Chili’s Texas Grill

Avoid if you hate being frustrated… Brought my 4 year old for a quick bite. Literally 1 table occupied in the entire place. Staff including two managers kept running by trying to figure out sections. The occupied table turned out to be employees, who had an opinion of the sections, but little desire to help. I tried to sit on the empty self seating section, but was evicted because my daughter wasn’t 21… Ten full minutes later we left for the place next door.

After a brief stop in Kensington, D and I stopped at Chili’s for lunch because I’d never been before. It was an interesting experience.
We waited at the front reception for someone to notice us and a staff member who was off duty took us to our seats, which was very nice of her though we did wonder where the on shift staff were.
We perused the menu and I pointed out that under Bottomless Beverages there were some neat things like Wildberry Iced Tea and Strawberry Lemonade. We both ordered the Lemonade which turned out to be quite good. It was lightly strawberry, not too acidic or sour from the lemons, a good balance overall.
For the meal itself, D ordered the Southern Smokehouse Burger with fries and gravy and I ordered the Bottomless Soup & Salad — my starting choices being the fully loaded baked potato soup and the fresco salad, with a side of garlic toast.
When the burger arrived, it looked really good. The fries were delicious (I stole a couple at the end) and the gravy looked really thick. The downside was the gravy wasn’t actually gravy — it’s peppercorn sauce. Unfortunately the server never said anything about that and if D had known he’d have ordered something else. I love peppercorn sauce but he doesn’t care for it usually. The other thing was they need to learn to balance the brine of their inhouse pickling mixture. The pickles were pure garlic and D found them to be quite disgusting (we’re huge pickle fans so that was quite disappointing).
My soup and salad arrived with a side of chips and salsa but no garlic bread. The server apologized and said it would be coming shortly. The salad was delicious enough I inhaled it — light spring greens, with a cheese that is a little like mozzarella and a nice light lime dressing. The soup was fantastic. It was thick, lots of potato and bacon chunks, fresh green onion, and lots of cheese.
When the waitress came back she asked how things were and I asked for a refill on the salad (since it was bottomless). Ten minutes later the salad arrived, by which time the soup was gone, and she took the empty salad bowl but did not do the important thing any good customer service person should think to do, which was ask some variation of the question «Would you like more of the potato soup?» I would have said yes. Unfortunately, she was around so infrequently I couldn’t catch her attention to ask her to refill it (there’s a reason I ordered bottomless). Also, by this point we were half an hour into our meal and the garlic toast still hadn’t shown up.
She walked away for another twenty minutes. We finished our meal, she came by asking if we wanted the bill. Ten minutes later she came back, dropped the bill, and walked away again. After waiting another ten minutes we went up tot he front where the hostess helped us.
She asked how our meal was and we mentioned the food was good but refills were lacking and the garlic toast never showed up. She said that it was «good that the toast was never put on the bill» and all I said was that I would have sent it back if she had put it on there. The next thing she said, which we had to restrain from laughing at, was that it was super busy, unusually so, and that the server wasn’t one to ask for help. To tell us that when she’s the only one on duty that we should just put up with it was… shocking to say the least. A few alarm bells started to ring in my head at that:
1. That’s not busy, it was practically dead in there, and if that is what they call busy they should have more people serving whether the server thinks they need help or not.
2. If a server looks like they need help someone should step in and assist, not expect the customers to ‘deal with it.‘
3. If a server needs help they should have no problem asking for it or they should be doing a different job. There is NOTHING wrong with asking for help and if you’re bogged down it’s a good thing, because otherwise people like me who have higher expectations and who will actually appreciate it if someone gets assistance won’t come back. Ever. I may try chili’s again but not that one.
Honestly, the food was great with a few tweaks, I would have liked to have tried my garlic bread and another bowl of soup since I did order the bottomless version of soup & salad (if I only wanted one I would have ordered that version). Unfortunately the service was so non-​existent that I have no interest in going back to that location, and may or may not give the franchise itself another try based on the food possibilities at another location.
I may not decide that one for a while…

I had the original ribs last Friday night for dinner. they were okay, I’ve had better. i kept hearing chili’s ribs on global. i should have ordered the enchiladas, next time!
little meat and too much bone, I’m not trying to sound erotic either, but that is my review of chili’s ribs.

