Is Chipotle Trying to Become the Next Panda Express?

As we reported earlier, Chipotle’s new concept restaurant is called ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen and they made their debut in Washington D.C. just this past week. The popular restaurant chain is taking on a new concept similar to their typical stores—customers will still be going down the line and customizing their food. However, instead of serving not authentic Mexican food, they will now serve not authentic Asian food.

What I am more curious about is what they are actually serving at this restaurant. At a glance of their menu, it seems pretty simplistic like the menu at Chipotle. First you get a choice of brown rice, jasmine rice, or rice noodle. Then you move on to your meats, tofu, and vegetables. And lastly, you got your sauces and toppings to choose from. This seems very similar to the burrito bowl you get at Chipotle. Too bad I won’t be able to order a tortilla on the side at ShopHouse Kitchen like I normally do when I order the burrito bowl at Chipotle.

If the bowl is not what you are craving for, you can get banh mi, a Vietnamese style sandwich, which is customized in the same way as the bowls. You are looking at paying around $6.59 to $7.50 for the bowls, which isn’t too bad. But the banh mi sandwiches are going to be around $6.14 to $7.05. Maybe people in Washington D.C. don’t know about Westminster, CA.—where banh mi sandwiches are one-third of the price of ShopHouse Kitchen’s sandwiches. ShopHouse Kitchen is also serving Asian beers, ginger ale, iced tea and coconut water. Alright, how Asian can this get?!

So, can this new concept by Chipotle actually compete against Panda Express? Because Chipotle hasn’t made any decisions on expanding ShopHouse Kitchen to other locations in the U.S. yet; I think they still have a long way ahead of them before they can challenge Panda Express. I wouldn’t mind checking this place out when I get a chance. I wonder if they have a secret menu too!

[Photo courtesy of Curbed]