Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Chesapeake

12-4-2020 I haven't been to Chili's in a long time. In fact it's been since my last review at this very location back in 2017. Mostly that's due to the hours I kept while working overnights for a couple of years. I'm also not fond of the traffic in that part of Great Bridge.

Anyway many of us are working from home so I guess I'll call this a DoorDash delivery review. The other week I ordered lunch every single day via delivery and in this case it was a Bacon Cheeseburger & fries from Chili's.

I have to say it's been another home run for both Chili's and DoorDash. The meal arrived very quickly after the driver picked it up and was still hot upon receipt, including the fries. The burger was cooked to my specification (medium well) and there was a bounty of fries surrounding it. I have to say it was as close to a perfect lunch as you can get.

3-2-2017 I actually ended up here because we really didn't have a choice, which is fine because it turned out very well. I had some friends stop by on Christmas Eve who had just come in from Charlotte, NC and it was already around 9:30pm once we took care of exchanging gifts. We decided to grab some dinner and the place we wanted to go was already closed for the holiday.

After driving around on Battlefield a bit we saw the lights on and headed in. Looks like there were some other folks out there with the same idea as us because there were about 4-5 tables full of families. We opted to sit at the bar so we could interact with a person instead of the onscreen tablet ordering that Chili's now does at their tables. Carry out was busy as well. While we were dining people came in and picked up orders at least 3 different times.

We started off with some beers and an order of Southwestern Eggrolls and placed our dinner orders. I was hankering for a burger, and opted for their Ultimate Bacon Cheeseburger. It's been a while since I've been to a Chili's and their burgers have definitely changed since my last visit. The patty is still thick however the girth of the burger and bun have definitely shrunk. The burger has a more gourmet appearance to it than used to as well along with the fries in a little metal tin. However you can dress it up any way you want, it's still just a generic burger. I honestly liked the old one better. My friends wife had a burger as well and he had an order of wings.

Service was decent. Our server or Bartender, was efficient but not very chatty. Our beers did stay full and we didn't have to ask for anything more than once. I must say that the interior of this Chili's location is very nicely designed. I'm not sure if this is a fresh remodel or if it's always been this way, but it's definitely one of the better looking Chili's I've been to. I'm sure I'll come back here sometime in the future. In fact it's probably a great location for catching a game and having a beer...

Chicken quesadilla explosion salad...I don't see how you can be ok with serving this but maybe this is the new standard.

We were seated right away and the waitress seemed extremely friendly, however, that was the highlight of the visit. We ordered a side of ranch dip with our chips.... my family finished 2 orders of chips and we finally got the ranch dip moments before dinner arrived...

My son ordered double mashed potatoes with his meal. The mashed potatoes were delivered.... after a few reminders and after everyone had already finished their dinner. "I'm sorry. I don't know what is taking them so long back there" was the explanation from the server. Asked for a to go box and the tablet was having an issue... literally watched our waitresses stand and laugh and have an engaged conversation with another table for almost 10 minutes before I had to go to the hostess at the front and ask for my check because of the tablet issue. She resolved the issue and sent the manager over to our table. The manager made a modest adjustment to the check but it needs to be a learning experience for the wait staff at this location. When there are multiple issues with items not being delivered to the table....maybe it's not a back of the house issue; especially when an issue is brought up and you clean a few tables before walking back to the kitchen.

I know it's nothing major especially in today's world but my expectations are higher when dining out.....even if it is Chili's. It's a service and you really should get what you pay for in terms of food and level of service. I get it sometimes things happen but tonight was another rather disappointing experience. For whatever reason it's my son's favorite place and we would eat here more often but the quality of food and service has really seemed to go downhill recently. We have had a few issues in the past and I've just brushed them off for them being too busy or a weekend but it's experiences like this that have caused our family to typically choose another establishment.... we gave Chili's at battlefield another shot tonight and it was rather disappointing. It's ashame because this location used to thrive.

Let me just say though. The corn on the cob as simple as it might be. Never...

I honestly would have rather stayed home and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Where oh where do I even start with the laundry list of problems that occurred in the last 2 hours: My salad was made wrong three times. The server rang my mother's food up incorrectly and did not bring her the correct food. Now she did correct this error (that was probably the best part of the night, the 1 problem that was corrected.) The lettuce on my mother's salad looked as if it was cooked. Server had a bad attitude and made us feel like an inconvenience to the socializing she was doing at work. When the server asked my father if the check would be together or sperate my father said "No that's it," the server miss understood and said she would split the check. My father the corrected her and said we don't need it split. The server then started to talk him through how to pay on their table. My father said "I will, I'm just trying to understand how you rang things up." The server then walked away and threw her tablet down on the bench and YELLED for the whole restaurant to hear, "FINE! DON'T ASK ME TO DO ANYTHING ESLE FOR YOU AGAIN!" This makes no sense to me because, she is in a service industry. We never blamed the server for the mistake that were made in the preparation of the food. We definitely realize food preparation mistake are the fault of the kitchen staff and not servers. After she said this I asked to speak with a manager. The manager seemed to be unengaged and uninterested in what I had to say, when I was expressing my concerns about the experience.

Needless to say, we will never go back to this location. We have noticed that since the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic, that the quality of food and service has been on a decline at this location. This is a shame,, we use to really enjoy the experience we had when we went to this...