Chipotle opens first UK restaurant in nearly four years

07-Jan-2019 - Last updated on 07-Jan-2019 at 10:21 GMT

Chipotle is to open its first UK restaurant in three and a half years, in the City of London today (7 January).

The US burrito brand has taken on the former Vital Ingredient site near Monument for its seventh UK location.

Though Chipotle has not launched a physical restaurant in the UK since it made its City debut in 2015, it began working with Deliveroo Editions in Battersea last year.

“We already have a huge fanbase in the City…we can now serve more people living and working in this area, helping change the way people think about and eat fast food,” says Jacob Sumner, operations director, Chipotle in Europe.

Chipotle made its UK debut on London’s Charing Cross Road in 2010 and has since expanded to central locations in the capital.

It opened its only suburban London restaurant in Wimbledon in 2013, but it closed in 2016.

Speaking to Restaurant magazine in 2012 Sumner, then managing director of Chipotle UK, said the brand was targeting a more gradual expansion in the UK compared to the US, citing hyper-growth as ‘very risky’.

Chipotle opened its first restaurant in Denver, Colorado in 1993 and it now operates more than 2,300 sites in the US and Europe.