Freebirds World Burrito

Yeah. Look at all the one star reviews and some of the two stars. Ditto.
I figured the place was still around after a few months so how bad could it be? Right? (then again how has Pita Pit stayed in business this long…) I’d never been there so I thought I’d give it a try. It looked like it might even be a little cheaper. I should know to be wary of a place that’s pretty much dead at 5pm on a Thursday. (We eat dinner early here in Kansas.)
I have worked enough food service to know what it’s like and I almost never complain. I told them as much. But I did complain and I got my money back. Get this– they refunded me only for the burrito, not the drink. Yes, I drank all of the root beer and it was fine, but still it’s the principle of the thing. They made it clear that they didn’t care about losing my business.
And oh boy was the food terrible. Just wretched. As hungry as I was I could not eat the damn thing. Cold tortilla, crunchy under cooked rice, bland beans, the guac gun (are you kidding me?) and everything had this… reek to it, like it had been sitting under a heat lamp all day AND someone had been smoking cheap cigarettes near it. I don’t think I’ve had food this bad since, well… Pita Pit. (and that gave me food poisoning) Taco Bell has better food than this for half the price. Much better. Seriously.
Okay, the décor is kind of dumb but it didn’t actually bother me much. Yes, the crew *looks* a bit «sleazy» for food service. Ever see Yello Sub’s crew though? At least they make decent food.
Seriously, with Mass Street rent? With Chipotle and Mexquito within easy walking distance and La Parilla (the best Mexican place in town) practically right across the street? How has this place lasted this long?
Speaking of La Parilla, I went there because I was still hungry because I couldn’t eat the garbage at Freebirds. Guess what? Before tip, it was actually cheaper. Yeah. Game over man, game over.

This place was nothing special, I am just surprised that the prices are kind off high specially when Chipotle is down the block.
To compete with the giant you have to stand out and price is the key specially in a town full of students trying to save a buck or two.

It’s the worst, avoid it.

My experience was very similar to those in other reviews. We went here because one of our party is a big fan of Chipotle-​style places, and we hadn’t gone here yet. My burrito bowl was cold and average. And they don’t offer any hot salsas! :(If you want anything hot, you have to get it out of a Tabasco-​type bottle, very disappointing! The servers were very nice and I have no complaints there, but I was really disappointed.
There was really nothing to boast about concerning this place. If your want this style of food, go to Chipotle!

Having lived in Santa Barbara, I went to the original Freebirds in IV. I think maybe I had different expectations than some others. This place reminds me very little of that dingy but very SoCal-​Mexican joint where you could get giant nachos at 4am and there was a sign saying the hours when beer wasn’t served (something like 1:30am to 8am?). I didn’t even realize Freebirds was a chain, and from what I understand, the franchises have very little to do with the original location.
Freebirds is a «Chipotle-​style» eatery, where you go down an assembly line and have them build your burrito (or nachos, taco, quesadilla or bowl), and I am going to compare them to Chipotle because most people know what to expect from there.
The best part about Freebirds is that there are more choices: more toppings, more sizes, more free options, more entrée options. (Chipotle has a sort of secret menu, in that they’ll make you a quesadilla, but the pricing scheme really isn’t clear.) A Freebird size burrito costs about the same as a Chipotle burrito, but is smaller. I actually like this because I’ll usually eat the whole burrito but I’d rather just have a smaller one, saving myself the calories. A Monster sized burrito is about the size of a Chipotle one, but costs more. Hybird is the smallest, and then there’s the Super Monster that you only order as a joke or to share. There are 4 tortilla flavors, 2 different rices, 3 cheese options, your standard meats, 3 bean varieties, and tons of veggies and sauces to pile on. All the toppings are free and you can ask for more, more, more if you want; except for guac, sour cream, and queso (think melty queso dip) which are extra unless you buy a veggie version. Some of the toppings are great: roasted garlic (smelly!!), lime juice, roasted jalapenos (on the side) or fresh (inside your burrito)!
The worst part about Freebirds is that it’s just not as good as Chipotle. The ingredients don’t look nor taste very fresh. The Spanish rice (vegetarian!) has been crunchy on occasion. The refried beans look dry. The veggie mix is usually a little overcooked. The pico de gallo is a little too watery. It’s not terrible, but you know you can have something better by going two more blocks down.
The décor is odd, but not offensive (giant Statue of Liberty riding a motorcycle hanging from the ceiling). The staff is hit-​or-​miss. They’re definitely hipsterish, but not in an off-​putting or unfriendly way. I’ve had some good people who knew about the ingredients and others who looked at me like I was crazy when I asked what the Spanish rice ingredients were.
Some minor critiques I have:
–The sour cream and guac come out of gun canister things. It’s just sort of unappetizing. I suppose they do this to regulate the amount given, but having your food shot out is just sort of gross.
–It would be great if they had a list of their sauces and toppings when you get to that area. There are around 20 toppings including a bunch of different salsas/​sauces and many of them are in squirt bottles so I don’t know what they actually are before ordering them.
If you go, get the user card. You get a free burrito after 3 visits and can earn points for more free burritos!
Bottom line: I eat there when I want a fast burrito and more options than Chipotle offers (or, I just got out of Lib Hall and am actually too lazy to walk all the way to Chipotle), but most of the time, I’ll pick their rival. But I suppose I’ll have to update my review once I get the guts to actually order the IV Freebirds most infamous secret menu item– the quesarito, a burrito wrapped in a quesadilla. I’m not sure if they’ll actually make that here, but if they do, I might have to give them an extra star.

