I love food. I’m a big foodie and love all types but mainly Mexican, Italian and Japanese, oh and seafood too but that doesn’t really come under a certain culture does it? I realise I’ve covered quite a few big food groups here, I told you, I love food. I found myself in luck when I was invited, along with a few other bloggers, to Chipotle restaurant in Wimbledon, a chain of Mexican grill restaurants who are the, ‘not so new’ big thing. If like me, you have no idea how to pronounce ‘Chipotle’, see below for instructions 🙂

Everton, our host for the evening, along with Juan and Mada, kept our hunger at bay with nachos and guacamole, and kept us refreshed with beers and I kid you not, the tastiest margarita I’ve had in a long, long time. Everton was incredibly engaging, chatting to us about Chipotle’s history, how they started and it’s vision. It was started by a chap called Steve Ells, who wanted to work on the idea that ‘fast food’ didn’t necessarily have to be, ‘bad food’. He wanted to offer a classic menu of burritos, tacos, burrito bowls and salads, using fresh, high-quality ingredients, which where possible would be sustainably grown. Here in the UK the company uses local farmers for produce, for example, their delicious pulled pork comes from a farmer called Jimmy Butler, who runs and owns a farm in Suffolk. Chipotle have a close relationship with Jimmy and have worked with him for a number of years, doing regular site visits to keep in touch. I loved finding this out, it’s great to know that restaurants like this, really care about the quality of the food they are selling.

Everton himself started in the kitchens, progressing on to Hospitality and Events. Everyone apparently starts in the kitchen here at Chipotle regardless of your role, even their new Marketing Manager spent three months learning the ropes there. Juan, the Manager in the Wimbledon branch and he told us about how the company works and how they progress employees. They develop from within the team. If there is a promotion to be had, the team gets to decide if they want someone to progress or if someone new needs to come in. This is very American apparently and really seems to work for these guys, you could tell they just loved working here. Their enthusiasm made us want to work there! After chatting we were taken on a little tour of the kitchens, and Mada showed us how they make their Guacamole. I always make Guacamole at home so it was great to learn how a big restaurant like Chipotle make theirs: Hass Avocado (they are very specific about the ones they use), salt, lemon, lime and jalapeños’ if you must know. We all got to have a little taste afterwards and honestly, it was so creamy and flavoursome, yes you have to pay £1.40 for it but you just would, it’s totally worth it, especially after seeing the hard work that goes into preparing it every day! You should have seen Mada’s arm muscles!! Here’s me scooping, I love a good Avocado scoop, it’s very satisfying!

After this, the most exciting bit happened, we got to pick our dinner!! I’m easily pleased.

After a bit of mild panic (from me) about what to choose, I always get menu panic when given the freedom to select anything, after hearing how amazing their pulled pork was, of course I went for the pulled pork burrito. The food is put together in front of you very quickly so within minutes I was sat down ready to sample my meal. Random trivia for you, did you know that, ‘Burrito’ means ‘Little Donkey’ in Mexican? Back to the burrito, of course it tasted amazing I think you can guess as much.

Emerton and Juan sat down with us while we ate and we had a great chit chat about the company, where it’s heading and what they want to do next. We gave him some great tips like Elfa’s idea for a Breakfast Burrito! Emerton and Huan really didn’t seem convinced but you heard it here first if you suddenly see that baby on the menu! Everyone left feeling pretty stuffed and sleepy, I really felt like I’d had a good feed and a rather enjoyable evening. Chipotle, I will be back.

I was invited to Chipotle along with some other bloggers and was given a loyalty card in exchange for this review. All word and thoughts are my own.