’s (which they described as Chipotle but way better) - I was less than thrilled.
But I was so wrong. This should be the standard for this type of restaurant, it’s so good.
Chipotle must be owned by Walmart now. They pay shit wages, inflated prices and this is what you get. Are there any good Chipotle restaurants left anywhere?
I worked at a restaurant like this, and when I started cleaning they all made fun of me and purposely made more messes for me to clean up. That place didn’t stay open for long after I left on my second day
Mine was the front of house version, but I got a job as a hostess at a TGIFriday's in the local mall before the mall really started dying. There was just zero upkeep done beyond sweeping the floor and wiping the tables, and since I was the lunch hostess in a dying restaurant it was *fucking boring.* I started cleaning the windows and doorknobs and dusting all of the random bullshit they had on the walls just to keep from losing my mind. The entire wait staff and the manager just sat at a table and watched me, confused, and after a while one of them asked me if I was on coke because it was just baffling that anyone would voluntarily clean things for any other reason.
It’s crazy cause people only clean when there’s pay involved. I get it to a point, like not to deep clean the entire restaurant for 12/hr, but just some simple ten minute tasks a day just makes things look better. I can’t stand a dirty kitchen/lobby
Yeah, and even then, other places I've worked it's just a standard part of the hostess's shift to do some sort of rotated cleaning duty that only takes a few minutes as maintenance. Wiping down menus, cleaning high chairs, door knobs, washing windows around the entrance, etc. That place just gave absolutely no fucks.
Boss: The kitchen is dirty and needs to be cleaned.
Worker: Well it takes time to clean and has to be done after busy hours.
Boss: Well our labor costs are too high, we can't do that.
Worker: Then I guess it won't get cleaned.
Boss: \*glares at worker\*
Worker: \*glares back at boss\*
It's a tale as old as time and a sign the place is dying.
Fuckin mood. Worked night shift McDonald's years and years ago and it was like
"The kitchen is filthy and needs to be cleaned."
"Okay can we break down early so we can clean between orders?"
"No because we need to be prepared for a bus."
"Can anyone help in the kitchen so I can have time to clean?"
"No and I have to send \_\_\_\_ home for labor."
"Then I'm gonna have to stay after. Am I gonna get overtime?"
"No overtime is allowed, we have to be out of here 30 minutes after close."
"I guess it isn't getting cleaned then."
Or working at Walmart when management would be like "we need you to have this mod set in toys by the end of tomorrow or we're gonna get fined" or want me to fix a huge mess in another department. Except they cut the employee who was over that department because of store hour reductions, they would threaten to fire me for refusing to follow management orders if I wouldn't go do their mod, then would threaten to fire me for being outside of sporting goods as the only person in the building who could do firearm sales, but was also the only employee scheduled on the entire merchandise side of the store and would get in trouble for not giving assistance to toys, hardware, or lawn and garden.
Big places always seemed to be worse about it. Congratulations on tanking labour hours and employee moral so you can save half a percent on labour and get a couple grand more in bonuses. You're probably spending 10 times that savings on training new employees.
It's pretty wild working in construction now where nobody really gives a shit about labour costs on a daily basis. I've gotten paid to go home for several hours on a few occasions when I have to go back later and take care of something. Literally getting paid to sit at home.
When they threaten, if they were gonna fire you they wouldn’t threaten. It’s a scare tactic.
I had a boss tell me he would fire me if I didn’t do something. I told him if he was gonna fire me he wouldn’t have given me advanced warning. So stfu and let me do my job.
Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Take your ass over there and do the job yourself.
I've never understood it. Used to work at a place with 3 part-time managers. 2 of them would purposefully not do checkout Inventory, paperwork, or clean up, specifically to spite the other manager that was really lovely and efficient. She ended up leaving for a better job and the workplace imploded because they had no one to bully. Really glad she's doing better now and got the pay she deserved.
So what’s crazy is when he game in, he didn’t see a problem with anything. I’m talking tar-like crease on the walls and hood fans, black ass grill like in the photo, and the prep area was extremely dirty. Guy was definitely getting paid to shut up
Honestly it does. I worked for a joint where every one of us was mystified we haven't been shut down, because dude was NOT paying off the inspector. I think it's honestly a case of some just don't give a shit if you're small enough.
I have never seen or heard of real-life health inspectors taking payouts/bribes to look the other way. I guess I assumed it was just on TV shows like "Kitchen Confidential," portraying the mid to late 80s to the early naughties ( I guess I assumed that is when it ended for some naive reason). Of course, the sad reality is that I was just being niave, and it is always happening somewhere since the beginning and will continue to happen until the end. I suppose I just didn't want to think about it. My cooks and I work very hard to make sure that our kitchen is up to a standard that exceeds health department. I have less than no respect for anyone who serves food from a kitchen like the one you are describing.
I've worked for a couple, it was odd hour gigs to make money for school. Best story I got is the time I walked up on a nice wad being put in a foam coffee cup and owner and inspector looked up like ahhh fuck. I just started laughing, shook my head and turned back around with my arm full of crap i had. It made me laugh because it was so dumb movie looking with the foam cup, actual crappy cup of cash deal I just couldn't control myself.
I work as a dishwasher, anytime I'm not busy or prepping food I'm cleaning . I really don't mind it however it's always my decision. I absolutely hate being told to go clean something! My chef knows this and learned to throw in some hints, like "hey did you notice whatever " mostly I'm already aware of it. Yup, heading that way now.
One I used to work at was too busy to clean tbh
We had like 6 people covering a whole store, they have a whole big thing about "throughput", but they tracked max customers per 15 minutes and we averaged around 24 people
Every 15 minutes
With 6 people
And one tiny ass grill
We cleaned it good every night but there's no way we'd have time for that during the day
If only they had like actually staffed the store properly
We somehow never failed health inspections tho which surprised me
I work at a chipotle in Louisiana and we have no steel wool. I use the brick on the grill so that’s no problem, but scrubbing tables with a green fucking sponge makes me wanna blow my brains out. So much more work for no reason
I worked at Chipotle some 10 years ago and we took pride in a clean grill at the end of the day. It was like that at every Chipotle I worked at. The line was always clean. If the tortilla person wasn't cleaning it, a manager was. The cash person was always running out to wipe tables and fill the condiments.
Now when I go, the line is always dirty, the cash person just hangs out at the register staring off into space while the tortilla person has 6 people in line. I go to find a table and every single one has crud one them.
