Ever feel like your Chipotle burrito is a bit on the skimpy size lately? One TikToker, who claims to be an ex-employee of the fast-casual Mexican food chain, says you aren’t just imagining things.
TikTok entertainer LilSauceLegend (@lilsaucelegend) aka Nate, claims to be an ex-employee of Chipotle Mexican Grill—and he’s gone viral for a video screed extolling frustrated customers to top patronizing the popular chain.
In the video with over 1.3 million views as of Monday, Nate pulls no punches against his alleged former employer, claiming that company policy is responsible for the minuscule amounts of protein in the restaurant’s burritos and bowls.
“If you are legitimately upset with the portion sizes that they give out at Chipotle – stop going there,” he exhorts his viewers in the video.
“I’m not saying this as a ‘if you don’t like it just stop going there’ kind of message,” he explains. “No, this has a point. Corporate only allows us to give out four ounces of protein,” he claims. “Per burrito, per bowl.”
“The people that are working on the line and on digital orders, they have no control over this,” he further alleges, “because our managers are watching us like f***ing hawks.”
“If the manager has to come out and show you the little booklet with the portion sizes on it more than twice a week you get a write-up,” he claims.
“The only way that Chipotle corporate will ever increase the portion sizes [is] if they see a hit in somewhere that matters to them. They’re not going to respond to tweets; they’re not going to respond to you calling corporate,” he argues. “The only way they will learn to change their portion sizes [is] if you hit them where it counts: in their f***ing wallets.”
Why is Chipotle so stingy?
In December of last year, the Daily Dot covered another self-identified ex-employee of Chipotle who made similar claims about the chain. TikTok user Jennifer (@jennyg6612) stated in her own video, “If you feel like they’re skimping you, it’s because they are and they’re doing it on purpose.”
Similar to Nate, Jennifer claimed, “[The managers] literally tell you to skimp people and to give them as like little as possible, and they will even start off with a small amount of stuff, just to see if you say anything, just to see if you want more, because the goal is to make the most profit and have the least amount of loss.”
@lilsaucelegend Chipotle Has To change #fypシ #lilsaucelegend #chipotle #strike ♬ original sound – LilSauceLegend
A 2015 Wall Street Journal article seemed to agree, at least in part, with both Nate and Jennifer’s claims, stating that Chipotle’s employees are “trained to be stingy” with higher priced proteins, notably, steak, chicken and carnitas.
As reported by Eater, the Journal found that employees are instructed to retain eye contact with customers to ‘gauge their satisfaction level’ and that the employee handbook “comes with some pro-tips so employees don’t over-serve.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Chipotle via email for a statement.
Some viewers claiming to be fellow ex-employees responded to Nate’s video in the comments.
AngelC_65 (@angelc_65) wrote, “As a former chipotle employee it’s true.”
Another viewer, Rigbone_42 (@rigbone_42) commented, “The verbal degrading i got for giving too much meat was not worth it.”
Lex (@lexloso3) added, “I dead used to work at chipotle, alot of ya dont know the struggle fr gang no cap.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Nate via TikTok messenger for further comment.
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