Q…Q…Qdoba

You have to love a restaurant whose name starts with a Q and is not followed by a U. Too bad it’s a proper name and no able to be used in scrabble.

What I really love about this place now is that they have made some great changes to their menu. I have always like the build-your-own burrito type of joints, but really wasn’t all that in love with Qdoba’s style. I prefer the old Atomic Burrito style (boo hoo – they went out of business), which is closely familiar with Freebird (the best of all build-your-owns currently), where you get to choose your own toppings and build a burrito by looking at all the condiments and items behind the glass. It’s like Subway for burritos.

So what was my beef with Qdoba (pun intended)? First off their beef is nowhere near as good as the fresh, spicy, grilled chicken and the verde pork. But what I hated the most was you didn’t get to choose your burrito size. Since I cannot control portions on my own, I would rather someone do this for me and that is what I was looking for. I know, I know, I should just save half for later, but since they taste so good, that never works for me.

What they have always offered is the “naked” burrito, which is simply everything you want in a bowl and the tortilla on the side. This does help a bit with portion control. What I didn’t love is that they made you follow their given formula. For example, let’s say you want a chicken burrito with black beans, no rice, and you don’t want the queso, but you want the grilled veggies, etc., they didn’t offer this. While technically, they can make it that way for you (although you pay for lots of extras), they want you to follow their predetermined formula from queso burrito to poblano pesto burrito to grilled veggie burrito.

So, now not only have they given you the options to truly build-your-own, but they have a pick two option. So you can pick a naked burrito to be paired with a quesadilla or a cup of soup, etc. You should check out their menu to explore all the combinations.

What is probably more enticing is that they have added options to the kids menu to include a choice of milk or juice rather than only a soft drink and you can have black beans, applesauce or chips for the side.

For these reasons alone and their scrumptious homemade chips, I will be making more trips here. Thankfully the service at the location by our house has improved; otherwise I would have never gone back and seen such wonderful new changes.