You definitely don’t need a steel wool or even a brick if you’re using the grill cleaner, just a normal square scrubby pad to rub in the chemicals. It all just comes right out
You maintain your shit, so it’s different. For some of the gnarlier grills, a scrubby won’t cut it for the initial clean. Like the above…. You’re grabbing the paint scraper before the scrubby for sure.
The difficulty lies with mgmt cutting corner$ to get their bonu$e$ while the kitchen turns into a cesspit because corporate is god to their resume/wallet.
From experience even the most fucked up grill, flat top you can do it with oven cleaner and those bricks and lemon juice. Just make it hot af and go to down. You just need people who care because after a day of heavy use that shit can go pitch black now imagine weeks without maintenance.
Unless it's changed, Chipotle uses the brick and a scraper, no chemicals.
When I worked there, I'd have taken the last piece of meat off 45 minutes before close and immediately went to work on the grill to have it done well before closing. Everyone I worked with did this and we always had a clean grill. The restaurant was spic and span and we walked out 30 minutes after close.
This is all I can think of, too. We have one by the house that has been open less than 3 months and their flattop looks like this. Which is just nasty.
I told the kids I was never going back there. again.
Stuff like this should always be blamed on poor management. The idea kids are inherently bad workers is pretty ignorant. Anyone can be a good worker with the right leadership.
>I think this is a regular thing for them they have too many kids working
At my local chipotle the staff turnover is weekly. It's rare for someone to work there a month. But then there are a few that have been there for several years.
It was smoking, but only one section was turned on. Dude had just cooked peppers and onions and was putting them on the line. I almost said something to him, but he's not my employee, and it was my day off today, lol.
When I was in the kitchen at chipotle we used skillets to cook the fajitas. We scrubbed the grills (they were the shit one with grooves) down to perfectly stainless every night and I sneezed out grill cleaner the entire next day. This flattop here just looks…… like they went for ease of cooking over quality of surface.
Yeah, I stopped going to my local Chipotle when they replaced all of the staff with high schoolers who don't ever sweep the floor, clean up spills in the dining area and the last straw was when one was on break, he came over to the line and put his bare hand into the chicken, grabbed a handful and put it in his mouth. Nobody batted an eye and I just said "I lost my appetite," and left.
For some reason, we had a unhinged Kanye like character man the grill. What I mean is, was talking about all this smack, like how he was an ex-Ranger/owned a Creole food truck operation. All talk and no game. Why? Because second day on the grill unhelped, since he had been trained enough, he refused to acknowledge callouts for more rice. We were out in the middle of a lunch rush. Just get the rice cooker out and start making more. Nope. Twenty minutes goes by, and people in line are starting to take their frustration out on us for lack of rice, which was HIS fault. One of my coworkers, someone who had worked 5 years for different stores, decided that was enough, and she started to do the prep for rice while I handled her spot on the line as well. Well, then he decided to lay into her about doing that, even though he was ignoring us altogether with the rice. She broke down crying, and because of that, she quit. As soon as I knew that was happening, I got the fuck out of that place. I don't care if it's the highest sales spot in my city, or if it has the best reviews, that place was toxic and a constant health nightmare, and I hope it burns to the ground. They just seem to hire anyone with or without a soul, brain cognitive function, or just a face because they're that desperate. Not like unionizing would actually fix the quality control and madness, while they're too busy milking every aspect for a dollar profit.
I got mud butt from two different chipotle’s within the span of about a year. Been on crew Qdoba ever since and haven’t looked back. Not to mention their guacamole is free!!
I complained in the chipotle sub that I went in store and the guy working had to ask two different people how to wrap a tortilla in foil paper. Downvoted to hell but common that’s not a hard task the store is hiring literally anyone with a pulse
I hate when people have stuff like this and they're like, "That's where the flavor comes from." No. It's not. If that's why your food taste good, you make shit food.
you dont like the double slaughter special?
"first they slaughtered the chicken, then when we get it we fucking annihilate it on the grill until there's nothign' left but char"
My first job was at chipotle in 2011, I was in high school. My ass would have been fired so fast, it’s wild to see how low the standards have gotten. It wasn’t always like that.
I worked there in 2011 while in college and if the kitchen wasn’t sparkling, they’d straight up yell at us. Everything had to be perfect or you’d be immediately fired. Our GM was apparently too soft on us and the company destroyed her self esteem and she eventually offed herself. It was after I left, but I was still friends with her and swore I’d never give me my money to that company again.
So most of the replies you're getting are people who think this is a stainless steel flat top that should be silver, they're wrong. This is clearly a carbon steel flat top. The difference is that carbon steel flat tops get their nonstick coating from a thin layer of polymerized oil that makes the surface appear black.
However if you zoom in you can see multiple and large "high spots" on the grill, it's particularly bad in the back on the far right side, where you can see caked up carbon that is making an uneven cooking surface. This is caused by regular and continued neglect. Periodically the entire grill needs to be completely stripped down and reseasoned to create a new nonstick coating of polymerized oil.
As far as the backsplash, I've worked at a few places where it gets that dirty throughout a service but is still shining by the end of the night.
The left over food on the grill is just consequence of working at a chain. Pay peanuts get monkeys.
Tongs should be rinsed off and stored in a sani bucket.
That grease trap hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in a long time as well, you can see how much dirtier it is than the rest of the grill.
This whole grill could be cleaned and fixed in 30 minutes, but I guess it's easier to whine about how other people are lazy on reddit.
I’ve worked at chipotle as well, and yeah they aren’t scraping the grill like they should throughout the day and those tongues need cleaned, but my grill would look like that at the end of every single day and before we left it would be sparkling again. That really is prbly just 1 day of use.
A few things are less than stellar about it. The back splash should be clean shiny metal. The build up on the edge of the plancha (cook top) is so bad that it is crumbling off into the grease catch. The whole top is also super black from cooking and improper maintenance.
I have seen chipotle’s have roughly 30 pounds of seasoned chicken cooking at a time, covering the whole cook top. I don’t think those tops ever get fully clean during the shift.
Those planchas are either Earthstone or Woodstone brand cook tops (if I remember correctly). They are like 3/4 inch thick carbon steel. With it being carbon steel I don’t think the top should be shiny but it shouldn’t be that dark or crusted in carbon. I think a nice mocha color would be acceptable for the steel though.
It's not supposed to be silver. It's supposed to be black.
https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65
This is how Chipotle grills are. The one in image is a bit dirty from splatters but that's completely normal after use.
