Qdoba Mexican Grill

This was not a good experience. The food is alright, but service was terrible. I walked into a very dirty looking place, received a very messily made bowl, and was treated like I was bothering the staff. When my girlfriend asked the difference between the two types of chicken, the guy working said, «it’s pretty much the same thing, but one has seasoning». All in all, it was a disappointing experience and we probably won’t come back.

awesome service — the AC wasn’t working in the restaurant so they gave us two Free Entrée coupons, even though it wasn’t even warm in the place. Free Kids meals on Sundays and the options are great.

Me and my husband did not have a good experience when we went on one occasion. We ordered chicken quesadillas and our chicken according to their standards was «charred». I was not fond of their «charred» chicken! The last time me and my husband went to this location we opted for the ground beef instead to avoid any «charred» chicken. There meat could have used a little more flavor, but it beat their chicken that’s for sure! We will probably not be frequenting this location very often.

I love Qudoba. I got there three tacos with chicken. YUMMY! Not very expensive and just good flavor. YUM!

I received a catered meal from here on Mon. night at a talk that I attended. It contained a chicken burrito, a few chips and pico de gallo, and half a brownie. While edible, the chicken burrito was nothing special – it contained mostly rice, plus some chicken and the standard black beans. There were very few veggies, and no extras, included in the burritos. While I understand that not everyone may want guac, sour cream, cheese, etc. in their burritos, it would be nice to offer a small portion of these as an accompaniment either in each meal, or a larger portion of them with the order for people to apply as they please. I found the lack of extras especially ironic in light of Qdoba’s recent ad campaign about extras not costing extra.
Based on past experience, I believe the quality of this meal is representative of the quality of product at this Qdoba. I visited with my labmates for lunch a little over a year ago, and recall being similarly underwhelmed by the nachos and quesadilla, both of which are two of my favorite Americanized Mexican foods. Way back in 2007, when I tried Chipotle and Qdoba for the first time in Fort Collins, CO, I recall preferring Qdoba, because I felt that the product was similar in quality, but I appreciated the greater choice that Qdoba offered (I’m more into nachos and quesadillas than burritos, TBH). However, based on more recent experience, I feel that the product quality at Qdoba (at least, at this location) has declined. If they want to remain competitive with the similar business across the street, they need to kick up the product quality a notch. As it were, they won’t be receiving my business again anytime soon.

There’s fast food and there is sloppy food.
The Qdoba is sloppy. How sloppy you ask?
So sloppy that the black bean that fell onto the counter is tossed back onto your nachos. So sloppy they they give you a ton of sour cream and barely any queso. So sloppy that your quesadilla will be soggy and drippy and contain no melted cheese.
This is why everyone loves Chipotle across the street.

I feel like there’s always this argument within my circle of friends about who makes the best burritos: Qdoba or Chipotle? To be honest, I’ve never had Qdoba before this point. Always a Chipotle fan so never found the reason to try the «other» burrito place.
To judge for myself, I went to Qdoba and ordered their burrito with the exact fillings I would’ve ordered at Chipotle. Here’s what I have to say about Qdoba. First off, their burrito is equally as fat as Chipotle’s. Qdoba’s chicken was a bit dry and the seasoning not as flavorful. The beans too soggy, making the whole burrito extremely soggy. The salsa was not crisp, but mushy. Overall, I thought the burrito was kind of bland due to the lacking of seasoning in the chicken.
The final verdict: I did not finish my buritto. Qdoba disappointed me and I will be back at Chipotle tomorrow.

The last few times I have been there the staff has been horrible. The don’t pay attention and then when I ask again for them to add something I already asked for they give an attitude. The food isn’t that great to have to deal with staff that don’t care. Chipotle is the better option anyways for fast food Mexican in Oakland.

The tastiness is on par with the Chipotle across the street, but the quality of ingredients seemed dubious to me. The ingredients seemed like they had been sitting out for a while as opposed to the other Tex-​Mex and Mexican places in the area. (I suspect this is a result of having a lower customer flow).
I was also suspicious of the quality of meat. The meat was sitting in plastic bags which leads me to believe that they were prepackaged; to say the least, it wasn’t the most appetizing presentation.
Lastly, one of the employees made us feel uncomfortable with inappropriate remarks. The management needs to make sure that employees are behaving professionally.

Tuesday is Taco special day. The price is 1.29 dollar per taco, which is really inexpensive. But the taco is really small and the worst of all, it is cold.
Which I didn’t expect is that even I bought tacos with super low prices they still offer free drink if you can show a valid student ID card.
But I have to mention that the tacos on Atwood street are way more better. I’d rather get cash from the nearest ATM and walk there.

For a long time, I avoided Qdoba. Really! I always had this idea that the food here was awful, greasy, and just all around bad for me. Well, I was mostly right, but it turns out that Qdoba is not nearly as bad as I thought it would be! In fact, I could easily see it becoming a fantastic occasional treat in my life.
I stopped in and ordered a quesadilla to go and couldn’t have been happier. The pulled pork was delicious and I was able to get extra salsa, guacamole and sour cream in little cups on the side, meaning that my main entrée wasn’t completely slathered in distracting toppings. And I was SO impressed with the staff and assembly line they had going. Despite coming in to find a long dinner line, I was in and out within minutes. Very nice!
I didn’t stay to eat here because the layout in the dining area seemed pretty cramped, although I noticed as I was getting ready to leave that there was an upstairs. Any place in Oakland is bound to have space issues sometimes just because of the student lunch/​dinner rush. But the layout here did nothing to help the matter; while the staff were able to keep the line moving, there was almost no room to actually accommodate the long line that began forming and snaking through the tiny building.
Still, the food was pretty excellent, even if I had to go elsewhere to get some elbow room while I devoured it. For the record, comparing Qdoba and Chipotle seems pretty apples and oranges given that their menus are only a little similar. So sure, the food is better at Chipotle, but the options aren’t NEARLY as diverse. Apples and oranges. A better comparison is Qdoba and Taco Bell, and in that sense Qdoba is truly superior. I mean really, who thinks it’s even a contest?
Unfortunately there were no reasonably healthy options here, so I doubt I’m going to be able to become a regular. Once I work off the quesadilla in about a month I’d love to eventually come back and see if the tacos compare — although I admit, when it comes to burritos I do think I’ll forever be a Chipotle fan.

