A group of my friends and I had been out at an event near Valley Ranch and decided to get some…read moredinner after it was over. Chuy's at the Valley Ranch shopping center is fairly new and we figured we would give it a try.
We got there around 7:30 pm and it wasn't too crowded, being a Tuesday night and we they quickly set up a table for 8 people. Our server was a young girl and came out to take drink orders. In 5 minutes or so she was back and started taking the food orders. I don't envy servers who wait tables with a large group of friends like ours as they need to keep track of who is with who, couples vs single diners but she did a good job.
Chuy's like most Mexican style restaurants serves chips and salsa at the start when you sit down but they also famously serve their complimentary signature Creamy Jalapeño salsa, a popular zesty, ranch-based dip. This creamy green sauce, often called "green sauce," is a staple, frequently referred to as part of the "three amigos" along with the chips and red salsa.
We didn't order any starters, just the main course and it was a bit slow coming out considering that the restaurant wasn't very crowded. I always wonder why this happens, are they short handed in the kitchen? I had ordered the Burrito Bowl with shrimp and my choice of rice was what they call Green Chili Rice as a base instead of Mexican Rice. I also asked for a CUP of their Tortilla soup on the side.
After a fairly long wait and consuming way too many chips our food came out. The table soon got quite crowded as they tend to serve the sides like rice and beans in separate dishes from the main entrees. She must have misunderstood because I got Mexican rice as the base of my bowl and a big side of the Green Chili rice. No biggie; then she put down an enormous bowl of soup, seemed like almost a quart! I asked if this was the CUP or the BOWL and she said, "Oh sorry, I thought you said bowl." But then said, "No problem I will only charge you for the cup" which was nice.
We all ate and for the most part everyone seemed to enjoy their food. The Burrito Bowl is a great way to go if you don't want a heavy meal, and sometimes Tex Mex or Mexican food can be heavy by the time you add on refried beans, melted cheese and sour cream, etc. My dinner was just right. I only had taken a few sips of the soup, it was zesty and hot, pretty good for a chain restaurant and seemed genuinely homemade. Pretty soon as our server came by she asked if I would like her to put the rest of the soup into a container to take home and I agreed; it would make a great lunch the next day.
Soon we were don and she brought out the checks, it was a challenge and she first double checked her tickets to make sure she got everything right. It took a while for her to find a manager to reduce the price on my soup but eventually she did. She menioned that this was only her second week on the job and we all praised her and tipped generously as mix-ups happen and a slow kitchen is not the front of the house's staff's fault.
Overall thoughts, yes Chuy's is a chain and chances are you will get the same menu and presentation at their other locations but our server made the difference as she tried really hard to please us.
