Qdoba Copied Chipotle

It only took a trip half-way across the country to get me to try Qdoba Mexican Grill.

Several readers have been asking me to give it a try for quite some time now, however the timing was never right. There was either a Chipotle to close by, or the Qdoba was farther than I wanted to drive.

When I got off a plane at the Indianapolis Airport yesterday and saw a glowing Qdoba right in front of my face, I decided I couldn't put it off any longer.

People get strange when trying a new restaurant (or I do at least). I walked awkwardly in and peered over the glass to look at the food and much to my surprise it looked identical to Chipotle. The cheese, meat, salsas, and set up was the same...they even smelled alike.

I asked the employee if she had ever been to a Chipotle. She answered no (clearly the reason why she was working at Qdoba) but she did tell me that people say to her all the time that Qdoba copied Chipotle.

I walked out of the restaurant. For some strange reason I felt like I was cheating on Chipotle.

But....it looked good.....the prices were right....and I was hungry.

I went back in to look over the menu and discovered they offer the same products as Chipotle (no surprise there): "Naked Burritos" (aka, Burrito Bowl), Tacos and Burritos. Interestingly enough they also have breakfast items which looked good on the menu.

I got a naked burrito with my usual: half chicken/half pork, rice, salsa, corn salsa, LOTS of cheese and sour cream.

When the employee got to the cheese station I said, "I want A LOT of cheese." She said, "No problem." With pride should dug her hand deep into the cheese pan and came up with a fist full of cheese. There was no sprinkling here - she dumped it on joyfully and went in for another helping.

This as you know is a huge difference between them and Chipotle. Chipotle sprinkles on cheese like it's gold and they're stingy on the meat portions as well.

I shook up my naked burrito to mix it all and dug in. It tasted great. The salsa was a little less chunky than Chipotle but still had good spice (she also told me their salsa isn't homemade, hence why it was more runny). The chicken isn't as good as Chipotle. It had a different type of seasoning that was more spicy. However the pork and cheese tasted the same.

Basically in a blind taste test I would know the difference, but they taste just as good. It's just like Coke and Pepsi - I know the difference, I prefer Coke, but I can live with Pepsi. The same goes for Qdoba.

I like Qdoba. It's far superior to Moe's, not quite as perfect as Chipotle (assuming they give you the portion you deserve).

However the bottom line is Qdoba literally copied Chipotle right down to every single detail. Even the decor is awkwardly similar.

So - who do you prefer? Are you for Qdoba or Chipotle?