This is a great restaurant for students. They offer Taco Tuesday and Burrito Friday, as well as free drinks with a student ID. The food is affordable and filling, and the service is generally fast, except at peak hours (usually 11:30−1 and 5−6PM).

Bar upstairs!
This doesn’t get 5 stars because Chipotle is superior. But this is also not a review for food. This particular Qdoba is home of a bar upstairs. Attention college Students: this is the CHEAPEST bar in all of Pittsburgh. Yuengling is always 2 dollars for a pint, and other drinks and shots are 2 – 3 dollars as well.
I think it was on a Friday or Saturday, they have specials on their fishbowls. Beware of the fishbowls though. They don’t really come in fishbowls, just pitchers. And they all taste terrible. However, there is a lot of booze in them so if you are looking to get plastered, go for the lime flavored. That’s the most tolerable. AVOID BLUE!
Anyways, I like this place because it’s small, and you can’t smoke here because it’s a restaurant so if you aren’t a smoker, you don’t come out of the place smelling like tobacco like many other bars in the city.

I used to pick Chipotle over Qdoba, and I still think that that the actual food is a little better at Chipotle**. However, it’s not THAT much better. Qdoba has SO MUCH MORE.
1. More choices. Chipotle really focuses on doing one thing well, and they do. It makes sense they were once owned my McDonald’s. However, you can get cheese sauce at Qdoba. CHEESE SAUCE people! And BBQ sauce. And this other sauce. And delicious green salsa. Plus, soup and nachos. I like choices. I like the pick two. Variety is fun.
2. They have a rewards program. I’ve been saying for YEARS that Chipotle owes me serious rewards. When I was preggo, I ate like 5 burritos a week. What did they give me in return? Zilch. Zero. Nada. Nothing. What does Qdoba give you in return? A free entrée for every ten you buy! Horray! With that math, Chipotle owes me about 70 free entrees. Pay up, B*$ch. Oh, right. They won’t.
3. If you order a naked burrito, you get free chips. I love free chips. I order naked all the time. Again, Chipotle owes me free chips.
4. Students get free drinks. Guess what? I’m a student.
5. They have a kids meal. I have a kid! Chipotle actually might beat them on this. They have an adorable kids meal. With mini bag of chips. My daughter LOVES it. However, if we get two tacos at Qdoba, she’s pretty happy two.
6. $ 1.29 Taco Tuesdays.
7. $ 5 Burrito Fridays.
Need I go on? Good because I ran out of things to say. But I think I’ve given enough good reasons by now.
**I personally think that Chipotle’s chicken has better spices, beans are more flavorful, and rice tastes better with that little cilantro-​lime seasoning thing they do. Qdoba has all those ingredients, but they’re just not quite as good.

I eat here at least 3 times a week. The cooks are so down to Earth, and also make me smile when I come in.
I normally get two tacos, steak or ground sirlion. I like that this place is so close to my job and that the cooks are nice.
One con– None of the cooks ever mentioned a rewards card to me. I would think that since I eat there so much some one would have told me. I do have a rewards card now. But with the amount of money I spend in here I could have had 5 free meals lol. No harm no foul.

What makes Qdoba better than Chipotle?
You can get queso on your burrito.
Seriously, Chipotle, why no queso? That seems pretty standard to me.
Qdoba is just a chain, and it’s owned by McDonald’s. Despite both of these issues, their burritos are just awesome! Simply, effing, delicious. And filling to boot.

Excellent call on
Having a bar, Qdoba!
Come on, Chipotle.
(b)

This was the first place that I ever tried Qdoba and I was hooked. I had never seen anything like this before and I was hesitant about trying it out but I had a friend who worked there so I figured, why not. Well. Got the steak fajita burrito which was terrific.
The place is really clean and I do recall them serving beer here. The guacamole is delicious but I hate how it costs more to get it. The regular burritoes are good but I’m not really a beans fan so I usually get the steak fajita burrito.

Blech. The saltiest Mexican style food I’ve ever had — worse than places like Baja Fresh. I had the fajita burrito with chicken. If you like salty, give it a try; I won’t be repeating it.

This is a pretty good place. I generally like the quality of the products, the price is very reasonable as well. The obvious comparison is to Chipotle (and I have to tell you, though I like both, I do think it is freaking obnoxious the way that Chipotle has decided to open up right next to all of the existing local Qdoba locations that were here first – i mean alls fair and all, but it is a d%ck move). In any case the quality of the ingredients seems a cut above at Chipotle vis a vis Qdoba, but Qdoba has better overall menu variety and selection.
Qdoba may not be very authentic, however, that said, I am not a culinary anthropologist. If I was traveling to a far flung destination in Mexico, I would want to make sure that the food I was eating was authentic and true to the «experience» I was looking for. When I am hunter gathering for dinner, I am interested in reasonable prices, and food that it just plain Yummy. Qdoba qualifies.