Chipotle has numerous strengths and only one crippling flaw: wait times in the lines. It's like Aegislash: its strengths are are so great that its faults become practically irrelevant.
It's funny that the thread title mentions Moe's. When I was still in elementary school, a Moe's location opened a few blocks down from the school to great fanfare. It had booming business for about a month before it became clear that the Chipotle down the street was superior. Moe's has been replaced with a pizza joint. Ah, the beauty of the market.~
When you compare Chipotle to, say, Subway, the difference in the quality of ingredients is pretty remarkable. Besides the whole responsible sourcing thing they like to advertise, I enjoy that their ingredients are fresh, hot (when appropriate), and well-prepared. This is especially nice because, especially if you get a bowl, the portions are very generous. Given that, the prices are actually very reasonable. You can get a positively enormous meal for $7.50. That's a deal!
The combinations themselves are great. My first regular order which lasted for many years was a burrito with white rice (later switched to brown which is way better), double chicken, sour cream, and lettuce, and that's it. When I got to college, I began experimenting with a bowl, but that lent itself more to the pico and the medium salsa. I occasionally add the fajita vegetables, and rarely beans (either black or pinto). I also starting getting the carnitas, which are the best meat at Chipotle. I have only had the steak once and did not care for it. Barbacoa is good but is more expensive. Vegetarian bowls (either guac or sofritas) are both underrated. Eventually, I started mixing and matching pretty much all of the ingredients such that, despite my prodigious intake of Chipotle, I would say that about half of the time I go, I get something new or that I have only had a few times. I usually get my standard bowl of brown rice/chicken (I rarely get double meat in the bowls since the portion is bigger)/pico/medium/small portion of sour cream/lettuce, or occasionally my original burrito. I tend to avoid my original order since it costs more and is not particularly healthy. Cheese remains the only ingredient at Chipotle that I have never ordered. Ew.
To summarize, you get high-quality food at a great price, and it offers a great deal of room for customization and experimentation.
Even better, the long lines make it a great place for gatherings like team dinners since you can bond by passing judgment on the other customers' barbaric combinations (that probably don't taste that bad, because it's Chipotle).
Lastly, I feel very strongly that people (like my younger sibling) who ask for a water cup and then get soda are the worst kind of petty scumbags. Um, you're getting great food at a very reasonable price, and you're not going to pay for something that they probably make a lot of money off of? (Correct me if I'm wrong, lol.) Just pay for your damn drink.
