The Subway model of dining has its appeal. It gives you the freedom to choose whatever bizarre combination of ingredients and toppings your hunger fever dreams up. And those ingredients are usually, if not quite fresh, then fresh-like. Then you get to watch some poor schmoe assemble your meal as if it was actual cooking. As fast food goes, it’s a fine choice.
And it works even better when that template is tacked onto the simplicity of Tex-Mex food. That pseudo-ethnic cuisine has already been distilled by big chains into a dozen or so ingredients stuffed in different combinations into fried, grilled, or soft flour or corn tortillas. That simplicity means allows the Subway model to doTex-Mex better than it does the deli sandwich.
Qdoba is the most recent entrant into Tampa’s burrito lines and, at first glance, it seems an almost exact clone of other contenders Moe’s and Chipotle. Look at the menu if you’d like, but there’s really no need. Besides picking ingredients as you walk down the sneeze-guarded steam and salad bar, you only have three choices: do you want your meat, veg and cheese stuffed in a burrito, tucked into a “taco”, or dumped into a bowl?
None of Qdoba’s basic fixin’s set the restaurant apart. Like its competitors, the meat ranges from greasy and dry to moist and salty, seemingly at random, more a function of time in on the line or in the refrigerator than skill and seasoning. Toppings are fresh, although the cilantro and lime that you can find at other places is missing. Surprisingly, salsas here have some heat — the medium is actually quite hot and the hot is basically a scorcher. From mild to blazing, though, none of them have much refreshing acidity – which Chipotle has – or depth of smoky pepper flavor – like Moe’s.
So with such a simple formula that only allows subtle nuances to create an identity, how does a chain set itself apart? Qdoba digs back into the fast food repertoire and injects a healthy dose of corn syrup, fat and marketing into its otherwise simple and seemingly healthy foods, thanks to Signature Sauces. Ranchera is a basic red gravy with the artificial twang of food science, with poblano pesto and the oddly liquid three cheese queso following suit.
Order the ancho chile barbecue burrito and you’ll be taking an otherwise respectable wrap and throwing an extra 19 grams of extremely bland sugar on top. With sauce, sour cream, cheese and the usual stuffings, your healthy burrito now tops 1,200 calories and about 130 percent of your recommended daily allowance of sodium. Take that, fast food.
The call the Signature Burritos “original flavors you won’t find anywhere else.” Maybe, if you’ve never dipped into the plastic tubs of sauces that come with chicken nuggets at McDonalds.
Then there’re the tacked-on charges that come with any extras you care to ask for: sour cream, salsa, chips, a plate, whatever. That’s not endemic just to Qdoba – at all these burrito bar chains you’ll end up with a better meal than at Subway, but at a considerably higher price. Call it an easy $9 with chips and a drink.
And for $9, I guarantee there’s a Mexican or Puerto Rican corner store nearby that would be happy to fill you – and probably a friend or two – with healthier, more interesting and ultimately more satisfying fare than you’ll find at Qdoba. Or Moe’s. Or Chipotle.
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2008.