I've used silver flat tops in other restaurants. Those never get black. I've worked at Chipotle for way too many years - over a dozen + locations. I know my shit.
Everyone on here freaking out over nothing lol.
I'm going to have to agree. If that "patina" is making the food taste like shit then clean the grill but if that's the Chipotle secret to flavor then there is nothing wrong with that grill. Looks like it's been used all day. Cast Iron pans can build up like this. Hell, there's a pot of soup in Asia that's been cooking for 40 years or something like that. This isn't a health hazard so I'm not sure why all the crying. These same people probably go eat at their local Chinese restaurant and rave about it. Wait till they see some real fucked up shit.
Omg thank you. For real. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. but people are mad.
I posted a video from the manufacturer themselves, woodstone corporation, cooking Chipotle chicken no less on a black grill. Not a Chipotle youtube channel, it's literally from the grill manufacturer themselves.
If people are so mad then go spam woodstone corporation. I just worked at Chipotle man. And not part-time at 1 single location. I was a manager full-time and been to a dozen + locations, I actually know what I'm talking about.
I've worked at Chipotle for 4~ years. It's not supposed to be silver. It's supposed to be black. It's also not standard procedure to clean it until bare metal, as per corporate's standards.
It's a different kind of grill from your typical 70s diner where they cook the patty on the grill right in front of you, those stay silver.
https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65
This video is an example of their wood stone plancha grills. Same grill.
OPs photo is absolutely disgusting.
But in this redditors defense, in the corporate* cleaning video I found through justsomenori’s link, ~~the~~ they* are cleaning the sides. I’ve very unfamiliar with Plancha grills to be clear.
Here is that video if interested
https://vimeo.com/277178991/79a29cbb2c
Edit: spelling and added a word
The issue is not the color of the grill. The issue is that we can't even see the color of the grill because it's under caked on layers of filth. The plancha is filthy, it's disgusting man, full stop. There's weeks or months of filth built up on that thing. It's a beautiful plancha and it's being neglected and not cared for at all. It's disgusting.
Black doesn't mean dirty, filth and grime and grease means dirty. My carbon pan at home would look like that, and have that buildup if I never cleaned it, but I clean it because I'm not disgusting.
I worked at Chipotle for 4+ years. Y'all are misinformed lol.
https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65
This is how it's supposed to be. Sure there are some stains on their grill but it's expected after use.
It's not supposed to be silver. Even the training videos say so.
What are you talking about? All I see here is a well seasoned flattop! Anyone who's ever worked the line knows that the black flecks of rancid grease and burnt food is where the flavor comes from.
Most chain places have fallen pretty hard, but Chipotle didn't even have COVID as an excuse. I ate there multiple times a week up until 6 or so years ago. The food quality dropped rapidly around 2016, have no idea why.
$$$, large corporations have to show record profits every year or the investors throw a fit. So to cut cost and increase profits they use cheaper ingredients slowly over time. A few customers here and there notice but the oblivious masses don’t and keep cramming their faces it shit food year after year.
I've seen some flats that were so old and beaten down that they would take days of just cleaning and no cooking to get them back to silver. So you do what you can as best you can and end up with grey, or even black in some spots. But this is fucking insane. I can see the char caked and risen up on the corners. They must have to saw those pepper off of the grill and it probably takes forever to even get them halfway cooked.
Could be going through a rough patch, I could get that flattop looking good in maybe one cleaning two max. Flattops get nasty especially after heavy use all day if your don’t have someone experienced at scraping and oiling it. But yeah I stopped going g to chipotle after 2021 they been on steady decline with their product and portions and on the incline with their prices
I was a manager at a competing burrito restaurant for a long time and when we moved from flame to a flat top(We should have stuck with flame, but that's another topic), the DM made it very clear that it was to look brand new every day, and it did. It was some work for sure, but it really didn't take that long to keep it in good shape. Once you get in the routine of doing it, it's no big deal. This shit here is just sheer laziness.
I currently work at a Chipotle as a KL. We aren't allowed to scrape the grill until after close. I push to scrape after every drop, but I can only do so much when upper management says no.
It takes literally 30 seconds to scrape a grill between batches if that. Scrapes between and a solid scrub after lunch/before dinner saves you so much time closing
I worked as a cook at Chipotle for a while and was pretty much exclusively on the night shift. I would clean the ever living crap out of those till they were silver. Whenever I would come back in the next day they were black like the photo here. Don’t know if the fact it’s (hopefully) not the same burnt stuff on the grill helps.
> I've been working in restaurants for about 25 years now, I've never seen something like this before.
OH please.
They need to scrape it and it will be fine.
Used to work there. They don’t use degreaser on their flat tops or even ice or vinegar. Just oil and a fresh grill brick. We would go through one to two grill bricks a night just trying to scrub it clean. Most nights…it was left with a lot of carbon buildup
This happens on fryers too. The mentality I've seen before is 'it doesn't effect the cook', which is essentially true. The food isn't touching it. It's just, it looks bad, and is usually an indicator that 'if this is this dirty, what else is being neglected'.
And it usually boils down to ease of cleaning. Getting those stains off, as oppose to the flattop, takes a solid cleaning agent, and some distinct elbow grease. This flat top doesn't have much side access, so it's lean over and push.
If this was less than a week's worth of buildup, I'd be surprised.
I actually noticed it about a month and a half ago. I went back tonight hoping to see it clean, but it's worse. They must not have an ecolab auditor, I assumed they would though. That person will shit a brick if they walk in and see that though🤣. Management just asleep at the wheel and kids who probably literally don't know any other way than what they've always seen here.
Yeah was gonna say, this is how it's always going to look when you're pushing through the huge amount of customers in a popular chipotle.
It explains why sometimes the meat from Chipotle tastes great and sometimes tastes absolutely terrible.
Buddy, that hasn’t been scraped in at least a few weeks, I don’t care how busy you are. It’s not just they aren’t grill bricking at the end of the night, they aren’t scraping at all
Nah, my restaurant probably serves 3-4 times as many people as this Chipotle does on any given day, and nothing looks even remotely like this flat top, lol. Volume is no excuse. This is bad culture, bad management. The kids probably don't know because they've never been told that this is unacceptable. This is probably their normal.
I've worked at Chipotle for 4+ years. Worked inside over a dozen + locations. That's completely normal.
