“I just got dinner at Chipotle for under $5,” TikToker Sydney Pavina (@sydney.does.disney) claims in a viral video that’s garnered over 496,000 views as of Sunday. In the clip, she shows a bag in front of the camera and promises viewers she’s going to show how they, too, can enjoy a meal from Chipotle for just $5.
The popular Mexican-style fare chain has come under fire for its pricing, which numerous customers have hopped on the internet to say is exorbitant. Some folks also complained that despite paying a lot, they didn’t even receive complete orders. One woman, for example, ordered a quesadilla, but ended up with a bunch of its “guts” instead, while lacking the tortilla and cheese.
As a result, several customers have crafted ways to get the most bang for their buck when ordering from Chipotle and are quick to share their “hacks” online. They include a $3 burrito hack that an employee was fired over for criticizing online—the same hack that became so popular, but so tedious for workers to make, that Chipotle purportedly shut down.
@sydney.does.disney Listen, I love a good Chipotle hack. I just had to try this one and it did NOT disappoint!!! Will definitely be doing this again and again and again #sydneydoesdisney #chipotle #chipotlehacks #chipotlehack #fyp #fypシ ♬ original sound – Sydney 🙆🏻♀️
So what is Pavina’s hack? All customers need to do is get a kid’s meal.
“The total is less than $5,” she says while showing off the receipt. She explains how she ordered a quesadilla and opted to go for chips instead of fruit. The real “hack” comes into play when she begins showing all of the sides that she got with her order: guacamole, sour cream, lettuce, salsa corn. “
I just felt awkward so I stopped at four, but you can get more,” she excitedly says into the camera. She also shares that she was not charged extra for any of the sides.
“Oh! And with the kid’s meal, you get a little drink,” Pavina states as she holds up the fountain beverage. Next, she brings the kid’s meal food container into the frame and uncovers it, revealing that in addition to the quesadilla, she also received three servings of other sides: rice, beans, and veggies, in addition to the containers she previously showed to her viewers.
“I asked for chicken in my quesadilla, which was a stupid move I should’ve asked for chicken in one of these,” the TikToker remarks, pointing to one of the sides containers on the tray. “But I panicked when she asked me if I wanted something in my quesadilla. And I said, ‘Yeah, chicken.’ But normally you would put the chicken in one of these and then get like your rice or your veggies or your beans.” Apparently, this is the way to maximize the amount of food that you would get for the $4.76 order.
Pavina then reviews the meal by first digging into the quesadilla, which she says could’ve used more cheese. “It’s good but now I’m just kinda sad I didn’t get cheese as one of my sides.”
After she’s done eating her quesadilla, Pavina shows how she enjoys the three sides that came with her kids’ meal, along with the additional sides given to her in the plastic containers. Scooping them all into the empty section of the tray, she mixes the rice, beans, and veggies into the bowl, then tops them with the corn, lettuce, and sour cream. Next up is topping it with guacamole, but she has to eat some of it first before doing so, as the portions will flow out of the container.
Pavina’s tactic is to then use her chips to scoop up the veggies, rice, beans, guacamole, lettuce, corn, and sour cream concoction with her side of chips and when those are done, to eat it like a veggie burrito bowl. At the end of the clip, she exclaims again that one gets all of this food, and a drink, for around $5.
However, one commenter poked a hole in Pavina’s claim about the sides being free, stating that they were charged for the additional menu items that they asked for.
“They always charge me for sides with a kids meal!” they wrote.
Pavina replied, “Maybe I got lucky? Idk all I did was go inside and order the meal. Then asked for extra sides,” adding in an additional response to another TikToker that she wasn’t charged for them.
“Yeah you got lucky the kid quesadilla only gets 2 sides and the rest are 1.45 and if you get meat the guacamole is 2.60,” another TikToker said.
There have been instances where other influencers have professed their love for Chipotle’s kids’ meals, and when the Daily Dot navigated to Chipotle’s website to place an order for one, we did discover there was indeed a limit on the number of sides that came with the meal when purchasing it online.
Some folks who tried the “kids’ meal hack” themselves ended up accruing several fees for the extra sides that they requested, turning their $5 meal into a $17 one.
So maybe Pavina was indeed lucky and the employees at the Chipotle she visited decided to be chill that day and left the additional charges out of it.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Chipotle via email and Pavina via Instagram direct message for further comment.
