I almost never write reviews, unless something really stands out to me. If I get great service, or an excellent meal, I feel like that should be shared.
This is NOT that type of a review. In fact, it's gonna be quite the opposite.
I have been to Chili's probably a dozen times in my life, so I kinda know what to expect. Last night, the fam decided to order from there, since we were recently given a gift card from some friends. BIG mistake.
We wanted to get something for all of us to share, so we figured appetizers would be a great way to do that. We spent the $25 gift card and about 5 additional dollars.
We got the 'Triple Play' or whatever they call it. Onion Blossom, Southwestern Egg Rolls and Chicken Crispers. We also got some Texas Cheese Fries, and Chicken Nachos.
We ordered it 'To go'. We arrived about 5 minutes before the time we were told it would be available to find our food already sitting out. Which, normally that could be a good thing, no waiting. However, not only was the food cold, none of the food was even close to fresh. It honestly seemed like it was pretty old. My youngest son even asked if this was 'yesterdays appetizers'. He wasn't joking, either.
The onion blossom tasted like what I expect rubber bands would taste like. If the rubber bands were old and dirty, that is. We probably threw out 80% of it, because it was just not good at all. We had asked for no jalapenos on the nachos, only to find what seemed like EXTRA jalapenos when we got home. After removing the jalapenos, there was not much of anything left on the nachos, and what was there was (again) old, cold and just not fresh at all. The egg rolls (normally a favorite) were cold, and seemed like they had been sitting for a long time before we got them. Noticing a theme here?
Oh, actually the one thing that I need to correct myself about, would be the chicken crispers. They didn't seem old, they were actually very under-cooked and I told my kids not to eat them, because they would probably make them sick. So, those got chucked in the trash too after maybe 2 bites.
The sauces we ordered were not only incorrect, but the containers were only about 1/3 full (which is not very much at all). In fact, come to think of it - for $30, I expected there would be more of everything. It really was not a lot of food for that much money. On a positive note, in the end that translated into less food getting thrown out, but still.
But most of all, what really bothered me was the fact that ALL of the food seemed like food we could have walked around Chili's and taken off the plates of patrons that had left it there hours earlier (maybe that's what was done?) I was too embarrassed to even offer the food to my dogs. And they will literally eat out of a garbage can if given the chance.
I kinda wish I had taken pictures of this stuff, but looking back, that'd mean I'd have to revisit the experience, and I'm happy to not have to do that.
Shame on you Chili's. This was such a bad experience that I don't know if I will ever go to another one of your restaurants.
I imagine that if we had eaten inside the restaurant, the food may have been marginally better. But, this should not be the case. If you can't give a half-decent experience to your To-Go patrons, don't offer the service. Serving people food unfit for animals is a disgrace that not even dollar menu places would do.
The only redeeming thing from the whole night was that the food was nearly free, thanks to the gift card. However, I will tell those friends that should they ever want to give us another gift card, please make it for literally ANYWHERE besides Chili's! read more