Chi'Lantro — Restaurant in Austin

So I placed an order today (7/2/2021 at ~4:25 PM) for delivery. Unfortunately when 5:35 rolled around I had still not received my order the the update email from Chi'Lantro's website stated that the food had not been picked up yet and was also not on the way. I then called the store and inquired if there was an update to my order. When reaching someone they put me on a brief hold when they realized my order had been sitting on the counter for over an hour with no update. The manager was then speaking and asked if they could call me back after they tried to get to the bottom of the situation.

About 10-15 minutes later they called me back asking if my delivery driver or anyone from the delivery company had called me as they tried to cancel the restart the delivery on their end and for some reason they had received an error (I hadn't - the only information at that time I had received was from Chi'Lantro's website/email service). Afterwards they then told me they didn't recognize the delivery service (I later found out was Skipcart) - during this conversation I had just received a text from my delivery driver (around 5:45). I informed them of this and they said that was great and if the driver didn't arrive soon they would give me a call.

Fast forward - delivery driver arrives and the following note was placed. I was a little concerned for not only food quality but food safety - I've always been told it was not safe to eat chicken when it has been sitting out for over 2 hours (and it was going to be around that amount of time by when my driver was saying it was to be delivered - I have the emails/texts to show when the driver announced they arrived). I had asked the manager if my order could be canceled or remade and they refused with a bunch of excuses of "we're swamped now" or "we could've remade it earlier if we had noticed your driver hadn't arrived but we didn't." They basically told me in nice terms I wasn't allowed to cancel my order for spoiled food either.

Overall this experience soured my view of the brand - more so with the lack of professionalism. How am I supposed to contact the delivery service when you can't? Who is the customer here? And why wasn't it noticed when my food wasn't picked up for a delivery for over an hour? It shouldn't have taken me calling to notice? Also, why is food allowed to be sat for 4 hours and served?

More than anything there was never so much as a sorry - not once. No raised voices were made on either end and no obscenities were ever exchanged. It was just a long string of excuses that...

Having been to the Burnet Road location for a year (basically twice a week) I know how good the food is, and I have always had a great customer service experience in the past.

The South Lamar location is completely different, and unfortunately now that I have moved, I will no longer be eating at Chi'Lantro. This location has terrible customer service all around. What is the point of me ordering exactly what I want if they will just end up putting anything they want on your order?

I highlighted everything they messed up on the receipt. What if I was allergic to one of the items, which you decided to pile on?

It started off great being greeted by the cashier, we placed our orders (it's to go at this location because of COVID), and expected to wait maybe 5 minutes? Nope - it took them 20 minutes to put together our two simple rice bowls. A little forewarning about the wait would have been nice, since they were open for walk-ins.

The worst part was the staff. They were not friendly, they did not seem to care that we were standing there for 20 minutes +, when it was time to get our order it ended up sitting on the counter for a while until the woman said "Oh, here it is. There you go."

All of this would have been manageable if in the end, they got our orders correct. The fact that the cashier (and who the hell knows why? He seemed like he was stoned out of his mind the entire time, singing loudly to himself) decided to not even listen to our order, or at the least check to make sure he placed it into the system correctly is what astounds me the most.

Goodbye Chi'Lantro, you lost a...

Chi’lantro is, hands-down, the best food in Austin, Texas. This is the place where I take my visiting friends from out of town to eat at. To me, Chi’lantro embodies what Austin is all about: tasty food, great design and friendly faces. Being a longtime customer of their food truck, I can honestly say that opening their brick-and-mortar location has greatly increased the consistency of their food portions and food quality. My expectations are always met during each visit.

There are plenty of options for vegetarians and they serve huge portions. The texture and taste of their bulgogi tofu is perfect. My go-to favorite is the Tofu Burger (with a fried egg) with a side of Tofu Kimchi Fries. The Kimchi Fried Rice balls is a tasty option that isn’t available at the truck, so take advantage. If it’s cheat day and you’re feeling REALLY hungry, get what I call the “trifecta” – the bulgogi burger, kimchi fries and a side of kimchi fried rice balls.

Added bonus: Parking is NEVER an issue here, even during their busy times.

There are only 2 drawbacks to the brick-and-mortar:

1. The limited seating. If you come during a busy day (such as Saturday for lunch), expect to wait for seating.

2. They do not currently offer their Chi’lantro Burrito (my favorite menu item which is only offered at the truck)

But the quality of the food they serve overshadows the drawbacks, so do not hesitate to give this place a try. I promise you won’t regret it.

Good job, Chi’lantro team – keep up the great work! I’m counting down the days until the Burnet Rd. location opens. When it does, expect a regular...