This Fast-Casual Mexican Chain Wins Fans With Its Fresh, High-Quality Ingredients

One of the biggest concerns when eating out is whether the food is healthy, especially at fast-casual chains. When food is quickly assembled in front of you, this doesn't always feel promising. Restaurants are notorious for cutting corners to maximize profits and provide reasonably priced menu items for customers, and this often means using cheaper ingredients. Most of us are aware that McDonald's isn't using locally-sourced, grass-fed beef in its patties, but what about a chain like Qdoba Mexican Eats? Qdoba is technically also a fast food chain, but it stands out to its customers and employees by using higher-quality, fresher ingredients. 

If you're a fan of Qdoba's menu, it's thanks to the restaurant chain's executive chef, Katy Velazquez. A James Beard award winner, cookbook author, and Food Network guest, she develops the menu and recipes for the Mexican chain. In terms of ingredient quality, the chain has committed to using U.S.-grown vegetables and rice, and cage-free eggs, but does not give many details on a vaguely stated "commitment to animal welfare" on its Ingredients & Food Philosophy page. It does, however, opt out of using ingredients like artificial colors and flavors and high fructose corn syrup in its food.

Customers of Qdoba are not shy to express on social media on how it compares to other Mexican chains. On the subreddit r/fastfood, one user wrote a post titled, "Opinion- Qdoba is superior to any other 'build-your-own' Mexican fast food," citing reasons like a variety of meat options, affordable steak, vegetarian options like fajita veggies, pico, and corn salsa, and no extra charge for premium ingredients like guacamole and sour cream. On the r/Qdoba subreddit, another fan explains that when comparing Chipotle and Qdoba, Qdoba has far more and superior offerings, like items such as the QuesaBirria Quesadilla and QuesaBirria Burrito.

In a GQ article, the author details why Qdoba is the better option over Chipotle, stating, "My reasoning is best explained with an acronym I just invented called COPS, which stands for Cost, Options, Palate, and Safety." He goes on to argue that Qdoba is often cheaper across the menu, offers more variety of menu options (even breakfast), has some tastier options like the queso, and hasn't been threatened by the number of food-borne illness scares like Chipotle.

Employees on Reddit also explain what goes on in the back of the house. One user on the r/Qdoba subreddit that worked at the chain from 2017-2018 explained, "Beans and rice were cooked in house. Guac and pico were made fresh and I believe the corn salsa was brought in bagged." Another user on the same thread described how the meat is prepped, "The pork, chicken, and steak are all made fresh from raw meat. The pork especially is cooked in their own marinade and slow-roasted for hours, it's probably the highest quality meat on the menu. All other meat is steamed in bags." Before you head out to Qdoba, check out our favorite menu items ranked from worst to best.