Today was my second visit to Freebirds World Burrito on Mass Street in Lawrence. It’s kind of an eclectic atmosphere with a good sized outdoor seating area. I read some of the other reviews here comparing Freebirds to Chipotle and I will say they are similar food concepts but that’s where the similarities end. Freebirds has so many more options such as 4 different sized burritos, 4 different tortillas, a couple dozen toppings, and many many more options that the other place down the street doesn’t have. The burrito’s taste so much better and both times I have been there I left planning my next visit there! Go one time and you’ll never go back to Chipotle! Oh be sure to get a pot brownie for dessert!

Same food as chipotle only worse and more expensive. Walk down mass a little and eat at chipotle.

This is bad food.
It’s tasteless and boring. For the kind of food they serve at Freebirds, it should be Taco Bell type pricing, but they’re closer to Chipotle. This food is overpriced and a total disappointment. It doesn’t matter how many different items they have on their menu if they’re all not even half as good as something you could open out of a can. I didn’t think you could ruin rice, but by golly they did it.
I really was looking forward to good TexMex/​California Fusion typ Mexican food, because I haven’t found a place in Lawrence that I love, yet, but this place isn’t even on the ‘it’s barely adequate and i’m tired and hungry’ list.’ Don’t waste your money. It’s all hype and no substance.

Just what Lawrence needs: another Mexican style restaurant. Can you go a block on Mass without encountering a place that will serve you tacos and burritos? No! So how does this place differentiate itself? It pretends to be a biker bar in the spirit of Easy Rider. Yup it’s that strange.
Everything is biker here including the humongous chopper with a faux statue of liberty getting her groove on. Walls adorned with hippie art such as VW Vans and peace symbols. I kinda of expected the servers to be wearing helmets and chaps, but fortunately they wear typical college attire.
Similar to Chipotle a block away, they serve a variety of tex-​mex ingredients in burrito, taco, salad and bowl format. Pick your rice, beans, and other toppings and away you go. Expect long lines here based on what friends tell me in Johnson County, but they probably don’t have the variety of eating places so nearby.
Besides the theme, what differentiates this place is choice. First you get a choice of burrito size from hybrid to super monster instead of the one size fits all most places. Then you get a choice of tortilla (flour, cayenne, wheat, spinach) and then the menu really takes off with enough vegetables to really make this part of a balanced meal. Ok, not really, but seriously they’ve got some unique stuff here such as roasted garlic, roasted jalapenos and queso. A filled out veggie hybrid can be quite the meal.
How does it compare to Chipotle? The most striking difference was the sodium. I was immediately overwhelmed by it. Comparing nutritional info I see why. I got a veggie bowl with black beans, guac and queso. The black beans have double the sodium of chipotle and that queso has over 1,000 grams in a serving. No wonder I was gasping for water.
The ordering process was similar to Chipotle, but a bit whack. First the hard rock is blaring so not only was my order messed up, but hearing other patrons complain, the music was too loud. Hopefully that’s part of opening day glitches. The menu board though is available when you walk in but not while ordering. Dumb move because I can’t remember all the toppings and I’d like to have a list. Moves the line along slower.
The taste (beside the sodium) was completely comparable. I didn’t like the way they diced the chicken so small and it didn’t seem as charred as the other burrito place. Again, that could be opening week quality control issues. The famous brownies made in a little pot shape aka as «pot brownies» were completely yummy but can you really make a bad brownie? Overall a great meal but it’s fast food after all.
A great choice for dining in Lawrence with some noticeable differentiators to the other Mexican places on Mass street but if you are sensitive to sodium like I am, be careful.

