Chuy's — Restaurant in Birmingham

Worst restaurant experience in recent memory. 1/10, do not go to Chuy's.

I went to Chuy's for my grandmother's birthday yesterday, it was a party of 9 adults and four children, and we waited 45-50 minutes for our drink orders. Not the alcoholic drinks mind you, I'm talking about sodas and water. One of our party is a pregnant woman who ended up having to steal sips off of my mother's water, because of course when the drinks came, it wasn't all of the drinks, just some of them. The alcoholic drinks took an extra 30 minutes to arrive, and they forgot my uncle's drink order entirely, so from then on we had to order doubles just to ensure we would get more than one drink before we left.

The restaurant itself is weirdly dirty, with grimy menus and hastily wiped down tables. I felt gross being there.

The service was absolutely atrocious; I'm not sure if there's something circulating in the bougie, Mountain Brook air at the Summit, but it seems to be affecting the staff by giving them all the demeanor of old money retirees. The man at the door was disinterested and rude when we asked about seating our party and our waitress, a young woman, was clearly trying but was probably overworked and was clearly forgetful of orders. It took us nearly an hour to order food and another 45 minutes to receive it, and when the food arrived it was lukewarm.

The temperature of the food, not saying anything of its consistency and preparation, which is subpar and a whitewashed "spin" on Mexican food, even by Tex-Mex standards, indicates it was probably held for that extra 45 minutes just sitting somewhere in the kitchen, getting colder and colder before it arrived. I got the steak burrito, which was made with what seemed to be leftover potroast like meat, not actual steak. If it was already cooked beforehand and just had to be assembled, then why did it take so long to arrive? The chicken quesadillas I ordered also didnt arrive until we were literally being handed our receipts. I got them comped because it was the single thing during the night I genuinely became angry over, because the timing felt comedically intentional.

But today I'm angry for a different reason: I got food poisoning from my meal last night. My stomach hurts and I won't go into graphic detail, but I had to take off work today because of it. Whether it was a unhygienic kitchen, the food we ordered being left out for too long in the bacterial danger zone, but my sister is heavily pregnant and ate with me last night, and now I'm going to have to call her and make sure she's all right. I am also irate because I'm having to write this review instead of sleeping off whatever sickness I was exposed to at Chuy's.

My advice, don't go to Chuy's if you want Mexican food. Go to El Comal, Cozumel Grill, or Taqueria Garibaldi's in Pelham, or literally any other Tex-Mex restaurant, there's literally hundreds, if not thousands, of better restaurants in every square mile of the Birmingham metro area.

Whoever is in charge of this location should go sit in the corner and think about what...

We went at a perfect time today. We did not know they open at 10:45 on Sundays although the time listed on Google says 11 a.m. A tall gentleman was at the door greeting people as we entered. I felt as if he was just sharing the spill. I was not able to really sense a true greeting. He had no smile on his face and as he was looking into the distance as he welcomed us. We were quickly taken to our desired area and immediately, I noticed the table was dirty. I really did not want to begin by pointing it out to our waitress, but I had to. She was really kind and apologetic. We assured her that we understood and knew it was nothing she had done. We did not make a fuss about it. Our family ordered water, but I chose to order a Virgin Pina" Colada. The size it came in was smaller than the previous times before, that was nothing to complain about because so many things are going up in prices; however, it was not really good so I gave it to my daughter. Food came out very quickly. I ordered shrimp tacos and they were so delicious! The shrimps were cooked to perfection and seasoned extremely well. My husband went to open the package holding his utensils and showed me the hardened food on the fork. That was pretty disgusting. That was a first for us. We had such a nice waitress till I chose to not say anything and just allow our time together as a family to continue. Our waitress was so pleasant, kept a wonderful smile on her face, attentive, and made sure to see if we needed anything along the way. I was shocked to have just learned about an error on our receipt while writing this review. We were accidentally charged for 5 beverages as if we purchased drinks(sodas) and we only ordered water. Pay attention to your receipts. We are not sure if they are charging for water yet or not and will know know until we contact them for the mistaken charge. I will update you once we know if water is no longer free. Update at the end of my post It is certainly worth your time going to enjoy. What took place were minor things and nothing to get upset over. It did not take away from the great place as they are. Chuys is wonderful and I would like to encourage you to given them a try if you have not. The salsa was wonderful, chips are light and crispy, and it is just a great place to enjoy. The manager this morning spoke with my husband who was extremely apologetic and corrected the charge quickly. My husband said he had the best cover service he's experienced in a long time. The manager had the money refunded quickly and problem solved. Customer satisfaction...

I must say for years Chuy’s has been one of my family’s favorite American Mexican Restaurants Birmingham, Al location off 280. I visited last night and my food met my expectations. I placed an order to go for my spouse and son. The waitress failed to tell me the taco salad would not come with a shell. Also my son’s fajitas did not have tortillas for his fajitas other than that she was awesome. My spouse called in this afternoon and asked to speak with someone regarding this because he manages a local restaurant with the expectation that he would be offered an apology and or a complimentary meal or discount for future visit as he has done for his customers. Instead he spoke with a manager Tom, that said, we have not sold taco shells for taco salad since the pandemic. We find this to be odd because 2/14/21 we placed a pick up order from Chuy’s and that order included a Taco salad with a shell. My husband said after speaking with the manager he was adamant that taco shells have not been sold the entire pandemic and the phone hung up, so he called back and asked for the manager once more and said sir, I’m not sure if the phone hung up by mistake and he hung up in his face again. Chuy’s management, people will always remember the bad encounter and inadequate service that you provide more so than the good experiences they have! Disappointed in the response of the manager Tom more so than the taco salad with no shell. This is not an example of good leadership, and we will share this experience with everyone we...