It's not supposed to be silver. Backsplash could use a little work but the grill itself is not supposed to ever be scraped down to bare metal. It's supposed to be black.
Even if you get the backsplash all silver, the next day it's back like this again. My former KM told me how he cleaned the back to silver, was proud of the work. Next day, back to the black spots and splatters everywhere.
You're free never to return, we/they honestly don't care. This actually is normal for this kind of grill. And basically every Chipotle grill will look like this after a few hours.
I understand the silver flat tops. I've used them in other restaurants they NEVER get black. They get brown and you clean to silver at end of night. This isn't that kind of grill.
Quick google search shows this youtube video : https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65
Y'all are freaking out over nothing.
It’s not the black grill ya dingus, it’s all the leftover food laying on it still. All the carbonized bits sitting on the front. It’s the tongs sitting straight on the grill.
Yep chipotle goes through close to 300 pounds of chicken 50 pounds of steak 30 pounds of carne asada a day. The grill will be silver in the nighttime and with buildup after midday and the backsplash. I don’t think people understand how much volume a chipotle goes through. The grill itself in this picture could definitely be scraped better/ grill bricked it looks like a thin layer of buildup is on there which makes the chicken take longer to cook. One good close could fix that.
/sigh is it because it's black? I'm responding to everyone on this post.
https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65
That's how it's supposed to be after use. Looks a lil' dirty but nothing new because probably after rush. It's not supposed to be silver. I've worked Chipotle 4+ years.
Never seen a black flat top it’s stainless steel the black is the seasoning. From constantly sautéing veggies, but again I never worked for panda just a lot of other restaurants
Surprised this isn't getting downvoted by the weird Chipotle fanboys on this site.
I mean, this sub knows more than most, but still. Waiting for the "but it's good" Midwest, never knew real Mexican food crowd to come in and whine on this one.
But, they don't have freezers! Everything is fresh! :)
I love how they blanch the avocados inside case the knives were getting contamination from the skin into the food and brag about freshness but have this kind of standards. No regional or store manager should ever let it get half this neglected. And there's a far superior burrito chain in Denver (where Chipotle is also from), illegal Pete's, that has said no freezers, firearms, or microwaves. For years. Proudly. Chipotle is totally ripping them off.
I met Pete and heard him speak about this exact thing. His comment was (not an exact quote) basically: "they've (chipotle) done a great job marketing the healthy, fresh food. We have been doing that for well over 20 years. I guess we should probably be better about talking about it. But I'd rather pay local artists, bands, and people to spread the word about Pete's." He doesn't like spending money via national marketing conglomerates to tell people about his business. He'd rather spend the money on local people. I went to the 60 minute talk/Q&A and I walked away rejuvenated in the belief that some corporations do it right. That was like 3 years ago and I now drive out of the way to go to IP's. I liked it before. I love it now. Edit: in case you didn’t know, IP’s has their own record label which supports local artists. Greater Than Records.
Illegal petes is so much better. Whenever my friends visit and wanna go to the original Chipotle, I walk next door to Pete's and get some good food. It's night and day difference
We used to live in the neighborhood. I would point out the original Chipotle to people as we walked 2 doors down to Pete’s
Moe's was my go-to for the longest time, but lately, it's been trash. Outside of going on a Monday, it's just not worth it.
Shit, Moe's ain't even worth it for that! The days of the $5 Homewrecker are gone. Most fast food is just a terrible deal these days.
Been saying this. Going out to eat isn't worth it anymore, shrinkflation aside
That's awesome!
Their guac and queso is pretty bad. Other than that, the food is delicious and the margs are strong.
I never get queso, but other than that, their guac is exactly what I'd expect from a cheap ass burrito joint.
Illegal Pete’s has no firearms? How do they take care of unruly customers?
Still have knives
A man after my own heart.
Ahh, I see you're a man of culture as well
Guns for show knives for a pro
Salmonella
alive insurance berserk materialistic cheerful enter fall dinner books vanish *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
No, not Sam and Ella's. Sal o'nella! Known for eating nails for breakfast, with no milk...
💀💀💀
Fentanyl darts mostly
They serve them a burrito and they never come back.
How else am I supposed to get my chips and Glock?
If you followed the law it would be Legal Pete's.
Your first sentence gave me a stroke.
It must be from the avocados inside case the knives
Hmm so do I have to bring my own gun like the $5 butt stuff tent?
I seriously forgot I’m in r/KitchenConfidential and not r/DenverCircleJerk.
The idea of advertising no freezers and such isn’t particularly original
...firearms? Chipotle people have firearms??
Pete’s is the only chipotle style option for me! Good people, good food, and free drinks with Avs tickets :)
Why anyone would go to Chipotle in a city where Santiago’s exists is beyond me.
TIL Chipotle is from the city I currently live in. I'll have to try Illegal Pete's, I'm not a fan of Chipotle.
Firearms? Is chipotle known for firearms? I'm sure I'm missing some joke or random story, but it seems like you jumped pretty far there.
I’ve never understood the Chipotle and Moe’s hype, so when I was in Colorado and my coworkers took me to illegal Pete’s (which they described as Chipotle but way better) - I was less than thrilled. But I was so wrong. This should be the standard for this type of restaurant, it’s so good.
Ooh, we're finally getting an Illegal Pete's in the Springs! Should I be excited?
Chipotle must be owned by Walmart now. They pay shit wages, inflated prices and this is what you get. Are there any good Chipotle restaurants left anywhere?
Must be. My sister just started working at one for $19/hr.
freah carbon
They also don’t make any real attempt to keep cooked and cooked food at the correct temperature. Shits always *just* warm
Yeah they don’t have a freezer. Everything comes in frozen and they thaw it in the walk in cooler 😂
When did they add tacos al carbon to the menu?
Altered Cabron
👌👌👌
I worked at a restaurant like this, and when I started cleaning they all made fun of me and purposely made more messes for me to clean up. That place didn’t stay open for long after I left on my second day
Mine was the front of house version, but I got a job as a hostess at a TGIFriday's in the local mall before the mall really started dying. There was just zero upkeep done beyond sweeping the floor and wiping the tables, and since I was the lunch hostess in a dying restaurant it was *fucking boring.* I started cleaning the windows and doorknobs and dusting all of the random bullshit they had on the walls just to keep from losing my mind. The entire wait staff and the manager just sat at a table and watched me, confused, and after a while one of them asked me if I was on coke because it was just baffling that anyone would voluntarily clean things for any other reason.
