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5 Reasons To Never Eat at Chipotle

Raising prices again right now might not be a great idea.

By Amanda Machado , Edited by Calista Headrick

Updated June 22, 2026

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Remember the days when you could walk into a Chipotle and walk out with a burrito the size of a newborn baby? Those days are gone, and customers have a list of mounting complaints about the direction Chipotle is headed.

Consumer criticisms have accumulated as the price of the fast casual Mexican cuisine has increased, while quality and quantity have gone down. Economic instability has consumers hunting for the best deals to stretch a restaurant budget, and some restaurants just aren't making the cut.

Learn the reasons why folks are giving a hard pass to eating at Chipotle.

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Prices have climbed sharply

In 2025, a Redditor chanced upon an old Chipotle receipt from exactly 10 years prior, and the price difference is outrageous. Two chicken bowls and a chicken burrito with a side of guac cost $21.45 before tax.

Ten years later, that same meal from the same location was $30.80. An increase of 43.58%. But wait, it gets worse.

CEO Scott Boatwright revealed that 60% of Chipotle's customer base earns a six-figure income annually, so the restaurant chain will be raising prices again in 2026. They believe these high-income earners will continue to spend despite rising costs.

Redditors feel differently: "I make over 100k and think the price is ridiculous," and another chimed in with "Same 100k+ and I'd rather make it at home."

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Quality has declined

Chipotle's ingredients used to taste like what one would prepare at home, but now it tastes like a race to the bottom of the barrel for the cheapest ingredients.

Customers take to social media to complain, with one Redditor stating, "The food is objectively worse than it was a few years ago, often my corn is frozen, the rice is stale to the point you can break a tooth on it, your portions are far less, the meat is 50% of the time inedible." A commenter reminisced, "Dude, 2010-2012 Chipotle was good. Reliable. Juicy steak, fresh guac. Ugh, those were the days."

If we wanted hard rice, chewy meat, and guacamole that is already browning, we would have stayed home and made it ourselves.

Scandalous portions

A Wells Fargo restaurant analyst put the Chipotle portion-size debate to rest in 2024 by comparing 75 identical burrito bowl orders across eight separate locations throughout New York City. The largest bowl weighed in at 27 ounces, while the smallest came in at only 14 ounces.

It was more than just a social media scandal, too. A class-action lawsuit was filed about Chipotle skimping on portion sizes. However, the fast casual chain won the suit in 2025, and claimed that "10% or more of restaurants that we view as outliers that needed to be retrained (and) re-coached to be executing against what we believe are the right standards," said then-CEO Brian Niccol.

A Redditor felt differently about the portions, saying, "I remember burritos were like that [size of a newborn baby] a decade ago. Now it's sometimes the size of a baseball.

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Perilous food safety

Chipotle says their fresh produce and meats place them at a higher risk for food-borne illness contaminations, but they have a well-documented history that breaks the bounds of credibility. Starting in 2008, they had two outbreaks, five in 2015, another in 2017, and again in 2018.

The Mexican food chain was fined $25 million for over 1,100 people becoming sick between 2015 and 2018. As a result, Chipotle upgraded its food safety programs, but ultimately said the fault was low-level employees not following standard food safety protocols.

Complaints of gastrointestinal distress from Chipotle continue in 2026, too, and one Reddit commenter offered a suggestion: "If the lettuce isn't absolutely integral to the enjoyment of your food, I recommend cutting it out. 9 times out of 10, it's the lettuce, it is the single highest cause of food poisoning in the United States."

History of illegal labor practices

Approximately 4,838 Chipotle workers received a $15 million settlement in 2021 after filing a class-action lawsuit alleging the chain owed unpaid overtime wages. The case was initially filed in 2017, so it was dragged out extensively before ending in a settlement.

The restaurant chain didn't learn from its mistakes, though, and received a $1.3 million fine in 2020 for child labor violations. There were roughly 13,253 child labor violations across 50 Chipotle locations in Massachusetts — the largest ever in the state.

Bottom line

Chipotle may have once reigned supreme in the burrito world, but 2025 was the company's worst year ever. For the very first time since going public, the chain suffered same-store sales declines, and shares plunged 37%. Surprisingly, many customers are turning to Cava instead.

Despite being Mediterranean cuisine, customers find the customizable bowls and pitas to be similar but with a different flavor palate. The prices are higher, but customers feel the quality and quantity provide a better value than the Mexican chain.

Customers are turning to cooking more at home, as tackling high grocery costs is still better on their budget than going to Chipotle for their Mexican cuisine fix.

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