For years, Chipotle fans have looked at their tortilla chips and thought about how much better they could be with a side of hot, gooey queso dip. The fast food company thought it was making that dream a reality… that is, until many customers tried the Chipotle queso and found it wanting.

While the long-anticipated queso joined Chipotle’s menu just five days ago, that’s apparently enough time for the public — and social media users — to decide maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

The Queso

The fast-casual Mexican restaurant finally jumped into the cheese-y queso pool this summer after executives of the company long denied cheese-lovers their dips, noting that they just couldn’t find a version that was up to its standards.

“Although queso was the number one requested menu item, we never added it to our menu before now because we wouldn’t use the industrial additives used in most quesos,” Steve Ells, founder, chairman and CEO at Chipotle, said in a statement.

That changed, however, when the company began testing the dip at its NEXT kitchen in New York and then expanding it to 350 restaurants in Southern California and Colorado this summer.

Last week, Chipotle announced that queso would be added to all locations, cautioning customers that the dip would vary from restaurant to restaurant since the chain wouldn’t be using additives.

Maybe This Was A Bad Idea

Customers may have asked for queso, but it appears to be a request they regret, as many Chipotle customers have shared their disappointment in the new dip on social media.

From claiming the item is the “biggest disappointment of 2017,” to questioning how a chain with so much good food could make something so bad.

For its part, Chipotle has replied to several customers on Twitter, noting that it would continue working on the recipe.

A rep for Chipotle tells Consumerist that much of the criticism of the queso stems from elements that make it different from others, such as its texture.

“We decidedly made our queso different than others in that most queso is made with a bunch of artificial ingredients and that is not something we do,” Chris Arnold, spokesperson for the chain, tells Consumerist.

He notes that the chain was prepared for these reviews, “we knew there would be some who didn’t like it based on the simple fact that ours is different, largely because it’s not made with artificial ingredients.”

“That’s OK,” he says. “Others love it. And it’s performance in testing has been sufficiently encouraging that we opted to roll it out national.”

Damning With Faint Praise

Not everyone dislikes Chipotle’s queso; there are some customers and food bloggers who have found elements of the dish to enjoy.

GQ’s Drew Magary described the dip as a “sad little plastic cup of queso flecked with bits of red and green,” but he was a bit more forgiving than other customers.

Magary combined his cup of queso with an equally sad cup of chorizo. The resulting meal, he says, was a “perfectly fine queso.”

“It was expensive and delivered in awkward fashion, but I ate the whole thing,” he wrote.

It’s Not That Bad

That lukewarm review seems to be par for the course, as those who like the dip seem to do so unenthusiastically.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.