Which is better, Moe’s or Chipotle?

By: Clark Kinney

Around 2-3 years ago, the Mexican chain, Chipotle opened a location in Sumter. Sumter already housed a similar Mexican-type restaurant in Moe’s Southwest Grill, so this raised a question and a big debate: Moe’s or Chipotle? 

I am going to tackle this debate from a little different angle than some people may expect if you don’t know me. You see, I am kinda a nutrition nerd and I know thar’s kinda weird but it’s true. I track how many grams of protein, carbs, and fats I eat, and I look to have more protein than carbs and fats in almost every meal and at these restaurants I can get pretty close to doing so. Let’s break this thing down. With Chipotle, I know exactly what I’m getting, I can look up on their website the complete nutrition of my exact order so I know what I’m putting in my body. With Moe’s it’s kinda a guessing game with nutrition because they don’t make it so easy for you to find their nutritional information; in fact, I’ve never found it, I’ve just used what other people have estimated which could be correct or not. Here are my normal orders for both:

Chipotle-bowl with white rice, no beans, double steak, one serving chicken, medium salsa, corn pico, and lettuce

Moe’s- bowl with southwest rice, double white meat chicken, one serving steak, queso, corn, raw onion, Moe’s sauce, and poblano crema (don’t knock it until you try it)

The prices of both vary greatly and this is always due to my extra, extra (triple) meat. At both places, the person making my bowl tells the person ringing me up what I ordered and they tell them something different every time, so the prices very greatly. Sometimes it’s $15 and sometimes it’s up to $30 and I don’t know which one is technically right, so I don’t argue and just pay for whatever they say. With that being said, price doesn’t really play a role in this debate; however, the taste does. At Chipotle, my order taste the same every time and it’s great. At Moe’s, my order is sometimes fire and makes me wanna slap Coach Rip (Editor’s note: assault) in the face, and other times, it’s not as good. I also just feel better after eating Chipotle because I know exactly what’s in it and what I ate. 

In my opinion, Chipotle is better than Moe’s due to its consistency and nutrition, but Moe’s is still very good.