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  • Chipotle
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  • White Veg-options
Lacto
Fast food
Delivery
Take-out
Mexican
Honey
Non-veg

Serves meat, vegan options available. Mexican fast food chain founded 1993 in the US and now operates outlets across North America and several more overseas. Set up is assembly line style where you could customize your order of tacos, burrito, or burrito bowl, and request no cheese or sour cream. Offers a savory sofritas filling that's made from soy protein, and some locations offer Impossible meat. Rice, beans, guacamole are vegan. In early-2019 added a pre-configured vegan bowl which includes the sofritas in addition to other fillings like guacamole. Open Mon-Sun 11:00am-10:00pm.

Venue map for Chipotle
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1 Review

First Review by mark m braunstein

Avatar mark m braunstein

mark m braunstein

Points +462

Vegan
02 Oct 2020

Be vigilant for cross-contamination of meat in the Vegan Bowl

I was curious about Chipotle’s long publicized Vegan Bowl, mind you, not the Vegetarian Bowl, as I have been a vegan since 1970. I observed franchises open closer and closer to me, first Glastonbury, then Middletown, and then most recently Groton. So now it was time for me to donate my body to science and to sample the Vegan Bowl with Brown Rice. (The Brown Rice option was what won me over, as I shun white rice, the same as I shun white flour and white sugar.) Chipotle’s proprietary “Sofritas” of the Vegan Bowl are shredded bits of tofu, nothing like sorrowful mock meats, industrialized non-foods that make a mockery of veganism, and that I also avoid.

As a big eater, I ordered two bowls. My first bowl was fine, the brown rice was dry and hard and somewhat undercooked, but still edible, and everything else was otherwise enjoyable. I especially appreciated that nothing was too spicy hot, not even the two salsas. But the second so-called Vegan Bowl held a shocking surprise. A single narrow but nearly two-inch long piece of steak. Yes, steak. No mistaking the steak.

I can understand that cross-contamination might occur if the server used the same ladle for dishing out a Keto Bowl or a High Protein Bowl as for dishing out a Vegan Bowl. That would be a measure of the server’s inattention or apathy. But the piece of steak was way too big to stick to the underside of the ladle and too long to remain unseen atop the ladle. I hesitate to hurl unjust accusations, but I must admit that I suspect the cook intentionally slipped that piece of meat into my second Vegan Bowl. And there’s no telling whatever else might have been of animal origin in a less visible form.

We vegans and vegetarians must always be vigilant when eating out. Even if my accusation about the intentional addition of steak is unfounded, this incident reminds me to always favor veg restaurants over those merely veg-friendly. For the latter, all their items labeled vegan should add the advisory: "Manufactured in a facility that processes animal body parts. May contain meat."

I must emphasize that my experience impugns the reputation of only the outlet in Groton, not of Chipotle in general, and not of this outlet in Glastonbury. I still might yet sample a Vegan Bowl in Middletown or in Glastonbury, but never again in Groton. Meanwhile, you Glastonbury customers should be vigilant for cross-contamination of meat in the Vegan Bowl.

Pros: Brown Rice as an option, nothing overly spicy hot

Cons: Steak in the so-called Vegan Bowl

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