I’ve tried to eat here a few times and haven’t been impressed. The food is way over priced. I had the same nachos as the previous reviewer, they worked out to be $ 1.50 per nacho. Way not worth it. Also the place isn’t very clean and the wait staff aren’t very courteous or overly professional, it can take a while to get service sometimes.

worse Caesar salad I’ve ever had. Server was indifferent. Waited over 30 minutes for food. Cajon club was mostly bread barely any chicken. Overall the worse meal experience I’ve had in quite a while.

LOVE THIS PLACE !!!
I always come here when I am in Calgary :) Food is fresh, nicely cooked and the server Colby was awesome !! I was very impressed with my dining experience here. That is exactly WHY I keep coming back !!!

I hate you Chilis. The $ 9 nachos my friends and I ate at your Calgary rest. on Saturday were literally just a few bagged chips tossed onto a plate, accompanied by bland, watery salsa. Our ‘appy’ platter was $ 16 and consisted of about 12 pieces of similarly bland chicken and jalapeño poppers. At this point in the meal my fellow guests and I began to wonder if what were even eating could be understood as «cooked food», or whether it some cleverly disguised cardboard with the price ratcheted-​up. Our drinks were margaritas with Caronitas in them. They were fine but cost $ 10 each. Our guess is that Chilis is run by some sort of alien CEO, operating with only a tenuous grasp of what human food is like (see cardboard) and what it should cost. I hate you Chilis. I hate you so, so much.

I love this restaurant– we dont have one where I live, so we eat there most times we head to Calgary, service s good, the food and price can not be beat, love it!

Wow, lots of bad reviews. Weird. We’ve come here maybe 20 times over the last 5 years. We find it reasonable. If you’re expecting a super high-​end dining experience, then you should move on. Chili’s is a decent family type restaurant (there is a lounge too). They have fine burgers and the like.
My only real complaint is the «Classic Nachos». You get like 12 tortilla chips, each heavily loaded with good stuff. It costs like $ 10. It’s expensive for what it is, and defies my notion of «classic» completely.
Anyway, for the price, this is a fine middle-​of-​the-​road chain restaurant.

Based on the other reviews here, I appear to be the dissenting opinion.
I arrived here around 630 on a Monday night. Chili’s was moderately busy. Being the single business traveler outside of the downtown core, I was seated in a booth for two. My romantic evening with my laptop case was about to begin!
My waitress was really personable, and admitted to me that she was still in training. After looking at the menu, I asked her for a recommendation between the three items that I had narrowed my selection down to. She suggested the Crispy Chicken Tacos, with sides of beans, and chipotle rice.
In about 10 minutes my order arrived. It was delivered by a beautiful woman in a bright blue shirt. The tacos were huge due to the size of the chicken. I enjoyed them, especially after dipping the taco into the sauce that the beans were in.
I would have considered the food slightly over average, it was good, but not amazing. I will credit my trainee-​waitress on dropping in and making me feel welcome in the restaurant. The manager even dropped in once to ask how my meal was.
I was pretty full by the end of the meal. I really wanted to order the fried ice cream, but was too full to eat any more.

All was well until we got our meal– after that we were completely ignored by the waitress. She helped everyone in the isle except for us and another couple that was across from us. My husband ordered the 8oz steak and we were told it came with loaded mashed potatoes and «fresh vegetables” — he got this sad little scoop of what had to have been instant potatoes and the «fresh vegetables» consisted of three pieces of asparagus and two slices of red bell pepper. We weren’t offered a top up on drinks, check to see if the food was okay and we had to hunt down the waitress to get steak sauce.
The food was eatable at best but the service was amazingly poor.

HAHA. it’s funny when you logon and plan to write a poor review and then discover that the place you are reviewing IS ALWAYS BADLY REVIEWED. So, I don’t feel bad anymore… I guess I never really felt bad anyways.
It was a quick stop in before a show at the Jubilee at 7:00pm on a Wednesday. Much to my surprise, it was pretty busy for a random location in a poor mall. We were seated quickly and given menus fast which was effective given we had very little time. We ordered beers and desserts only as it was a birthday for one of the party, so we celebrated with some gratuitous sugar fixes. We ordered two of their «lave cake» and one paradise bar. The beers came fast and were deliciously cold, and the desserts shortly followed. This is where the über letdown occurred. The lava cakes were overcooked (assumedly) and were «lava free». It was like modern day Kaua’I — a big Hawaiian island shaped like a volcano, but no lava. The plates contained large, dried chocolate flavored sponge cakes with an oversized scoop of cheap vanilla ice cream (I’d prefer a smaller scoop of decent vanilla bean any time of the day). Essentially these were a huge waste of empty calories, and a disappointment as the menu on has two desserts and you would expect both to be superstars. (I am also a hard critic as I reviewed a Joey Tomatoes lava cake last week that blew my ganauchey mind). The other dessert was better, but still MEH. Again, too much ice cream, so any flavor or taste was lost or soggy. Trying to make a quick escape proved difficult as the server never came back after we got the desserts and we had issues flagging her down for a bill.
Based on my experience, it’s definitely not a place for beers and desserts. Maybe supper proves better but I’m willing to doubt it.