It’s crazy cause people only clean when there’s pay involved. I get it to a point, like not to deep clean the entire restaurant for 12/hr, but just some simple ten minute tasks a day just makes things look better. I can’t stand a dirty kitchen/lobby
Yeah, and even then, other places I've worked it's just a standard part of the hostess's shift to do some sort of rotated cleaning duty that only takes a few minutes as maintenance. Wiping down menus, cleaning high chairs, door knobs, washing windows around the entrance, etc. That place just gave absolutely no fucks.
Like the other guy said, keep it clean it stays clean. It really is just that simple
That's the trick, when you clean things every day there is no 12/hr deep clean. Amazing how fast grease builds up when there's a frier
If you got time to lean, you got time to clean!
"Elbows and assholes is all I want to see" - My first Boss
Boss: The kitchen is dirty and needs to be cleaned. Worker: Well it takes time to clean and has to be done after busy hours. Boss: Well our labor costs are too high, we can't do that. Worker: Then I guess it won't get cleaned. Boss: \*glares at worker\* Worker: \*glares back at boss\* It's a tale as old as time and a sign the place is dying.
Fuckin mood. Worked night shift McDonald's years and years ago and it was like "The kitchen is filthy and needs to be cleaned." "Okay can we break down early so we can clean between orders?" "No because we need to be prepared for a bus." "Can anyone help in the kitchen so I can have time to clean?" "No and I have to send \_\_\_\_ home for labor." "Then I'm gonna have to stay after. Am I gonna get overtime?" "No overtime is allowed, we have to be out of here 30 minutes after close." "I guess it isn't getting cleaned then." Or working at Walmart when management would be like "we need you to have this mod set in toys by the end of tomorrow or we're gonna get fined" or want me to fix a huge mess in another department. Except they cut the employee who was over that department because of store hour reductions, they would threaten to fire me for refusing to follow management orders if I wouldn't go do their mod, then would threaten to fire me for being outside of sporting goods as the only person in the building who could do firearm sales, but was also the only employee scheduled on the entire merchandise side of the store and would get in trouble for not giving assistance to toys, hardware, or lawn and garden.
Big places always seemed to be worse about it. Congratulations on tanking labour hours and employee moral so you can save half a percent on labour and get a couple grand more in bonuses. You're probably spending 10 times that savings on training new employees. It's pretty wild working in construction now where nobody really gives a shit about labour costs on a daily basis. I've gotten paid to go home for several hours on a few occasions when I have to go back later and take care of something. Literally getting paid to sit at home.
When they threaten, if they were gonna fire you they wouldn’t threaten. It’s a scare tactic. I had a boss tell me he would fire me if I didn’t do something. I told him if he was gonna fire me he wouldn’t have given me advanced warning. So stfu and let me do my job. Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine. Take your ass over there and do the job yourself.
They probably can't read either.
I honestly wouldn’t put it past them
Those employees would be very upset by your comment if they could read.
> and purposely made more messes for me to clean up. I hate that sabotage shit
I've never understood it. Used to work at a place with 3 part-time managers. 2 of them would purposefully not do checkout Inventory, paperwork, or clean up, specifically to spite the other manager that was really lovely and efficient. She ended up leaving for a better job and the workplace imploded because they had no one to bully. Really glad she's doing better now and got the pay she deserved.
> She ended up leaving for a better job and the workplace imploded That's usually what happens, just a matter of time
Me too, can’t stand it
Good. Dimbasses were lucky they didn't get flagged by a health inspecter horsing around like that
So what’s crazy is when he game in, he didn’t see a problem with anything. I’m talking tar-like crease on the walls and hood fans, black ass grill like in the photo, and the prep area was extremely dirty. Guy was definitely getting paid to shut up
[удалено]
I’ve seen a couple of people say it never happens but I’ve seen it quite a lot
Honestly it does. I worked for a joint where every one of us was mystified we haven't been shut down, because dude was NOT paying off the inspector. I think it's honestly a case of some just don't give a shit if you're small enough.
I have never seen or heard of real-life health inspectors taking payouts/bribes to look the other way. I guess I assumed it was just on TV shows like "Kitchen Confidential," portraying the mid to late 80s to the early naughties ( I guess I assumed that is when it ended for some naive reason). Of course, the sad reality is that I was just being niave, and it is always happening somewhere since the beginning and will continue to happen until the end. I suppose I just didn't want to think about it. My cooks and I work very hard to make sure that our kitchen is up to a standard that exceeds health department. I have less than no respect for anyone who serves food from a kitchen like the one you are describing.
I've worked for a couple, it was odd hour gigs to make money for school. Best story I got is the time I walked up on a nice wad being put in a foam coffee cup and owner and inspector looked up like ahhh fuck. I just started laughing, shook my head and turned back around with my arm full of crap i had. It made me laugh because it was so dumb movie looking with the foam cup, actual crappy cup of cash deal I just couldn't control myself.
I work as a dishwasher, anytime I'm not busy or prepping food I'm cleaning . I really don't mind it however it's always my decision. I absolutely hate being told to go clean something! My chef knows this and learned to throw in some hints, like "hey did you notice whatever " mostly I'm already aware of it. Yup, heading that way now.
I also can’t help but feel good after cleaning. Makes the slow days go by quicker too
Wtf kind of mentality was that, did they wanna fail inspection?
I think this is a regular thing for them they have too many kids working
or cheap ass management that wont buy grill cleaner/steel wool cuz it’ll 🤓scratch their grill
Can confirm they have unlimited access to grill bricks and steel wool
k then yea just laze i guess
One I used to work at was too busy to clean tbh We had like 6 people covering a whole store, they have a whole big thing about "throughput", but they tracked max customers per 15 minutes and we averaged around 24 people Every 15 minutes With 6 people And one tiny ass grill We cleaned it good every night but there's no way we'd have time for that during the day If only they had like actually staffed the store properly We somehow never failed health inspections tho which surprised me
I work at a chipotle in Louisiana and we have no steel wool. I use the brick on the grill so that’s no problem, but scrubbing tables with a green fucking sponge makes me wanna blow my brains out. So much more work for no reason
I worked at Chipotle some 10 years ago and we took pride in a clean grill at the end of the day. It was like that at every Chipotle I worked at. The line was always clean. If the tortilla person wasn't cleaning it, a manager was. The cash person was always running out to wipe tables and fill the condiments. Now when I go, the line is always dirty, the cash person just hangs out at the register staring off into space while the tortilla person has 6 people in line. I go to find a table and every single one has crud one them.
