Comment by rockostrich | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rockostrich | Hacker News Reader

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It's strange to me to see Chipotle as the face of this. You can still get a chicken burrito which has 60g of protein and 1000 calories for just about $10. In my opinion, the only issue with their food is that the sodium is a bit high which is pretty unavoidable with fast food.

A similar burrito from any other local place near me is $15 or more. These might be a bit healthier but it's 50% more expensive.

You can definitely meal prep everything for a Chipotle burrito or bowl for about half the price meal but that doesn't factor in the time to grocery shop and cook (and also buy tortillas from Chipotle because for some reason you can't get them as a consumer from any wholesaler...). I opt for making burritos that can be frozen instead and it's nice having a freezer filled with 3-4 different options that take 5 minutes to defrost/reheat in the microwave. @stealth_health_life on instagram has a bunch of great recipes but it's also not really hard to just prep individual burrito fillings and make your own.

Chicken burrito costs $11.50 without any additions before taxes where I am. Closer to $12.85 with taxes.

Chipotle lists its portion size for protein to be 4oz which roughly translates to 27g of protein IF they don’t skimp on the portions (which they usually do. Unless the rest of the ingredients make up for 33g of protein, it’s very hard to get what you’re suggesting at Chipotle anymore.

On the other hand, the Mexican truck down the street sells $3 street tacos with way more meat.

The family-owned Mexican restaurant literally across the street from the nearest Chipotle sells their burritos starting at 7.99, 9.99 if you want to add a full side order of rice and beans. I can get two full meals for almost the same price as Chipotle. Sounds like OP’s local places are ripping them off.

I wouldn't really call it ripping me off if that's what they need to set their prices at in order to survive. NJ is an expensive state so it's not really surprising. I was just using a couple of the closest places to me in the suburbs as an example. If I were to go into a city like New Brunswick which has a large hispanic population and a ton of local places then there are definitely spots with cheaper options but there are still a ton that are more expensive than Chipotle.

Do you live in NYC or SF? I just did a quick scan of prices before taxes for different high cost of living areas and those are the 2 that are above $10.

They list the chicken serving as 32g of protein, 8 comes from the tortilla, 4 come from rice, and 8 come from beans. You can get another 10 or so from cheese, corn, etc. which are all no extra charge. In my experience, they don't really skip on portions. I usually get a burrito with chicken, brown rice, fajitas, a couple of the salsas, corn, and lettuce and the thing cannot be rolled.

If you have a better option locally then that's great. A lot of people don't.

>Unless the rest of the ingredients make up for 33g of protein

Rice and beans are decentish sources of protein, according to their website https://www.chipotle.com/nutrition-calculator/burrito (which is I'm sure generous, but probably not fraudulently so) a bean, cheese, and rice burrito is 23g of protein, and if you add chicken you get to 58g.

> You can still get a chicken burrito which has 60g of protein and 1000 calories for just about $10.

I am not sure where you live, but here in Atlanta that's about 30g of protein (still about 1000 calories depending on free additions) at almost $15 after tax. Or I could go to a local mexican place and get a similar burrito for less than $10.

I'm using Chipotle's nutrition calculator (https://www.chipotle.com/nutrition-calculator/burrito) to get the nutrition info. That may be off but probably not by more than 10%. If you're only getting 30g of protein in your burrito from Chipotle then you're ordering something super weird because rice, beans, and a tortilla come out to 20g.

And a chicken burrito at a Chipotle in Atlanta is $8-10 before taxes depending on the location. Sales tax on food from a restaurant in Atlanta comes out to around 9% but even if you add a 4% credit card fee that still only amounts to being $11.30 after taxes on a $10 burrito.

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