Vegan Chipotle

Taylor Tries Her Best

Jul 20

Now I live in England, and have done my whole life. I have therefore only heard stories about Chipotle from America. I have tried Chipotle before when I was in LA in 2018, but it was so long ago I didn't think it fair to really review it now. That being said I remember being pleasantly surprised by Chipotle: The impression I got from online stories and how people spoke about Chipotle was that it was quite greasy and heavy, with very little nutrition to it. But when I did try it in LA it was actually very yummy, not greasy and felt like a very light but filling meal.

So I was quite excited to her that Chipotle was opening a branch in my local area. Now it did open about a month ago but this has been the first opportunity I have had to actually stop by and try it.

I was a little disappointed that they didn't have the vegan protein option available (the sofritas option) but they had the basic veggie option so I gave it my best shot. I went for the brown rice, black beans and vegetables which therefore came with free guacamole. I had it in the bowl version, rather than the burrito version, as I find burritos to just be too much for me and I always feel bad for not finishing them. That being said the bowl was very generously filled so I'm not sure if it really makes a difference.

Taste wise, this is very yummy. It definitely didn't taste greasy or highly calorific - I felt satisfactory filled up by the end rather than feeling uncomfortably bloated or a bit sick as can happen with some fast food places. I also feel that the meal itself was overly pretty healthy: According to their online calculator my meal came out at 595 calories, 14g of protein, 29g fat and 70g carbs. Which are really good values, especially for what I am trying to achieve with my current meal and exercise plans. The upside is that these can be quite easily customised if you had other plans - the sofritas seems to make it all 20g of protein in one meal with is super good, and without the guacamole it is 17g of fat.

Now obviously calories and macros are not everything, and you should be focusing more on how the food makes you feel - personally I found this meal to be more than enough to keep me going until dinner and it didn't leave me feeling bloated or sluggish at all. I did have the fear that the Chipotle reputation would follow me but so far I have only had really good meals from this place.

Price wise it is pretty standard for this kind of meal. We usually frequent our local Tortilla branch who are also consistently great with their options. Usually a Tortilla, for both myself and my partner, would cost around £18 for the vegan chilli bowl and the vegan chilli burrito, and Chipotle also cost us £18 for a veggie bowl and a veggie burrito. So really there was very little difference cost wise and I do think that it is good value. It is obviously a bit more expensive than other fast food places, but is considerably cheaper than an actual restaurant meal. I find it's a good middle ground of a reasonably healthy take away for a reasonable price.

For my American followers, how does Chipotle hold up in America? Does it vary from state to state? I believe that they have a slightly different menu for the UK than they do in the USA so is there anything that I am missing out on?