Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Aldine

Only giving as much a 3 stars because the food is good. Service is bad. I've only dined in once a couple of years ago pre covid, meeting a colleague and it took awhile for us to be seated not because it was crowded , not because hostess was seating anyone else but because no one was at the front. Fast forward have been here 3 more times for pick up. First time beginning of pandemic I called ordered over the phone picked up curbside. Recieved my food but took forever to get change from payment . Second time ordered online was missing things from my order didn't notice until I got home due to it being the sides and I wouldn't know until I i opened the container. Third time I called to place my order. I called at 1020 and asked was it too late to place an order over the phone. Was told yes. I asked if the restaurant closed at 11 and I came in could I order. The worker said in a sassy tone , " yea if your here in our parking lot by 1045" . Which doesn't make sense because wouldn't my food still need to be made which would make it even cutting closer to the time they close? So with me literally living 10 -15 mins I pull up call on the phone and ask "can I order now?" She says ummm yea but u gotta come in we cant go outside. Mind you im in the curbside area where they are  ringing out food and taking payments. So i send my husband inside and he says of course it's young kids working this particular night  worker is flirting with another worker instead of doing her job and getting the order when she finally does he comes back out.Another girl brings out the food. I check the bag we were missing sauces he then has to go back and get the sauces.i see him standing at the door and its 11 now so they've immediately locked the door. I can see inside so I see the worker who was too busy flirting just stand at the door for a minute looking at him like oh were closed now. When she finally just opens the door I roll down my window to hear , because I wanted her to say they were closed but he tells her about the missing sauces. She says , " oh we put that up already" .He told her he doesn't care because that's what he ordered with his food. She sucks her teeth and go get the sauces. She was lucky it was...

AWFUL!!! Don't waste your time coming here unless you just feel like getting charged for drink after drink while waiting for an appetizer that never comes...

Our waitress took roughly 15 minutes to greet us and take a drink order then took her another 10 minutes to bring our drinks. Party of 5 adults and 4 kids-shouldn't be that difficult (although I waited tables for 4 years in college). After we finally got our drinks, we ordered an appetizer and waited for over an hour and it never came. Meanwhile, I watched a family come in and be sat down by the hostess, never greeted or given their ordered drinks. After the family left, (which I'm left assuming was due to poor service) she came around with their drinks and played it off like it was ours. Yes- actually gave my father-in-law 2 kids cups with lemonade and told him that it was his refill.... Saw another family (6 or 7 people) sit down, get their drinks and food before we got our appetizer. I told the manager that this was taking WAY too long, and this was unacceptable. I told him we had somewhere else to be and we needed it to go - he said it would "be another minute". 5 minutes later, waitress brought out our checks before we got the food (full balance- no discounts, nothing comped, not even a single drink). We then proceeded to TELL another waitress that we were leaving and we're not going to pay for something we never got. She told us that she was sorry, that it was the kitchen's fault and that she was embarrassed. Sorry.... not buying it. If that were actually true, the table after us wouldn't have gotten their food either and neither would anybody else for that matter. It wasn't until after I insisted that we weren't going to pay for the food that the manager comped our drinks.

I'm a big wait-staff advocate, because I've lived in that trench but that was unacceptable on both the waitresses part and the managers part. There would be no way on God's green earth that I would EVER show back up to that table with 1. Someone else's drinks and pass it off as theirs. 2. Without comping something. 3 without some kind...

The bartenders were great, the restaurant was clean. Despite the restaurant itself being half full, the wait was 15-20 minutes, and we were kinda crunched for time on our way to the airport, which is why we chose to sit at the bar.

We both ordered the 6oz sirloins "medium" - they came out purple and cold in the middle, and our broccoli was warm but for the most part, still dry and raw (no problem, there, I love broccoli no matter how it's cooked). I hate hate HATE the thought of sending back food, and I've never done it before... but we just couldn't eat the steaks that way. So we both asked for the steaks to be thrown on for another couple of minutes, if it wasn't too much trouble.

They came back about 10 minutes later, clearly a bit more seared on the outside, with slightly less purple in the middle. We just didn't have time to send them back a second time... so I gave mine (slightly thicker, and therefore the most underdone) to my companion, and I ate his.

This was yesterday evening.

We ate, skedaddled, and made our flight. About 4 o'clock this morning, after a pretty uncomfortable night, he woke up with severe stomach cramps, nausea, vomitting, bowel distress, and has been extremely sick ever since. I am not accusing Chili's of anything - obviously, this could be anything... like some weird airport superbug from Bangladesh for all we know, and the timing could be an absolute coincidence.

I mention it because I don't think it's appropriate for a restaurant to be quite so flippant about the done-ness of their meat - especially since all it would have taken is a $2 meat thermometer or a test-slice to do it right the first (or second) time. I've been frequenting Chili's for years, and very seldom have I had a bad experience. It saddens me to see a location that isn't quite able to uphold the brand standard, I'd love to see that this particular location gets a bit more cognizant of their quality control...