Pancheros Mexican Grill

Bad. Cross contamination. The only good thing was the nice young man who helped me. However, the manager I believe, (dark haired woman, with a jacked up grill) was extremely rude when my sister asked about gluten free options. I understand serving guests who eat gluten free is a inconvenience. I work in the industry, I do it. But you should have seen the look on her face when asked. To which she laughed and said no she didn’t think they had anything. Really condescending about it.
That was enough to have a bad experience, however the real problem was when the young man was making my burrito, and she comes over off the meat grill from which she has just laid a ton of raw chicken and beef on with her gloves, and began to touch the fridge items and my burrito. I said outloud to my sister, ‘She has raw meat all over her hands!’ To which she just looked at me and walked away. The young man then changed his gloves, for which i thanked him, because I believe he was embarrassed too. Gross woman, who apparently should not be serving food because she doesn’t understand cross contamination. We will never be coming back.

They are not attentive to gluten sensitivities. Told my wife her meal was gluten free and it was not. She ended up very sick, we later checked their website that pointed out the chicken did have gluten for one reason or another. This day and age employees should know what gluten is and what menu items contain it.

Wish we had a Panchero’s in our area. My husband and I love the burritos and the queso is yummy, too. If you’re a Qdoba and/​or Chipotle fan, this is a great alternative. Service is fast and the staff is very friendly. Wish they offered a whole wheat tortilla instead of just the flour, but maybe they will eventually. We grabbed food to go on a week night; the restaurant was very busy and a little on the messy side. I noticed the mess, but it didn’t bother me personally as we took our food to go. Will definitely return!

Let me begin by saying I love every single thing pancheros has to offer. Great atmosphere, beyond friendly service, quickly made and delicious food. I worked at this particular Pancheros for a good amount of time, and to say the general manager is dedicated is a complete understatement. I’ve seen customers practically take advantage of his impeccable service.
Absolutely everything there is freshly made and high quality, pancheros doesn’t even have a freezer it’s that fresh.
Don’t let one badly rolled burrito soil your pancheros experience, new employees have to start somewhere. Go there during a rush and I promise your burrito and it’s contents will be made to perfection. Don’t be scared of the line, the maximum expected time to make a burrito is 2:00.
The spinach artichoke quesadilla is the current limited time offer as I write this review and I couldn’t recommend it any more. My jaw literally dropped when I saw they had brought this back as I hadn’t seen it in about a year. All in all, the best deal for your money around Cedar Rapids

Fast food place with friendly staff that was very busy when I showed up. Food tasted good going down, but hit my intestines like a brick 30 minutes later.

We came in to town recently rather late and very hungry. We thought a chain burrito place would have huge food that would satisfy us, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. The veggie burrito I ordered was good but small, and we ended up at Taco Bell a few minutes later. The food and restaurant concept is similar to Chipotle, Qdoba etc.

Had the burrittA and it was good. The place is setup like Subway. You start at the one end and walk along telling the worker what you want in your burrito, or other meal. I paid 10 bucks for mine and it was tasty. Good size and it will fill you up. Not something I would go for all the time, but well worth it to go back. The place is very clean and odor free.

I remember when I first discovered Panchero’s when I was in high school… that was forever ago and I remember I thought it was the bee’s knees… Now, well let’s just say it isn’t quite what I remember and especially with loads of other companies doing similar concepts, I wouldn’t say that Panchero’s does it the best anymore.
The food is still decent, although the rice is lacking some kind of flavor, especially when other companies like Qdoba and Chipotle are doing cilantro lime rice. My item of choice is always the carnitas burrito. I haven’t bothered with anything else on the menu, besides maybe changing the choice of meat in the burrito, but I find the steak too tough and the chicken too dry. And instead of the salsas, I go for the pico de gallo, it looks fresher than the salsas and I think it tastes better.
The customer service at this particular location wasn’t very good either. The people behind the counter just couldn’t seem to get our orders right. I don’t know if I was just less experienced in the way of the massive, Subway-​esque burrito chains or if Panchie’s has gone downhill since branching out, but it isn’t quite what I remember =(.

Panchero’s started in Iowa City and has now franchised around the country. Think of the Subway assembly line concept and apply it to an oversized burrito. You follow your burrito down the line while the line workers ask you if you want this or that ingredient in your burrito. It seems fresher, if not healthier and like BK says, «you can have it your way».
They put a small dough ball in a huge tortilla press, pull a lever and it presses and cooks your tortilla in a few seconds. I’m not sure if it makes the tortilla taste any better, but they make a big deal about it anyway. The tortilla is as big as a monkey parachute, which you’ll need once they ladle on the whole beans, rice, meat, cheese and your choice of a few other toppings like sour cream, salsa, jalapeos, guac, etc. One burrito makes a full meal for even a big guy.
I don’t care much for any of the other menu items, tacos, quesadillas, etc. Don’t even bother with the chips and salsa. The chips taste like they come from a box, the salsa appears to be canned and the queso? Well, let just say Kraft called. They want their Cheese Whiz back.
My advice, stick to the burrito and load it up with your favorite ingredients and you can’t go too wrong.