Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in California

I typically try to avoid chain restaurants. I find the food is typically low quality and not seasoned well with poor service and ultimately, not worth the money. I was dragged to a Chili's for a family outing recently and was pleasantly surprised with the food, so I decided to make one more trek and see if I got lucky or if Chili's really has something legit going on here. We went shortly after they opened to a fairly busy restaurant already. We were quickly seated and our waitress was there taking our drink orders in speedy fashion. The service was great. Not the usual unimpressed teen trying to earn spending money, but actual friendly and helpful people. They truly were great and most of all FAST! Everyone working had a sense of urgency and it contributed to service their patrons we're receiving. We received our chips and salsa so fast that's wasn't even sure the waitress had time to ring in the appetizer order. Not bad. The chips were still warm from the fryer, ultra thin and crazy good, while the salsa was impressive with notes of cumin and garlic. Ok Chili's, Im listening. Southwest egg rolls have been my Achilles heel for years and as always, on point today. As we grabbed the last two egg rolls off the plate here comes our burgers barrelling around the corner. I got a big boss burger with way too much stuff to list on it and my wife got a similar more traditional barbecue burger with pickles and onion straws. Both were excellent. Fries were so fresh I had to wait to eat them and the burgers were as rock solid and fresh as you can find anywhere. I'm really impressed Chili's. I usually take tons of pictures when I plan on reviewing restaurants, but I will be honest. I had 0 plans to review this place today. I wanted a simple no-frills meal with no hassle of typing up my thoughts afterword. With the service we received, chain or not, they deserve credit for the hard work they are doing there. The food was good, not mind-blowing-good, but seriously GOOD. The service was fantastic and their system is obviously working. This is typically a nod to management, but that's not for me to figure out as all you need to know is this place is rock solid. I've slowly began to revisit chains as of late and haven't been too impressed. I have a long retail background working withbcustokwrs face to face and understand the difficulty of it and I think hard work deserves praise regardless of your a chain or local spot. Give credit where it's due and this Chili's is on point. Thanks for a great lunch. You've given me hope to try out some more chain places in the...

So the food and prices were good as always, and the hostess, and servers were polite for the most part. That said, here are some things I feel need to be addressed.

On the 2 for $25 meal, the chips and salsa should NEVER come out without the guacamole. Not only did they not come out together, but the guacamole took an additional 15 mins to finally get there. Not acceptable in my opinion.

Also when asked about a soda refill, I was asked by 2 servers. When the second one finally brought it, I filled her in on the fact that another girl had asked earlier as well so I was just giving this one the heads up as to not bring out 2 of them, to which she then rolled her eyes at me and said, "and you said yes to her?" very rudely. Again not a good way to address your customer.

Finally, I was put off once again when the server brought my check rather soon, and I still hadn't received my cookie and ice cream dessert. Thing is I dont think it's a good practice bringing the check until EVERYTHING has been served because it just feels like you're pushing us out quickly so you can resell the table more before closing. Even if that's the goal, don't let your customer feel that way. I pointed this out to the hostess that came by and nicely explained that to her, and instead of seeing my point, she made excuses that the cookie takes a long time to heat up. I tried to re-explain my point to her, yet she repeated the same excuse, when she could've simply said, "I see your point sir.... our apologies. How can we make this better for you?"

I can honestly say I wasn't rude to any of the workers there. I know they work hard and it's a busy place, but I just didnt get the sense they were paying attention to their customer. These are valid criticisms, and I hope the management team takes the time to pointing these scenarios out as most of this is just common...

I've had MULTIPLE issues with this location! They're ALWAYS short staffed, will leave people sitting and waiting for an hour for a table and meanwhile HALF of their restaurant is CLOSED. All because they're short staffed. And the reason they're always short? Come to find out they made it so the servers don't keep their TIPS anymore - have to share them with the back of the house! Servers don't make enough money as it is! Corporate decided to go this way so they don't have to PAY their staff more. HERE'S A THOUGHT! If you didn't structure PAY like you do, people MIGHT want to work with you still! More servers means more CAPACITY! MORE CAPACITY MEANS MORE BUSINESS & PROFITS!!! Tonight, I was TURNED AWAY at an HOUR before their posted closing time! Short staffed again. SHOCKER! I'm sorry, but if you're a business and you post something like this, you STICK BY IT! I WILL NEVER COME TO THIS LOCATION AGAIN! And it's not just this location either. Long time server told me it's this way at ALL of the ones she's worked at! I REALLY HOPE CORPORATE MANAGEMENT READS THIS! You people NEED to pull your heads out of your 4th point of contact!!! I've been coming Chili's since I was TEN! THAT'S THIRTY-FIVE YEARS!!! You people have RUINED what was once an AMAZING restaurant. Don't...