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Chipotle’s CEO revealed that customers have every right to ask for more when they feel like their orders are being skimped on toppings.
Scott Boatwright said Monday that diners should never walk away feeling shortchanged when adding salsas, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, fajita veggies, and both types of rice and beans to their orders.
“You should ask for a little more,” Boatwright told Yahoo Finance “Power Players” podcast host Brian Sozzi. “It has always been our brand ethos, and it is still to this day. We serve big, beautiful bowls and burritos. Full stop, no questions asked.”
Boatwright, who has led Chipotle’s more than 4,100 locations worldwide since late 2024, made clear there are no hoops to jump through to get proper topping portions when ordering.
“If you want more, just ask the team member,” he said. “I promise you there’s never a team member on that line that’s going to say no.”
Boatwright’s comments come after more than a year of accusations that the chain, once known for giant stuffed burritos and burrito bowls, had told its workers to downsize portions.
But Boatwright is not the first Chipotle CEO to address the issue.
Former CEO Brian Niccol — who has since become CEO of Starbucks — addressed the issue in July 2024, shortly after customers first aired frustrations on social media, saying there was never a “directive to provide less to our customers.”
Niccol told Fortune that the fast-casual chain “always wants to give people big portions that get them excited about the food.”
“Usually, our guys and women give them a little more scoop,” he said. “It’s kind of who we are… our goal is to give people great experiences.”
Chipotle’s chief corporate affairs and food safety officer also assured People in an interview last May that there had been no changes to the company’s portion sizes.
“Our intentions are to provide a great experience every time, and our meals have always been completely customizable so guests can vocalize or digitally select their desired portions when choosing from the list of real ingredients,” she said, adding that customers have always been allowed to request more or less of something when ordering.
When complaints about Chipotle’s shrinking portions exploded on social media last year, Wells Fargo analyst Zachary Fedam began collecting data across orders and testing whether online and in-store portions matched, according to Barron’s.
Fedam, alongside other finance professionals, ordered and weighed 75 like-for-like burrito bowls across eight locations in New York City, finding that the median weight was around 21.5 ounces.
The data showed a wide range, however, with the smallest bowl weighing just 13.8 ounces and the largest tipping the scales at 26.8 ounces — a nearly 13-ounce difference between the two extremes.
Fedam noted that consistency varied widely, with some locations serving bowls that weighed roughly 33% more than others on equivalent orders, and the heaviest digital orders coming in 87% heavier than the lightest.