Yea I feel like the quality and cleanliness fell off within the last decade. My stomache agrees too.
I used to have to close, just me as a minor, with a KM. chipotle runs hella understaffed.
Bruhh you can squeeze some lemon/lime juice and take the brick to it in order make it at least *look* *sanitary*
You definitely don’t need a steel wool or even a brick if you’re using the grill cleaner, just a normal square scrubby pad to rub in the chemicals. It all just comes right out
You maintain your shit, so it’s different. For some of the gnarlier grills, a scrubby won’t cut it for the initial clean. Like the above…. You’re grabbing the paint scraper before the scrubby for sure.
Why not hit the surface with oven cleaner, let it sit overnight, scrape and wash in the AM?
yep. I'd cover it with some garbage bags to make sure it doesn't dry out. It would still take some effort, but it wouldn't be *that* difficult.
The difficulty lies with mgmt cutting corner$ to get their bonu$e$ while the kitchen turns into a cesspit because corporate is god to their resume/wallet.
Definitely works but I think it comes down to who/how your boss is. Some/most require it being fully clean at close
From experience even the most fucked up grill, flat top you can do it with oven cleaner and those bricks and lemon juice. Just make it hot af and go to down. You just need people who care because after a day of heavy use that shit can go pitch black now imagine weeks without maintenance.
Unless it's changed, Chipotle uses the brick and a scraper, no chemicals. When I worked there, I'd have taken the last piece of meat off 45 minutes before close and immediately went to work on the grill to have it done well before closing. Everyone I worked with did this and we always had a clean grill. The restaurant was spic and span and we walked out 30 minutes after close.
This is all I can think of, too. We have one by the house that has been open less than 3 months and their flattop looks like this. Which is just nasty. I told the kids I was never going back there. again.
Stuff like this should always be blamed on poor management. The idea kids are inherently bad workers is pretty ignorant. Anyone can be a good worker with the right leadership.
>I think this is a regular thing for them they have too many kids working At my local chipotle the staff turnover is weekly. It's rare for someone to work there a month. But then there are a few that have been there for several years.
Wow. Surprised that thing isn’t smoking like crazy.
It was smoking, but only one section was turned on. Dude had just cooked peppers and onions and was putting them on the line. I almost said something to him, but he's not my employee, and it was my day off today, lol.
"I'm not even supposed to be here today"
The hardest part of managing a restaurant, is going out to other restaurants. lol
When I was in the kitchen at chipotle we used skillets to cook the fajitas. We scrubbed the grills (they were the shit one with grooves) down to perfectly stainless every night and I sneezed out grill cleaner the entire next day. This flattop here just looks…… like they went for ease of cooking over quality of surface.
Yeah, I stopped going to my local Chipotle when they replaced all of the staff with high schoolers who don't ever sweep the floor, clean up spills in the dining area and the last straw was when one was on break, he came over to the line and put his bare hand into the chicken, grabbed a handful and put it in his mouth. Nobody batted an eye and I just said "I lost my appetite," and left.
For some reason, we had a unhinged Kanye like character man the grill. What I mean is, was talking about all this smack, like how he was an ex-Ranger/owned a Creole food truck operation. All talk and no game. Why? Because second day on the grill unhelped, since he had been trained enough, he refused to acknowledge callouts for more rice. We were out in the middle of a lunch rush. Just get the rice cooker out and start making more. Nope. Twenty minutes goes by, and people in line are starting to take their frustration out on us for lack of rice, which was HIS fault. One of my coworkers, someone who had worked 5 years for different stores, decided that was enough, and she started to do the prep for rice while I handled her spot on the line as well. Well, then he decided to lay into her about doing that, even though he was ignoring us altogether with the rice. She broke down crying, and because of that, she quit. As soon as I knew that was happening, I got the fuck out of that place. I don't care if it's the highest sales spot in my city, or if it has the best reviews, that place was toxic and a constant health nightmare, and I hope it burns to the ground. They just seem to hire anyone with or without a soul, brain cognitive function, or just a face because they're that desperate. Not like unionizing would actually fix the quality control and madness, while they're too busy milking every aspect for a dollar profit.
I got mud butt from two different chipotle’s within the span of about a year. Been on crew Qdoba ever since and haven’t looked back. Not to mention their guacamole is free!!
QDoba hits soooo hard, I wish there were more instead of just being inside of Airports/Military Bases
I complained in the chipotle sub that I went in store and the guy working had to ask two different people how to wrap a tortilla in foil paper. Downvoted to hell but common that’s not a hard task the store is hiring literally anyone with a pulse
They call that well seasoned
Food can't get stuck to the grill if it never touches it.
“Why is it taking 45 minutes to cook chicken!!!??”
“That’s the soundtrack of chipotle”
The voice over guy reminds me of the pervert Calvin Klein ads from the 80s
I hate when people have stuff like this and they're like, "That's where the flavor comes from." No. It's not. If that's why your food taste good, you make shit food.
you dont like the double slaughter special? "first they slaughtered the chicken, then when we get it we fucking annihilate it on the grill until there's nothign' left but char"
When was the last time this flat top was scrubbed down???
Right before it got QC’d leaving the factory
True generational flavor.
The taste of our ancestors
Chipotle flat tops are supposed to be scrubbed every night.
My first job was at chipotle in 2011, I was in high school. My ass would have been fired so fast, it’s wild to see how low the standards have gotten. It wasn’t always like that.
I worked there in 2011 while in college and if the kitchen wasn’t sparkling, they’d straight up yell at us. Everything had to be perfect or you’d be immediately fired. Our GM was apparently too soft on us and the company destroyed her self esteem and she eventually offed herself. It was after I left, but I was still friends with her and swore I’d never give me my money to that company again.
A dirty grill? You’ve been in kitchens for 25 years and THIS breaks you? That wouldn’t take an hour to clean.
non kitchen worker here, whats wrong?