Wow. I have no idea how this place stays in business after our experience tonight and all the reviews on Unilocal here that I have just read.
Having not read the reviews prior to going (which is highly unusual), it was my brilliant idea to ask some friends to join us at this Chili’s location. I had been to one once in Michigan many moons ago and it was pretty good so I wanted to hit this place up to see what it had to offer. OK, even I can make foodie mistakes. :(
We walked in and our friends had already grabbed a table. It took 15 minutes at least for me to order a drink, a lime margarita. My friend across the table from me had asked me if I had read the reviews about this restaurant. I shook my head. She advised that out of approximately 18 reviews on another review site, 17 were bad. Oh no, I thought to myself but opted to hope for the best. At least the company we keep is good!
I asked the waitress what was good to eat here. She told me to stay away from the tacos, that she gets a lot of complaints on those. She pointed out maybe 6 things that she felt were satisfactory and I opted to go for one of them — the $ 25 ribeye steak that came with mashed potatoes, veg and a piece of garlic toast. I ordered the steak RARE, same as always. The food took awhile but it was just an observation, we were in no real rush. My marg was pretty good so I kept busy enjoying that. It was cold and frosty and the mug size was pretty good for $ 7.
My meal finally came out and I could just tell that the meat was going to be overcooked. I guess the look on my face said it all and I was asked to cut into my steak to check for doneness. Yep, it was cooked well-​done! Grrrr! ??? How could this happen! The server scooped it up right away knowing I had asked for a rare steak so now I got to watch all my friends eat their food! Lovely! Other things ordered by friends were fajitas, ribs and a steak sandwich. No serious gripes about those.
When my meal came out I thought it had to be a joke from the kitchen staff. Now my meat was so raw, it looked like it had just come out of the package except for a couple of light grill marks on the surface! I just did not want to deal with it so I kept it, took it home later so I could cook it myself. My friend kept remarking how gross it looked. The server at this point whether she really cared or not, I have no idea but she advised that she was removing the steak from the bill. Ahhhh — ya, do ya think?! The manager had come over twice and apologized but really, what could be done to make things any better? OK, maybe a bottle of wine but that did not happen.
I will never, ever come here again nor recommend to anyone. A Tex-​Mex restaurant that cannot even cook a steak? C’mon.
I would have given it 1 star but the margarita I had saved it and made it a humble 2 star experience.

On a vacation, we stopped by this Chilis because we don’t have Chilis where I live. 1) the service was slow, our server said it had been a busy night, which tells me the managers (of which there was two on duty who never checked on tables) understaffed. which leads to 2) OVERPRICED!!! Holy crap! To compare, we stopped at a Chilis in Spokane WA. The salad i ordered at this Calgary Chilis was $ 14.99, Spokane has the exact same thing for $ 8.99. Half rack of ribs at this Calgary location? $ 18.49, half rack at Spokane, $ 9.99, Full rack will only run you $ 17.99. Now i know Canada establishments are higher than their US counterparts, but I have never seen this high. Red Robin us only $ 1 – 2 more for their food over US Pricing. I would avoid the place just because they are this expensive, there are plenty of other places in town that don’t rip you off, AND have adequate staff on hand who WANT to give you good service.

After finding a $ 20 bill on the ground during a shopping excursion on 17^th Avenue my boyfriend and I decided to use it for somewhat of a free meal at Chili’s…however I wished we went elsewhere to spend the money.
With the restaurant having two levels, the first level for families, we were directed to go upstairs to the lounge, where it was a much nicer and quieter atmosphere. Upon sitting down, we were promptly given menus where we both ordered burgers (mine with a vegetarian patty).
I found the wait for food a little longer than necessary considering that it was just burgers and fries. And once the food did arrive, it was «meh», I definitely had better food elsewhere. I might have enjoyed the meal more, if I wasn’t trying to sadly figure out the entire time if my patty was actually a veggie one. I had the feeling that the chef may have forgotten to scrap off the grill before cooking mine as it had the odd aftertaste of beef.
Price wise, I was shocked at the bill as my boyfriend and I nearly racked 45 dollars. So I was a little turned off by that but thanks to the freebie $ 20 bucks that we found earlier, I was happy to pay the remaining amount.
So to sum up all matters, I say to avoid this place and go elsewhere, as there are definitely other places better in the food and prices.

