Taryn Slepicoff

English 113b

Professor Reynolds

9 May 2012

The Battle of the Mexican Restaurants

            Where should I go to lunch?  That question comes up often when there is no food in my house.  Sometimes Mexican food is on my mind and in my town we don’t have many Mexican restaurants to choose from.  There is a nice small family restaurant, called La Cocina, down the street from me, but it is normally packed with people and there is always a wait.  Then there is Chipotle, which is quick and delicious and if there is a line you have to stand in, it will take about ten minutes for you to get your food and leave.  These two places are very different from each other, but two of my favorite places to eat when I go out. 

            I went to lunch with my mom on a Thursday afternoon at La Cocina.  This restaurant is right down the street from us on a corner.  The parking lot is very small and always filled with cars.  We walk in and the first thing I notice is that almost every single booth was filled with people.  As we waited for our table to be cleaned off the smell of tortilla chips and tortilla soup filled our nostrils.  This restaurant is set up to make you feel warm and at home, it looks like a hacienda.  The walls are painted a red and adobe color.  Above each booth is a decorative window with a little garden on the sill and a burnt orange tile roof hanging down over the top.  The booths are a dark forest green, with high backs, and very comfortable.  When you are sitting down, it’s like you are in your own house by yourself.  That’s the kind of privacy these booths give off.  La Cocina is a very casual restaurant to eat at.  Atmosphere is one thing, but then you get to the food. 

            The host hands you a laminated, spiral bound five page menu as you sit down.  The menu is decorated with senorita on the front and beautiful pictures of food choices throughout the pages.   Along comes a heaping basket of hot chips and the most amazing salsa I have ever had.  A waiter asks for our drink order dressed in black pants, a crisp white shirt, and a full black apron with the restaurant name across the front.  After carefully reviewing my lunch choices I settled on a beef tostada, while my mother picked an enchilada- taco combination.  As we wait for our food we enjoyed the low lighting, collages of birthday celebrations, and the stunning cactus mural above the kitchen window.  The restaurant has a bar, but it is separated from the family style eating area by a wall with actual windows styled in the same fashion as the decorative ones in the dining room.  While waiting for my food I think back to the last time I ate at Chipotle.

            I went to Chipotle with my friends for dinner, before a movie we were going to see.  Although there wasn’t a line going out the door, it was busy.  At this restaurant when you walk in the doors you are automatically in line to order your food.  It is a well lit, clean environment with shiny silver tables and chestnut-colored wooden chairs.  Their color scheme is white, black, and maroon.  They have a huge sculpture depicting a face made out of wood and metal against the wall between the kitchen and the self-serve station.  As you stand in line, you look up over the kitchen to read the menu off the signs on the wall. 

            The menu is organized into several sections, beginning with information on how their ingredients are natural and organic.  Following that you build your meal based first on your item choice, such as burrito, bowl, taco, salad, or tostada.  Once you have selected what you are going to eat you have to build from the choices of meats and condiments available.  At the front of the line your server greets you, dressed in all black with a black hat and a full apron.  Instead of waiting for your food to come out of a kitchen, you walk along the “food bar” and your food is put together to your individual desires.  My server hands me my steak bowl that was individually made just the way I like it and I stepped to the register to pay.  As my tostada arrives in front of me at La Cocina, I snap back to lunch with my mom.

            Although I love both of these restaurants they are very different.  La Cocina is a family owned restaurant who for years only had one location, and recently opened up a small second one.  Chipotle, on the other hand, is a large national company owned by McDonalds with many locations.  The style of food delivery is completely opposite.  At La Cocina you sit down and are waited on, while at Chipotle, although the food is custom ordered, it is through a stand in line process.  At Chipotle there is a self-serve island where you can fill your drink, and pick up plastic silverware and paper napkins.  The waiter at La Cocina provides your drink in plastic cups, and your table is set with standard silver tableware.  Food is prepared behind a separating wall at La Cocina and delivered through a kitchen window to the waiters.  The food at Chipotle is displayed in front, behind glass as your server selects your requested desires.  You can also see the cooks cooking in the back getting more food prepared.  An extremely interesting fact that I found out through my research was the commitment by Chipotle to serve natural and organic food to its customers.  The company is working toward serving naturally raised meats.  Their dairy products come from hormone free cows.  In contrast, where many restaurants now advertise the natural and organic foods they are serving, La Cocina makes no mention at their restaurant or on their menu as to where their food comes from. 

            In conclusion, I learned that although Chipotle was something I always enjoyed, it is a great choice for fast food due to their natural and organic ingredients.  In reviewing my experience with La Cocina I realized how hard they work at atmosphere and making you feel like you are eating in a friend’s home.  I still will not eliminate eating at one restaurant in favor of the other, because they both fill a different restaurant eating experience.  Chipotle is great for a fast meal and La Cocina delivers delicious food when you have time to sit down and eat.