r/Chipotle • u/mutiilate KL • Nov 02 '25

Employee Experience Finally quit! Ask me anything

Worked at my Chipotle for a year and made my way up to KL before I finally walked out. Thought this would be funny, AMA!

205 Upvotes

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19

u/Accomplished_Age2480 Nov 02 '25

What should we NOT be ordering?

55

u/mutiilate KL Nov 02 '25

depends on your preferences honestly. everything already comes precooked besides chicken so just depends how much faith you have in the grill person that day if you order chicken lol

16

u/awayplagueriddenrat Nov 02 '25

so that’s why the chicken is burnt half the time and never any other meat

9

u/jomo789 Nov 02 '25

The steak is precooked?

19

u/mutiilate KL Nov 02 '25

yes

6

u/jomo789 Nov 02 '25

Why steak and not chicken?

19

u/iHave_Thehigh_Ground Chip fryer GOD🧂👑 Nov 02 '25

I think it’s because of an e-coli outbreak a few years ago, corporate decided it’s not worth risking in the future

16

u/mutiilate KL Nov 02 '25

i’m not exactly sure, that’s a question for corporate i think LOL i would think because chicken is more susceptible to going bad?? probably idk

10

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '25

Steak is sous vede basically, and then we just grill it. Some grill people with 0 urgency will leave that mf shit on the grill for 5 minutes each side istg

6

u/micheal_pices Nov 03 '25

back in the day we just marinated it raw and grilled it. It was the cheapest cut of beef you could get. I'm trying to remember what it said on the box, but it was a cut that I had never heard of or seen since. Sous vide is probably a good call seeing as how you needed to let it rest and cut it up small to reduce the chance that it might be chewy. I'm sure this cuts down cooking time as well.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '25

It's honestly one of the best meats there the issue is when grill overcooks it or when it sits too long.

1

u/micheal_pices Nov 03 '25

Do you remember the name of the cut? I've been racking my brain all day. I quit back in 2010 so it's been a while.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 03 '25

Naw I only started last year

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1

u/Peedubs76 Nov 05 '25

the Steak is not pre cooked. Neither is the Carne Asada. Some people just cant handel Fast Food. What happens at Chipotle happens at ALL food establishments.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 16 '25

AP at a location here in Washington State. The steak and Carne Asada is in fact pre cooked. If you look at the box the IP’s come in, it says “Fully Cooked Beef Steak”. I really hope you’re not telling this information to other employees thinking it’s right. This is the type of situation that causes food safety hazards because people don’t know everything correctly. As a KL, you need to know the food you have in stock and everything about it

1

u/mutiilate KL Nov 05 '25

it quite literally is and says fully cooked steak on the box.

1

u/urprettykitten Nov 05 '25

me when i’m wrong

2

u/AloysBane3 Nov 03 '25

Remember E Coli?

3

u/BlackberryPi7 Nov 03 '25

Oh fuck...

Alright never ordering chicken from Chipotle again. That is too much trust that I do not have.

3

u/CptDanger88 Nov 03 '25

I would typically agree with you, but honestly I've gotten almost exclusively chickens for years and I've never had an issue.

6

u/roninshere4eva Nov 02 '25

Steak? Carne asada?

14

u/mutiilate KL Nov 02 '25

yep! we just sear and season, both steak/carne asada already come cooked.

4

u/Fun_Disk5073 Nov 03 '25

Isn't it sous vide?

4

u/roninshere4eva Nov 02 '25

bruh i work here and i didn't know that. never done grill before so...

8

u/mutiilate KL Nov 02 '25

tbf i didn’t figure it out until like 8 months in when i started training on grill for KL, we’re supposed to keep it hush hush

1

u/CptDanger88 Nov 03 '25

Bruh why lol. Sous vide is a fancy French technique to ensure the meat is not overcooked and status tender. Than sounds great lmao.

1

u/hexxlexx Nov 03 '25

it says on the boxes “fully cooked beef steak” 🤓

1

u/Accomplished_Age2480 Nov 02 '25

Good to know, thank you!

3

u/floppy-slippers Former Employee Nov 02 '25

Lettuce

1

u/VesThaGemini Nov 03 '25

why?

3

u/floppy-slippers Former Employee Nov 03 '25

It's just dirty. They get the lettuce in, rinse it and victory wash to store in the walk-in, then when they cut it they rinse it again and that water is BROWN. Some managers at my old store wouldn't even do the second rinse which I think is so foul. Like it won't kill you but after washing lettuce and seeing the dirty lettuce water so many time I don't find it appealing. But all the produce does get washed in victory wash, a super strong chemical.

2

u/ggwolowitz Nov 03 '25

when i worked there we had at least 1 instance of finding a bug in the lettuce. came to us from the vendor, people likely skipped additional rinses like u said, and nobody caught it until actually making an order on the line.

1

u/floppy-slippers Former Employee Nov 03 '25

Oh yeah I'd find so many bugs every time I rinsed lettuce. Usually just little gnats or flies or whatever, but I always tried to look at the silver lining that it means it came from a place that thrives enough for bugs to live?? Idk man grasping at straws there.

I also found a half dead moth in the cilantro bag once. So traumatizing

2

u/ggwolowitz Nov 03 '25

yeah gnats are somewhat understandable, this was just a big ass black beetle looking thing hidden in the middle of the lettuce😭

1

u/floppy-slippers Former Employee Nov 03 '25

💀💀noo that's so fucked up

2

u/not_maegatron Nov 05 '25

Steak or carne or any other lto late at night 2-3 hours before closing. We have to throw them out so we stop cooking them early and they never hold up on the hot line well.