I like Mexican fast food a lot. Non-fans say I'm nuts and claim these are all the same. But are those people wrong? Horribly wrong? Starting with a base of 100, let's add and subtract the cool or awful things about each franchise and see what we get. Why not?
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| NYC Locations | +10 Close to the apartment -5 Few locations |
+10 Lots of locations in general -10 Few locations in city |
+10 Lots of locations +15 St. Mark's is really nice -3 Sometimes too crowded |
+5 Bleecker Street is really nice -3 Sometimes too crowded |
-10 Far away; not many in NYC |
| Decor | +5 Good music +5 Lots of seating -2 hours limited -10 Bad garbage cans |
+15 great in the suburbs -20 Dirty in the city -7 Long lines in the city +5 Open late |
+5 Good music | +5 Nice new clean places | +10 Very nice overall -2 weird music +5 Lots of seating |
| Staff | -5 Weird staff; slow | +2 Staff ok | +20 Efficient friendly staff | +10 Friendly staff | +4 Staff fine |
| Food | +5 Free chips +3 Whole wheat tortillas -1 But sometimes they don't have them +10 Good chicken +5 Cucumbers, tomatoes -5 Water unavailable sometimes -5 Stale rice -2 Food placed in weird piles |
+10 Gorditas & Crunchwraps -5 Soggy Gorditas |
-10 No non-spicy available -10 No cucumbers, tortilla strips +5 All-natural or whatever |
+5 Tortilla strips -5 Sometimes too salty +2 Mango salad -2 Lettuce inconveniently large -5 Food not as good overall |
+10 Delicious +7 Free chips, while waiting |
| Misc. | -5 Stupid menu names | +5 Inexpensive -2 Bad reputation -5 Can't watch food preparation |
+3 Discount card | -10 Can't watch food preparation | |
| Total | 103 | 98 | 132 | 115 | 114 |
And the winner is ... !!!!