How Chipotle Could Fix Complaints Over Portion Sizes, According To Reddit

At this point, everyone knows that you have to order Chipotle in person if you want the most bang for your buck, aka the most meat in your burrito bowl. Online customers say ordering in the app is a fast track to Tiny Town, where everything is pathetically small, from the spoonfuls of rice to the bags of chips. Believe it or not, there is actually a standard amount of meat Chipotle is supposed to give you with each regular order, but anyone who's been there more than once knows that no two scoops of chicken are the same, no two dollops of sour cream, equal.

According to Reddit, where the smartest and the not-so-smartest of us peacefully coexist, there is one very easy way Chipotle could standardize the amount of food you get in an order. It's maddeningly simple: use measuring cups. "I eat Chipotle maybe once a year lol but I don't understand why they don't use a measuring cup/spoon thing to measure out the ingredients for bowls/burritos," one genuinely confused person wrote. "Everyone gets as close as they can to the same amount and they eliminate a lot of the customer complaints."

It seems so simple. And yet, Chipotle has yet to implement this so-obvious-it's-scary solution. What gives? Well, there are several theories.

One Reddit user has a theory: "Then they can't undersell DoorDash orders and slightly overcompensate in person orders to not deal with angry customers in person. That's what I would do lol." According to the menu, the portions for the rice, beans, and meat are all supposed to be 4 ounces. But one self-proclaimed former employee told Reddit those standards were loosey-goosey, until corporate began to keep a close eye on things. 

Measuring cups seem like a no-brainer solution, although that would take some of the fun out of trying to hack your way to a larger Chipotle order. One of the ways we come together as a nation is by sharing things like the Chipotle ordering method that can score you more protein for less. But some had other ideas for how Chipotle could make sure you get the same size every time. One person thought that a spoon with a different shape might lend itself to more consistent portions. Maybe measuring cups are too persnickety-seeming, but a spoon that's more of a bowl shape would help. 

Another Reddit user said that at Potbelly, the person making their sandwich weighed the meat before putting it on the sub. This is interesting in theory, but Chipotle workers have to assemble burritos and bowls with such speed that it seems like weighing the meat would slow them down considerably. One Chipotle employee had a more straightforward approach: "You show crew proper portions, show them proper cut sizes, make sure management is counting inventory properly, and maybe just maybe numbers will start to fall in place."