Chili Lime Cantina — Restaurant in Champlin

I want to preface with the fact that I don’t blame the kids running the actual restaurant. They are all young and they never seem to be fully staffed up. They do the best they can with what they got and the food actually tastes pretty good. Which is why it stinks that whoever manages the place and runs the bar is horrific at their job. I don’t know if I’ve been there when it’s been clean - especially the bathroom, which reminds me of where you would get murdered in a horror film. The bar service is usually particularly awful with the bartender only serving the people she seems to like and doing other wild stuff (I kid you not, one time she was carrying a baby of a friend while she was not mixing drinks people ordered). Most recently, I waited 35+ minutes for four tacos and two bags of chips and the order ended up being wrong. The bartender came in several times to make food for herself and put pressure on the TWO teenagers working the restaurant to get food for the bar. The kids were filling out large orders for online pickup as well, which they should have been able to turn off when one of their counterparts no called no showed. Why the manager seems to think three teenagers on a Saturday afternoon (with one being completely new) is enough during the lunch hour, I don’t know, but it frustrated me enough to write this review. Teenagers working Chili Lime, thanks for making honestly pretty good tacos. Managers and adults running the place, thanks for the constant headaches that came with ordering from...

Food was decent. Checkout process was not smooth or clear. It states to let them know before you checkout that you have a coupon. We were not greeted upon arrival but that was fine as they were all very busy making orders. This was our first time here (and last). Per the sign we rang everything up a then let them know BEFORE checking out that we had a coupon. After waving my coupon around to get someone’s attention a kid came up a copped attitude about having to manually ring us up because of the coupon. Don’t publish coupons if it’s too much of a hassle for anyone to actually use them. Restaurant seating is minimal and the tables were dirty. As a new resident of Champlin I won’t be coming back here or referring anyone I know to come here.

Update to 1 star. We ordered online for pickup. Only received half our order and the other half was wrong. Went back after getting home and realizing this only to be accused of lying about our missing items and then getting mad they don’t know their own menu items therefore didn’t make the tacos as described on the menu. After the debacle they did get us new tacos and the missing tots. I got home a none of the tacos had sauce. Will be disputing the charge through my cc company, the tacos were inedible. Thought we’d give them a second shot but the customer service and food were both horrendous. Stay away!!! They also don’t answer the phone so you have to drive back up to correct...

Edit: Changed to 5 stars because I think maybe they have made improvements or just my experience has been much better! The other day I was late in picking up my order and they remade it w/o me even asking. It was such a nice gesture that I wasn’t expecting. The employees are always so friendly! I eat here at least once a week.

I’m on the fence about Chili Lime. I think their food is pretty yummy. I have not yet had something I didn’t like the taste of. However, I am not confident about their honesty or practices. Ordered extra chicken… one time it didn’t look like extra from the usual amount. Hmmm 🤔 Second time I paid closer attention. Paid $2 for extra chicken and still wasn’t convinced it was that much extra. Third time I asked for the chicken on the side so I could make sure there was extra. That time I was charged $4 for extra chicken. So, why the difference in price for ‘extra chicken’? Is there a ‘side order’ of chicken for $4 and an ‘extra amount’ for $2 as an option on the menu? Maybe i was wrong and there was extra chicken when I didn’t order it in a separate bowl but I’m not confident about that. How does one ever know if it doesn’t look obvious. 😬 I included photos here to show the amount of $4 of extra chicken. Not much for $4… it barely covered the bottom of the bowl. Still yummy but...