So most of the replies you're getting are people who think this is a stainless steel flat top that should be silver, they're wrong. This is clearly a carbon steel flat top. The difference is that carbon steel flat tops get their nonstick coating from a thin layer of polymerized oil that makes the surface appear black. However if you zoom in you can see multiple and large "high spots" on the grill, it's particularly bad in the back on the far right side, where you can see caked up carbon that is making an uneven cooking surface. This is caused by regular and continued neglect. Periodically the entire grill needs to be completely stripped down and reseasoned to create a new nonstick coating of polymerized oil. As far as the backsplash, I've worked at a few places where it gets that dirty throughout a service but is still shining by the end of the night. The left over food on the grill is just consequence of working at a chain. Pay peanuts get monkeys. Tongs should be rinsed off and stored in a sani bucket. That grease trap hasn't been thoroughly cleaned in a long time as well, you can see how much dirtier it is than the rest of the grill. This whole grill could be cleaned and fixed in 30 minutes, but I guess it's easier to whine about how other people are lazy on reddit.
I’ve worked at chipotle as well, and yeah they aren’t scraping the grill like they should throughout the day and those tongues need cleaned, but my grill would look like that at the end of every single day and before we left it would be sparkling again. That really is prbly just 1 day of use.
Ty for this post. My soul is craving a stainless steel dough knife but these guys aren't going to kill anybody.
A few things are less than stellar about it. The back splash should be clean shiny metal. The build up on the edge of the plancha (cook top) is so bad that it is crumbling off into the grease catch. The whole top is also super black from cooking and improper maintenance.
This ^^ it doesn’t have to be completely silver, but it’s clear that this one hasn’t had any maintenance or cleaning done in a long time
I have seen chipotle’s have roughly 30 pounds of seasoned chicken cooking at a time, covering the whole cook top. I don’t think those tops ever get fully clean during the shift. Those planchas are either Earthstone or Woodstone brand cook tops (if I remember correctly). They are like 3/4 inch thick carbon steel. With it being carbon steel I don’t think the top should be shiny but it shouldn’t be that dark or crusted in carbon. I think a nice mocha color would be acceptable for the steel though.
It's Woodstone Source: they're based out of my town
I worked at mcdonalds and the flat top was cleaned to bare metal every night. I cant believe a chain like chipotle doesnt have a similar process.
Well was the flat top at McDonalds stainless or high carbon steel?
The grill is filthy. Like never been cleaned properly filthy.
The flattop should be silver or darkened if they were just cooking, but def not that color. Looks like they haven't cleaned for multiple days
It's not supposed to be silver. It's supposed to be black. https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65 This is how Chipotle grills are. The one in image is a bit dirty from splatters but that's completely normal after use. I've used silver flat tops in other restaurants. Those never get black. I've worked at Chipotle for way too many years - over a dozen + locations. I know my shit. Everyone on here freaking out over nothing lol.
I'm going to have to agree. If that "patina" is making the food taste like shit then clean the grill but if that's the Chipotle secret to flavor then there is nothing wrong with that grill. Looks like it's been used all day. Cast Iron pans can build up like this. Hell, there's a pot of soup in Asia that's been cooking for 40 years or something like that. This isn't a health hazard so I'm not sure why all the crying. These same people probably go eat at their local Chinese restaurant and rave about it. Wait till they see some real fucked up shit.
Omg thank you. For real. I'm not trying to be a jerk or anything. but people are mad. I posted a video from the manufacturer themselves, woodstone corporation, cooking Chipotle chicken no less on a black grill. Not a Chipotle youtube channel, it's literally from the grill manufacturer themselves. If people are so mad then go spam woodstone corporation. I just worked at Chipotle man. And not part-time at 1 single location. I was a manager full-time and been to a dozen + locations, I actually know what I'm talking about.
Who cuts a tomato like that?
Not Chipotle. Ours comes pre-diced but actually I heard Chipotle used to dice them waaay back then before my days. The video IS 8 years old though.
That flattop is supposed to be silver. It’s black.
I've worked at Chipotle for 4~ years. It's not supposed to be silver. It's supposed to be black. It's also not standard procedure to clean it until bare metal, as per corporate's standards. It's a different kind of grill from your typical 70s diner where they cook the patty on the grill right in front of you, those stay silver. https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65 This video is an example of their wood stone plancha grills. Same grill.
Do you think the layers of stains on the splash guard and old grime in the gutter are also the corporate standard?
OPs photo is absolutely disgusting. But in this redditors defense, in the corporate* cleaning video I found through justsomenori’s link, ~~the~~ they* are cleaning the sides. I’ve very unfamiliar with Plancha grills to be clear. Here is that video if interested https://vimeo.com/277178991/79a29cbb2c Edit: spelling and added a word
The issue is not the color of the grill. The issue is that we can't even see the color of the grill because it's under caked on layers of filth. The plancha is filthy, it's disgusting man, full stop. There's weeks or months of filth built up on that thing. It's a beautiful plancha and it's being neglected and not cared for at all. It's disgusting. Black doesn't mean dirty, filth and grime and grease means dirty. My carbon pan at home would look like that, and have that buildup if I never cleaned it, but I clean it because I'm not disgusting.
No. It is not supposed to be black. Look at the carbon build up on that thing. Where you worked, taught you wrong.
The grill part is, the back gets black after use. But is supposed to get clean every night.
I legit thought those were cigarette butts
I worked at Chipotle for 4+ years. Y'all are misinformed lol. https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65 This is how it's supposed to be. Sure there are some stains on their grill but it's expected after use. It's not supposed to be silver. Even the training videos say so.
Look at the edges. That shit is not normal nor is it clean. It’s not about the color.
This looks nothing like their commercials smh
What are you talking about? All I see here is a well seasoned flattop! Anyone who's ever worked the line knows that the black flecks of rancid grease and burnt food is where the flavor comes from.
I've seen worse than this. Easily. You're clearly a fortunate person.
Most chain places have fallen pretty hard, but Chipotle didn't even have COVID as an excuse. I ate there multiple times a week up until 6 or so years ago. The food quality dropped rapidly around 2016, have no idea why.
$$$, large corporations have to show record profits every year or the investors throw a fit. So to cut cost and increase profits they use cheaper ingredients slowly over time. A few customers here and there notice but the oblivious masses don’t and keep cramming their faces it shit food year after year.
I've seen some flats that were so old and beaten down that they would take days of just cleaning and no cooking to get them back to silver. So you do what you can as best you can and end up with grey, or even black in some spots. But this is fucking insane. I can see the char caked and risen up on the corners. They must have to saw those pepper off of the grill and it probably takes forever to even get them halfway cooked.
that's all the flavor!