UPDATE — Décor — great. Service — great. Food — very average, portions small (unless its fries or the like) and prices have gone up to the point that there is little point in returning. Of note, the nachos were without any hesitation or doubt the grandest lacklustre display of $ 1.50 worth of chips with approximately 0.99 cents worth of real cheese lathered upon the exactly 12 micro thin chips all for the asking price of $ 14. No exaggeration required. If you have to thrust yourself into this establishment, come for the $ 3.99 Thursday beer night but please don’t order any food. Resist at all costs. There is better for the same or less in every corner of the city. Stay Away. Please.

So me and a couple of my girls went to this place for lunch one day. Before I go any further, the only edible thing on this menu which is actually fairly decent are the Fajitas. They are pretty good considering what else they offer so to be safe stick with that option. Both the beef and chicken are good, the beef is my preference.
One of the girls ordered a burger and me and my other friend ordered the mucho grando portion of Fajitas to share (thats not the actual name of it, but there is a bigger option available). Burger friend couldn’t have the bacon on the burger and told the waitress to 86 it. Easy enough.
Food comes and our fajitas were sizzling and delish, no complaints. Burger friend opens up burger to add ketchup and sees remnants of pig meat tucked in. Burger friend is a bit upset considering it took them an hour to bring out 2 meals and some drinks and flagged the waitress down regarding bacon predicament.
Dummy-​waitress, points to the menu acting all smarty-​pants on us, (OH YES SHE DID!) saying the burger comes with smoky pig meat. Burger friend looked like she was going to blow! We gently reminded her that she couldn’t have the bacon and specifically asked for it to not be added.
She barely apologized and took the plate back to get another burger made. Personally, for how fast that second burger came out, I highly doubt they made her a brand spanking new one… I secretly think they just took the bacon out, and re-​dressed it but kept my yap shut. Anyone working in this field want to confirm or deny my suspicions? Please, I am curious…
Anyway, not a place I am too keen on, menu doesn’t really do it for me and find the restaurant had a funny smell when I came in. Also, I find the stupid flashing coaster thing while you wait is juvenile and personally wouldn’t wait to get into this place.

You would have to pay me to get me into a Chili’s again. The service is horrible. The food SUCKS. It’s all this nasty tex-​mex fusion junk. No way! Do yourself a favour and do not eat here.

Let me tell you a little story about Chili’s.
The ladies in my family were off to a lovely evening of dinner and a play at the Jubilee. We thought since Chili’s was so close, we’d stop there for dinner before heading to the play. Turns out, some other people going to the play thought the same thing.
We were seated fairly quickly considering how many people were in the place and were immediately asked for our drink and appetizer orders. We received ours drink right away but waited and waited and waited for our appetizers. After waiting for close to an hour for appetizers, and needing to get to our play soon, we unfortunately had to tell them we couldn’t stay.
We were pretty peeved about the fact that we didn’t get to eat before sitting through a lengthy play. Lucky for us, the restaurant understood and gave us our drinks for free. It was better than nothing, I suppose.
This experience (which wasn’t my first but was definitely the most memorable) was enough to make me not want to go back to Chili’s again. Sorry, guys, you’re just not good enough to put up with that.

I don’t know if because it’s a chain they think they can get away with poor service and bad food or if that’s just part of the whole experience at all Chilis. If so, they exceeded expectations.
My girlfriend and I had to seat ourselves after asking the host if there were any tables upstairs. «I don’t know», she said, brushing us off. After locating an upstairs table, the poor service continued. I had a NY steak and my girlfriend had a chicken wrap, which we were able to order after a waitress finally found us. The food was barely warm when it was served. I was hungry and ate the whole thing, but my girlfriend wanted to take half her sandwich home. This caused a lot of bad noise and we were told if we wanted to take anything to go, we could damn well box it up ourselves. The server mumbled something about «health codes» or something and brought us our very own styrofoam box to do with our left overs as we saw fit. It was crazy. I might as well have poured my own beer while I was at it.
I won’t be back and I’m sure they don’t care. There’s enough people in Calgary at this point that they can offend someone and someone else will come and try it for themselves. But that can only go on for so long. They’ll learn to take care of their customers long after everyone stops going…