Freebirds accomplished one thing for me: made me want to go eat at Chipotle.
Mexican is my favorite food so I was stoked to try a place where I could build my own burrito. I liked that they had different sizes of burritos, as I can never finish a Chipotle one because it’s too much food. As I found out in line, the tortilla is the same size for all the burritos, so the «size» is just how much meat and fillings they put in. So that was disappointing, because as I chose the smaller hybird burrito, I had a lot of chewy tortilla compared to fillings.
Onto fillings: yes, they have a lot. But they are far inferior to Chipotle in quality and taste. The Spanish rice had hard bits, the onions were huge raw chunks and the cheese was not fresh grated. I had the carnitas which were kind of cooked in this tomato-​y sauce and just not very good tasting. Also, the foil the burritos are wrapped in is so cheap that trying to unwrap your burrito leaves you with a pile of foil shreds.
We got the cheese dip and chips with our meal and the cheese dip was so salty it was inedible. The last straw was seeing a man who appeared to be a manager sneeze by the register without covering his mouth. Ew.

Well, let the debate rage on now that Freebirds has opened up shop in Lawrence. This, while its main rival Chipotle already has two locations and a third under construction in Lawrence. In fact, on the exact same side of the street and a few thousand feet away sits the famous Chipotle on Mass street. This battle will be interesting to watch…
First off, I’ve eaten at KC Freebirds a few times. So no ground breaking expectations were in order at Freebirds on opening day. On my way to class early am (4am ish) I drove by Freebirds the night before opening and was a little surprised to see maybe 20 – 25 people camped out for their free years worth of burritos. Mind you it was in the single digits and freezing over night. I figured the crowds would grow and I expected a long wait when I returned at 11am.
I arrived back to Freebirds around 11:30am on opening day and was shocked that there was very little wait to place an order. The Mission Ks and Westport locations were far busier when the doors opened on the first day. I mean this was nothing compared to a Chic-​Fila-​A or Apple store type grand opening. Oh we’ll, I figure the population and weather had a lot to do with the conservative crowd I saw. I planned on eating at Freebirds for lunch and dinner on same day so I wetn kind of light on the lunch order. I ordered the small nacho’s and a taco. Both were very good. As always with Freebirds, ordering can get a little frustrating with 10+ line employees all yelling at the same time. Therefore, repeating yourself and patience are key. Everything is set up similar to Chipotle. The biggest difference are the amount of options on the menu. Seriously, lots and lots of options to choice from including tortilla flavors, meats, rices, beans, and many other ingredients. This can be good and bad. But IMO this is where Freebirds shines. Oh, they ran out of FREAKING black beans while I was eating (inexcusable that early in day!)
I returned for dinner and had the steak burrito. Very tasty and not the usual grizzly/​chewey steak often accompanying burritos. Had some chips and guac. Their chocalate brownie type desert is to die for. Usual drink choices along with beers. $ 1 opening week beers. That alone will be a big hit with the college drunks on Mass.
The interior is great. Plenty of seating and lots of parking behind Freebirds. Not so clustered with crap like Mission. No music blaring louder than the line staff. Somewhat more docile compared to other locations. May not stay that way but it was a pleasant surprise. The owner of the Mission location was there along with other corporate types.
Way better than Fuzzys down the street but would not say they are better than Chipotle overall. Certain things better at Freebirds and vice versa with Chipotle. My #1 complaint with Freebirds, just like Fuzzy’s and Oklahoma Joe’s for that matter… way too much sodium/​salt in some of their dishes. Pretty sure this is standard with a lot of the processed type foods. But the saltiness in my meat today was a bit much. Especially the carnitas. Again, no biggie because not much you can do about it besides monitor what and how much you eat at Freebirds.
I have no doubt that Freebirds will survive in Lawrence and just glad we have another option in town.