Boloco Harvard

Boloco is a solid burrito option in Harvard Square. They have a variety of interesting burrito styles, including teriyaki, buffalo, Bangkok thai (Thai-​style peanut sauce, asian slaw, cucumbers, brown rice), and the summer (mango salsa, melted cheese, black beans, and rice). You can also choose a protein like chicken, carnitas, or steak (steak costs extra) to put inside. My favorites are the teriyaki and the summer styles. The mango salsa in the summer adds a delicious fruity sweetness and moisture to the burrito, and marries well with the flavorful meat.
Burritos are a bit on the expensive side for the amount of food you get. There are three sizes (mini for $ 4.49, small for $ 5.79, and original for $ 6.79). You can also get a big burrito bowl for $ 8.99.
I also love the variety of shakes available at Boloco. The Nutella shake is made with a generous amount of Nutella and is delicious. The chocolate hazelnut flavor is prominent and the shake has a rich, creamy, smooth texture.
If you download the Boloco app onto your phone, you can pre-​order ahead of time and pay just by scanning your phone. It makes it very convenient and easy. Plus, from time to time they will send you promotions that give you a free $ 5 or $ 10 to use on the app.

Since the whole chipotle incident, we wanted to find another place that would serve bowls and burritos. My boyfriend and I fell in love with this place. We come here at least once a week. It’s close to Harvard and everyone is so nice. There’s usually two ladies that serve the bowls and they are really good about adding even proportions of things that come in a bowl. These ladies are awesome!!! However there is a guy and I cannot remember his name but he just doesn’t care too much to even be there and served the bowls all wrong. For example, he put WAY too much sauce and it just didn’t taste as good. As long as you don’t get him, you’re golden!

Usually this place is amazing, but the last time I went in, I got a bowl with quinoa and black bean hummus. The quinoa was rock hard, like it wasn’t done cooking so they remade it, but both times the black bean hummus (they said it was the batch, so I got it both the second time too) was really disgustingly sour. Like it had spoiled a long, long time ago. Everyone here is nice, and it’s usually okay, so three stars, but definitely losing two for serving uncooked/​dried out quinoa and rotten hummus.

Fairly inexpensive ($ 8 for a normal bowl) and equivalent to chipotle, but I honestly prefer Boloco. The meat is better quality and with more variety, and you can customize the pre made bowls (again, with more variety than chipotle) with whatever vegetable combinations you prefer. They also have options that aren’t strictly Mexican (ie. Mango salsa and teriyaki sauce). It takes slightly longer for the food to come out, but it is worth it! You can also order smoothies and coffee, which are both excellent.

Food: ³⁄₅ Stars
Service: ³⁄₅ Stars
Can’t say anything too amazing or terrible about this Boloco location. I’ve honestly never been a huge fan of Boloco as I feel their burritos just lack the secret sauce that other places often have.
I think I’d still prefer Chipotle.
At Boloco, I’ve eaten the Thai, Terriyaki and Classic Mexican burritos. Service at the ordering counter is pretty weak but it will do. The one thing I do like is that they offer different sizes of burritos at different prices!

I ate at Boloco Harvard this evening and the guys working there were so nice! The menu looked like it had a good variety of food genres represented. I had the Mexican Burrito with fajita vegetables and it was amazing. Place was clean and atmosphere was pleasant. Great location right around the corner from the Harvard T stop. I’m crazy for burritos so I’m looking forward to next time!

You know, I’ve come to actually really love Boloco. I never thought I’d say this. but more than Chipotle. Boloco is just fresh and creative with the options they let you add. The only thing I don’t like is knowing what you’re ordering at the register. I used to be a first timer here… how would I have known what you have if I was forced to order at the register? This needs to be somehow fixed. I don’t know how. .with pictures? I know they don’t want the assembly line like at Chipotle.

Stop trying to eat here. If you are in Harvard you are close enough to hop the red line to Davis and eat at Anna’s Taqueria instead!

I want to preface this by saying Boloco is one of my favorite spots in boston for breakfast, lunch, and a mid-​day smoothie pick-​me-​up but today you were definitely not on the ball. First, there was some sort of mix up with the computer (which I get happens and was pretty vocal about my understanding of the situation and my willingness to be patient) but ultimately my order was made incorrectly due to a similar order placed directly following my own. Second, and more importantly, the quality of the food was subpar for Boloco’s usual standard. In particular, the brown rice was rather undercooked and, at times, crunchy. I’m going to chalk up today’s miss to the 40″ of snow we have had in the past week.

have enjoyed boloco for years as the thai peanut remains a favorite
came in at a good time too w/​great music ala pandora or spotify w/​new age, alternative that I enjoyed while glancing at the wsj and improper bostonian
they recycle here also
funny thing for me is I was scarfin these bad boys before mission burritos which i now try to endulge in once a week which is apparantly what inspired the founders to venture out throughout the hub
priced ok and prefer these guys over qdoba, chipotle and on the right day even anna’s. i said it

Watch out, this place is cheap! They fill up your burritos with rice or beans and put maybe 3 bites of meat in it. Don’t order from here. Huge waste of money. And they don’t know how to read online orders. Second time in a row that they’ve messed something up… I’m done!

Simple thing service, except when you don’t expect it. I stopped in and needed help. The manager, Jerry (I hope I spelled it right) was gracious and helpful. Terrific evperience and the bonus is the foods is great.