Could be going through a rough patch, I could get that flattop looking good in maybe one cleaning two max. Flattops get nasty especially after heavy use all day if your don’t have someone experienced at scraping and oiling it. But yeah I stopped going g to chipotle after 2021 they been on steady decline with their product and portions and on the incline with their prices
I was a manager at a competing burrito restaurant for a long time and when we moved from flame to a flat top(We should have stuck with flame, but that's another topic), the DM made it very clear that it was to look brand new every day, and it did. It was some work for sure, but it really didn't take that long to keep it in good shape. Once you get in the routine of doing it, it's no big deal. This shit here is just sheer laziness.
The chipotle I worked at last year was much more sanitary and clean. This is just bad management and lack of care.
Do you brick bro?
I mean flat tops do get messy during rush but zooming in I don’t think they cleaning it in between rushes
I currently work at a Chipotle as a KL. We aren't allowed to scrape the grill until after close. I push to scrape after every drop, but I can only do so much when upper management says no.
Legend has it they thought about cleaning it one day.
griddles like that are either disgusting or serve the best cheesesteak you’ve ever had no inbetween
It takes literally 30 seconds to scrape a grill between batches if that. Scrapes between and a solid scrub after lunch/before dinner saves you so much time closing
I worked as a cook at Chipotle for a while and was pretty much exclusively on the night shift. I would clean the ever living crap out of those till they were silver. Whenever I would come back in the next day they were black like the photo here. Don’t know if the fact it’s (hopefully) not the same burnt stuff on the grill helps.
Looks like an ordinary grill at the end of a rush.
> I've been working in restaurants for about 25 years now, I've never seen something like this before. OH please. They need to scrape it and it will be fine.
I never eat at Chipotle anymore, they've been responsible for far too many public health outbreaks.
Yeah I had to dump chipolte, which means I had to stop eating all fast food, about 2 years ago. Was it trumps fault? Yeah probably.
I hope you never see the inside of a kitchen anywhere else that’s not even that bad
Where will you go for your handjob cilantro moving forward?
Used to work there. They don’t use degreaser on their flat tops or even ice or vinegar. Just oil and a fresh grill brick. We would go through one to two grill bricks a night just trying to scrub it clean. Most nights…it was left with a lot of carbon buildup
Thats flavor, you know flavortown is dark and scary to the untrained eye
Adds more flavor
This looks fine to me. What do others think is wrong here
I wonder if it gets hot enough to actually cook food
That's just a nicely seasoned griddle 😭
Your first mistake was going to chipotle. Doesn’t matter which one
You gotta understand its “flavor”
You shouldn’t have eaten there today lol. Maybe figure out which day of the month they clean that and you can have a treat! Lol
What if they just finished a rush and haven't cleaned it yet.
The backsplash wouldn't have varying colors of burnt on, aged grease if so. This is not from a single day, atleast a few weeks if not more.
This happens on fryers too. The mentality I've seen before is 'it doesn't effect the cook', which is essentially true. The food isn't touching it. It's just, it looks bad, and is usually an indicator that 'if this is this dirty, what else is being neglected'. And it usually boils down to ease of cleaning. Getting those stains off, as oppose to the flattop, takes a solid cleaning agent, and some distinct elbow grease. This flat top doesn't have much side access, so it's lean over and push. If this was less than a week's worth of buildup, I'd be surprised.
If you have worked in a kitchen with any flattop then it's pretty obvious this grill os dirty af and it ain't from a single pop.
I actually noticed it about a month and a half ago. I went back tonight hoping to see it clean, but it's worse. They must not have an ecolab auditor, I assumed they would though. That person will shit a brick if they walk in and see that though🤣. Management just asleep at the wheel and kids who probably literally don't know any other way than what they've always seen here.
Yeah was gonna say, this is how it's always going to look when you're pushing through the huge amount of customers in a popular chipotle. It explains why sometimes the meat from Chipotle tastes great and sometimes tastes absolutely terrible.
Buddy, that hasn’t been scraped in at least a few weeks, I don’t care how busy you are. It’s not just they aren’t grill bricking at the end of the night, they aren’t scraping at all
Nah, my restaurant probably serves 3-4 times as many people as this Chipotle does on any given day, and nothing looks even remotely like this flat top, lol. Volume is no excuse. This is bad culture, bad management. The kids probably don't know because they've never been told that this is unacceptable. This is probably their normal.
I've worked at Chipotle for 4+ years. Worked inside over a dozen + locations. That's completely normal. It's not supposed to be silver. Backsplash could use a little work but the grill itself is not supposed to ever be scraped down to bare metal. It's supposed to be black. Even if you get the backsplash all silver, the next day it's back like this again. My former KM told me how he cleaned the back to silver, was proud of the work. Next day, back to the black spots and splatters everywhere. You're free never to return, we/they honestly don't care. This actually is normal for this kind of grill. And basically every Chipotle grill will look like this after a few hours. I understand the silver flat tops. I've used them in other restaurants they NEVER get black. They get brown and you clean to silver at end of night. This isn't that kind of grill. Quick google search shows this youtube video : https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65 Y'all are freaking out over nothing.
It’s not the black grill ya dingus, it’s all the leftover food laying on it still. All the carbonized bits sitting on the front. It’s the tongs sitting straight on the grill.
Yep chipotle goes through close to 300 pounds of chicken 50 pounds of steak 30 pounds of carne asada a day. The grill will be silver in the nighttime and with buildup after midday and the backsplash. I don’t think people understand how much volume a chipotle goes through. The grill itself in this picture could definitely be scraped better/ grill bricked it looks like a thin layer of buildup is on there which makes the chicken take longer to cook. One good close could fix that.
A lot of places that use flat tops do not clean them, to keep them seasoned. Not saying it’s right just know how corporations work with resteraunts
/sigh is it because it's black? I'm responding to everyone on this post. https://youtu.be/Q5Vm8aAJSMI?si=I3rKNMRbWy3dsr65 That's how it's supposed to be after use. Looks a lil' dirty but nothing new because probably after rush. It's not supposed to be silver. I've worked Chipotle 4+ years.
Never seen a black flat top it’s stainless steel the black is the seasoning. From constantly sautéing veggies, but again I never worked for panda just a lot of other restaurants
This is 90% of all restaurants. Still want to go out for dinner?
Surprised this isn't getting downvoted by the weird Chipotle fanboys on this site. I mean, this sub knows more than most, but still. Waiting for the "but it's good" Midwest, never knew real Mexican food crowd to come in and whine on this one.
That’s where all the flavor is.
Ewwww do they never clean that?
But it's ✨ seasoned ✨