Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Champaign

I've seen the restaurant start to go downhill. My last visit will be my real last visit for quite some time. Waited an hour with a 2 year old for s table. Asked the host to grab a drink for him and she offered to grab drinks for whole table. 30 minutes later our server introduced himself asking about drinks, realizing we already had them, he awkwardly asked about our order. We gladly placed it and asked for Chips and Salsa along with a hurry on the child's food. Chips came out, but we had no silverware/napkins, our drinks were getting close to empty. Waited another 30 minutes. I finally got up went around the restaurant and found our own plates, napkins and silverware. I then grabbed multiple people's mugs from our table and went to the server station and filled our own mugs. Waited another 15 minutes and our food started to trickle out from other servers. As we were unsure of what was going on we waited till all food had come to the table before starting the meal. There was a good 10 minute gap before the last two items arrived. Our server had not been to the table since taking the order. He finally checked on the table after we began eating and we asked for a few minor things that we had originally ordered like extra sour cream. After returning from that he looked at our drinks, but never returned. After we finished eating we sat for another 20 minutes before I got up got our own Togo boxes and asked for the manager. I didn't request anything other than that he use this as a teaching experience because I have served in the past and didn't want to cause that big of an issue. After hearing that the server had only been to our table the first time very late, and only one other time that wasn't followed through on, he took money off the check and told me this would be used as more than a teaching experience. Ok, so I said I didn't want to cause a big deal and was resolved to just leave a less than stellar tip and not come back for a long time. However looking back on it, if I would have been the manager, I would have handled this differently. If someone tells you that they aren't asking for anything you have 2 choices. You either comp their whole meal after hearing that story, or you take nothing off. By taking half off with someone that had worked in the industry and was patient and didn't raise a big stink you're telling me that you're recognizing my complaint and you feel bad, but you're penalizing me for being a respectful customer and not making a scene. If we would have been more vocally upset we would have had a free meal. Lastly, as a manager, if you have a customer who tells you they consistently visit your business, you see the table is 6 people (a higher ring), and they tell you that they won't be back for a while... Gift Cards to encourage a customer to revisit sooner than they intend are an incredibly easy tool. Even if you took nothing off the bill because I made a point to tell you I wasn't asking, offering a gift card is a no brainer to try to re-establish a relationship with a customer. Food was decent as it constantly is. Incredibly Bad experience and...

We stopped by for lunch today and were told it would be about 15-20 minutes for 2 of us. No biggie, it's the weekend lunch rush! We only waited like MAYBE 7ish minutes? So, we get seated and just started looking at the menu. Then, the most angelic voice of our waitress welcoming us in and asking us if we would like to start off with some drinks. She was THE SWEETEST HUMAN ever! Her name was Mandi? Or Maddi? I know it started with an M, and her section of tables was to the left of the entry door lol! Anywho, she said if she didn't bring out our drinks, that someone else would. She said that other servers and kitchen workers (oh, and the manager) were helping deliver food/drinks as soon as they were sat in the window, so they would always be super fresh arriving at the table! Our drinks made it to the table within a few minutes, and the server came right after to see if we were ready to order our food, and apologized for the delay. I told her there was no reason to apologize, as she made it over to us like a whole minute after the drinks did. So we placed our food orders and got our appetizer before our food this time (last time we got our main course like 15 minutes before the appetizer.. think the waiter forgot to submit the appetizer and he never came back to check until I flagged him down). So we are munching away on our appetizer, and then one of the managers delivers our main course to us while our waitress is getting the order of the table next to us. She came right to the table after she finished helping the other table, to make sure all is good with the order. The order was perfect, nothing missing.. not even my ranch cups I asked for! She looked at our half full drinks and says she will bring out some refills right away. Had refills at our table before we finished with the first glass. While she was there she made sure we still had everything we needed. Once she noticed we were done, she asked if we needed some to-go containers. We needed a few and she came back, not only with every lid/bowl/box/bag we needed, but she brought me extra ranch! The way to my heart lol! She noticed one of my ranches was empty and I didn't even have to ask for another. Sometimes it is just the smallest things that can make you smile. It is like she read my mind before I even asked her lol! This was probably one of the best experiences I've ever had, and she made up for the last visit to this Chili's - which was terrible. She deserves a raise! And she treated everyone else she waited on the same way. Gentle, kind, sweet, and not...

I've been putting this off for too long. I ate out three times today, and two of those times were at this Chilis™ franchise. The other was Wendy's™ (don't say it) but that was an accident (don't ask).

I ordered two Triple Dippers™ which is sextuple dippers with three orders of chicken crispers™. By the way, this comes out to a total of 9 chicken crispers™, and for roughly $16 dollars as a triple dipper™ pure chicken crisper™ order, this is substantially less expensive than the five chicken crisper™ meal although you don't receive fries but the Chilis™ fries are not worth waiting or paying for.

What I don't understand is why they don't administer warning signs for the table top games. There needs to be a clear, concise warning that you will be charged for the games if you attempt to play. These games are pricey, approximately half the cost of a Rizz Rita™. I had to come back for dinner to try again and make sure this wasn't a fluke, and I got charged again without even answering a single cow trivia fact which means today I lost the exact amount of money equal to one Rizz Rita™.

Needless to say, I wasn't thrilled. I have severe social inadequacies and couldn't confront the wait staff, but writing this review is giving me the closure and sense of self worth I've been chasing since my inception. Eighteen chicken crispers™ won't heal me. The damage is irreparable. But I can share my experience knowing I've helped other boys. Keep your heads up. The world wouldn't be the same without you. The...