Boloco is more expensive then Chipotle and Anna Taqueria and offers lower quality burritos and doesn’t serve the burritos very warm. However, burritos generally are affordable and this place has the bonus that it offers great smoothies. I was blown away by the Soy Berry Shake with added protein. It tasted fantastic and is high in nutrients as well. If you like to add a lot of items into your burrito such as guacamole and extra meat I would avoid this place because the price can become over 10 dollars which is a lot for a burrito. Considering that it is conveniently located across from the Malkin Athletic Center I keep going back but I wouldn’t recommend it over Chipotle or Anna’s.

I had one of the Bowls and found it to be tasty. My food was good and it was served quick.

it’s a chain so really you have to temper your expectations accordingly, and even then it’s no anna’s. boloco is a burrito of last resort kinda place. but i like it better than chipotle because they have a pretty creative menu with stuff that sounds weird — teriyaki burrito? cajun burrito? — but that usually ends up being decently tasty. or at least decent-​ish. and sometimes i just want to pick a thing off a list instead of constructing it ingredient by ingredient via an intermediary who probably only gets minimum wage (which makes me feel like even more of a lazy jerk).
maybe i have the worst luck in the world though, because my boloco burritos are always cold in the middle. not even lukewarm or like room temperature, i mean straight up cold. why can’t boloco make a burrito with a warm middle? these days i work next to an anna’s and their burritos pretty much always have warm middles. i’m not sure if the warming of middles is some kind of dark science only known to a select few burrito chains or if something else is going on. i don’t know. i feel like nothing makes sense anymore.
the people who work here are always really nice though.

I noticed the man making my burrito I ordered with guacamole left it out. I corrected him, but he insisted it was in there to me and his coworkers, and wrapped it up. I took it home only to realize that man is a liar.
The teriyaki is cloyingly sweet – not what I enjoy in a burrito– so I didn’t like it, the Thai was a dull peanut butter flavor, but edible, the Summer was decent and somewhat tangy. The Cajun is the best of the lot I’ve tasted.
The cashiers were cool, and so were the people doing the promotion on free burrito day. I paid $ 1 for the original size for that event.

This place is clean and pretty efficient. Ultimately you have to like the taste of what you get – they make a good classic mexican with carnitas and guac.
I had the tropi-​kale smoothie here. Good concept but tastes a bit too green/​healthy for me. Had the milkshake (make your own) with mango and strawberry at a sister boloco – that was excellent!
Rule of thumb – you never want a mini (unless you’re forcing yourself to drink tropi-​kales to be healthy) but small in burrito or drink is more than enough
Good location – in the sense that it’s quiet/​slightly off the beaten path, but close to everything.
Would go back

If you look at my other reviews you might wonder why I chose to give this place five stars. It’s quite simple. The food here is reliably good. Sure, it’s a burrito place, it’s not fine dining. And I can’t speak for their salsa, but when I need a good solid lunch, this is where I go. And the menu is simple! You ask for a burrito or a bowl, then choose the style and meat. Their carnitas are pretty good and I usually go for either the classic, the summer, or the Cajun. The regular size is usually too much for me so I go for the small which is just right.
There’s wifi if you want it which works well but despite the deliciousness here, I wouldn’t pick this place as a study spot.
Now, the mini burritos are a different story. What other Unilocalers might not comment on is how great they are at catering. I was organizing an event for a whole bunch of hungry chemists and I had a growing reputation for being the best at ordering food for events. I called up Boloco and they really delivered (except not like, delivery, I picked up my order). I ordered something like 100 mini burritos, several bags of chips, and a few tubs of guacamole. Everything tasted fantastic. The minis were put in the box and LABELED. If you know me, you’ll know that I’m always worried about eating out anywhere with friends because everyone in Cambridge is either vegan, vegetarian, a ciliac, or has some embarrassingly nerdy list of allergies. So yes, the labels were GREAT. Not to mention the burritos were tasty and quite filling. The chips were fresh-​warm when I picked them up and crispy even hours later.
I’m a fan of the Jimmy Carter Shake (banana and peanut butter yum!) but they’ve got some nice fruit smoothies as well. These are seasonal, I believe. I got the green one with kale (I’m noticing a trend here) which was quite citrusy and refreshing! I got it in small but they don’t have appropriately sized straws so there was a giant straw coming out of a tiny cup.
Then there’s also their commitment to recycling. It’s not in your face or better-​than-​thou. Everything is either compostable or recyclable so the sorting process is easy.
I come here at least once a week and it definitely deserves those five stars.

Delicious and innovative burrito stylings served by some of the nicest folk this side of the river Misses Sip. Boloco is not your average fast-​casual spot. This is where you get your creole craving, your Tikka tantalization, and relive Jimmy Carter administration all at once.
Seriously, eat here and you get taken care of. The employees are always striking up fun conversation while slangin pipin hot ‘ritos.
Get a Jimmy Carter and a Cajun with tofu and guac and you’ll be riding high. Vegans are welcome as much as the carnivore. Oh yes.

This place is overpriced and the food is only average in taste and below average in portions.
The service isn’t all that great either. As a first time customer, you’d think the cashier and staff would have a little more courtesy?
Nothing really to redeem them except for the short wait to order (because this place is terrible?).
If you crave Mexican food or a burrito, there are plenty of other choices if you’re wiling to walk a bit. The walk is worth it, trust me.