Anna Keeve
- Menu hacks allow customers to get their creative juices flowing. Sometimes, they end up on menus.
- But hack orders are also known to slow down worker efficiency and even cut into company profits.
- Ordering oversized burritos at Chipotle is an example of a trend that upsets fast-food workers.
Secret menu "hacks" at chain restaurants are nothing new, especially at Chipotle. But a recent trend of ordering oversized burritos, made popular on TikTok, only adds to fast-food workers' frustrations with viral videos on social media.
In January, TikTok user stalliontink posted a TikTok of himself ordering what he calls a 'quad' burrito, which stuffs three scoops of rice and black beans and three servings of chicken, among other ingredients, into four tortillas as opposed to just one.
In the video, stalliontink wishes the Chipotle worker assembling the burrito "good luck" on wrapping it. Eventually, a second Chipotle employee steps in to finish the job. The TikTok currently has over 17 million views.
Comments on the video are now turned off, but the Daily Dot reported that viewers responding to the video wrote, "The way you said 'good luck' would have made me irrationally angry" and "I'd quit my job on the spot."
The TikTok did not mention how much stalliontink paid for the order. But another post, in which he placed the order again, this time asking for three tortillas, shows he paid $10.85 for the meal with use of a discount code, according to Delish.
Some TikTok users have since posted their own oversized Chipotle burrito orders. Other Chipotle customers have ordered them online via the chain's app, dating back to last year.
Pros and Cons of Menu Hacks
Menu hacks allow customers to get their creative juices flowing. In some cases, like Starbucks' Pink Drink, customer inventions can end up on the menu. But hack orders are also known to slow down worker efficiency and even cut into company profits if customers find ways to order food more cheaply than what it should cost.
Restaurants have gone as far as to ban customers from ordering item combinations not on the menu. A recent Chipotle craze, for example, involved ordering a quesadilla with both steak and fajita vegetables, which the customer then dips into a Chipotle vinaigrette and sour cream mix.
Chipotle initially told workers to be selective about complying with orders for the $12.55 fajita quesadilla, according to the Washington Post. But some stores began to deny the order, going as far as creating signs that read: "Protein and cheese only on quesadilla!"
Waffle House had a similar reaction to the "Waffle House sandwich." A sign at select Waffle House locations read "Order from the menu we are not making anything you saw on TikTok." The sandwich fits three eggs, meats, and cheese in-between two large waffles.