The line of nearly 200 customers for the restaurant’s recent grand opening stretched on both sides of the main entrance, with some patrons arriving four hours early despite the heat. Many had been anticipating this day for months.

When the workers pressed a button meant to look like a burrito wrapped in aluminum foil, the facade of the restaurant was unveiled and confetti shot into the air.

In the homeland of tacos, burritos and quesadillas, a new competitor has entered the market: Chipotle, the Mexican-inspired fast casual chain that is ubiquitous in the United States.

“What pride that the first one in Mexico and in Latin America is here,” said Gaby Rodríguez, 44, a lawyer from Monterrey who was the first person in line, in an affluent suburb of that city. The first 100 customers got a free Chipotle tote bag, T-shirt and hat.

But after another American chain, Taco Bell, failed twice south of the border, can Chipotle successfully sell its version of Mexican food to Mexicans in Mexico?

Mexicans take enormous pride in their cuisine, which is widely recognized as one of the world’s best. It has reached all over the globe thanks, in large part, to Mexican migration.

As it traveled, Mexican food evolved to fit the available local ingredients and tastes. Chipotle, named for a smoked and dried jalapeño pepper, is a prime example of this adaptation, inspired by San Francisco’s taco and burrito shops in the early 1990s. It has since grown into a massive chain with over 4,000 locations, primarily in the United States.

Many of Chipotle’s first customers in Mexico were people nostalgic to eat it again after having visited or lived in the United States. One couple met through Chipotle in the United States years ago before moving to Mexico. A good chunk of customers were in their 20 and 30s, wearing trendy clothing or caps featuring U.S. professional sports teams. One woman filmed herself eating, like an influencer.

Tomás González Bolado, 51, who runs a renewable energy company, noticed the Chipotle across the street from his son’s private school and remembered that his brother-in-law, a Mexican in the United States, said it was his favorite restaurant.

Mr. Bolado lived in the United States for four years, but said he had never eaten Chipotle because he tried Taco Bell and didn’t like it. His review: Chipotle’s steak burrito was “nothing special,” but the chicken in the bowl (not the rice, though) was “spectacular” and the prices were “very good.”

Jesús Guzmán, 35, a trader, said he liked eating Chipotle when visiting Houston for work and was curious to try it in Mexico, so he brought his fiancée for lunch. But Karla Téllez, 31, an engineer, was less thrilled. The first time she had a Chipotle burrito in the United States, she said, “What is this atrocity? Why do they put rice in it?” She said she planned to take a few bites and give her fiancé the rest.

For at least five years, Mexico had been a target of Chipotle, said Pablo Marcelo de Brito, the managing director of new brands for Alsea, the Mexican restaurant operator partnering with Chipotle in Mexico. It also runs Starbucks, Domino’s, the Cheesecake Factory and other American brands in the country.

Mr. de Brito said the Monterrey metropolitan area, with a population of five million, was chosen as Chipotle’s initial foray because the two countries’ cultures are so heavily intertwined here.

Monterrey, known as Mexico’s industrial capital, is roughly three hours by car from the Texas border. Mr. de Brito pointed to the purchasing power per capita of the area, the highest in Mexico, and specifically San Pedro Garza García, one of the richest municipalities in Latin America, where Chipotle opened its first restaurant in one of the higher-end shopping malls.

In Mexico, where the average person lives five minutes from a taquería, Mr. de Brito said Chipotle hoped to offer an option between cheap street food and expensive fine dining. Because the average Mexican earns less than the average American, Mr. de Brito said, Chipotle’s prices are roughly 25 percent lower here.

Scott Boatwright, Chipotle’s chief executive, said in a statement that his company was entering Mexico “with deep respect for the country’s culinary heritage” and that its research showed there was “strong interest in high-quality, freshly prepared food” served with “customization and convenience.”

After recently eating at a longtime local taco and burrito chain called Tacos Leal in downtown Monterrey, Arturo Medrano, 50, who works in finance, said he had seen Chipotle in the United States but never tried it.

Unlike Chipotle, Tacos Leal serves dozens of different tacos and burritos — from potatoes with eggs to red or green chicharrón. The most popular burritos have only carne asada, cheese and maybe refried beans. The tortillas are seared until lightly blistered, while Chipotle’s are heated swiftly in a press.

Priced between $3.70 and $6.30, Tacos Leal’s burritos are smaller and simpler. Toppings are kept to a minimum with onions, cilantro and limes, while the salsas bring significantly more heat.

Mr. Medrano said he rarely eats Mexican food north of the border because the tortillas don’t quite taste the same, and dishes often come with yellow cheese (rather than the typical Mexican white cheese) plus sour cream, lettuce and rice.

“If I want my Mexican food,” he said, “I live in Mexico and I’ll eat my Mexican food here.”

To uphold Chipotle’s brand, Mr. de Brito said, the recipes and menu in Mexico are exactly the same as in the United States, including the salsas, despite the spicier standards of the Mexican market. That could be an issue, said Abimael Gándara, 69, a maintenance worker from Monterrey who, along with his wife and son, was among the very first customers.

“We were looking for hot sauces from here, but that’s not what we found,” he said, as they ate burritos with a bottle of Tabasco sauce sitting on the table.

The family lived in Colorado and Texas for 17 years, before returning to Mexico in 2017, and they liked Chipotle’s taste and value. They said the food, which they called Mexican American, tasted the same as they remembered. Like many others visiting, Mr. Gándara’s son, Abimael Jr., 40, was spurred by nostalgia — he works in I.T., but two decades ago in the United States, he worked at a Chipotle.

Mr. de Brito, the restaurant executive, said Chipotle hoped to open six to eight restaurants in the Monterrey area within the next year before expanding to the rest of the country. Chipotle said it has an expansion into Mexico City planned for 2027.

Asked if he had heard of Chipotle, Ignacio Juárez Aparicio, 59, an art dealer who lives in Mexico City but visits Monterrey regularly, said “the pepper, yes.”

He said an American brand of Mexican food may thrive in northern Mexico because of extensive U.S. influence, but he believed Mexico City would be harder because of stiff competition and traditions.

“I don’t go to a restaurant to eat tacos,” he said. “The tacos we eat in Mexico City are the ones people sell on the street, on the corners.”