Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Ennis

Horrible management. I came in one afternoon to watch the world cup with my son. I was smoking an ecig for an hour and 15 min before one of the bartenders came up to me telling me that her manager asked that I not smoke it. I asked if anyone has complained, she said no, but there's a sign on the door. Note that I'm not a blatant rule breaker, and I genuinely didn't see the sign (I later looked and it's on the very bottom of the door - I'm 5' 8" tall and I was wearing high heels). I complied, but in general I think it's a stupid rule and non-smokers need to be glad that many smokers have found a non-offensive, non-harmful alternative. It would be nice if they would compromise just a smidge and quit complaining so much. But I get it. They are sheep that have been trained by our government to hate ALL smoking, withough compromise or knowledge of all of the facts (it's water vapor people). Anyway, I'll get off my pro-vape soapbox.

Here's where I got extremely irritated at the situation. While no one had complained about my ecig (which I incidentally stopped smoking with a smile when asked), there was a loud, fat, drunk guy literally going around from table to table and person to person at the bar, getting in their face, putting his arm around people and leaning on them, loudly talking about absolute nonsense to anyone who would listen, and even to those who weren't interested, completely intruding on other's space, time, meals, and conversations. He even lifted his shirt, exposing his fat, hairy belly while scratching it - WHILE people are trying to eat! Everyone was irritated. Yet nothing was said to this jerk.

So first, if Chili's has a non-smoking policy that included ecigs, fine - it's dumb, but that's just my opinion, I will abide or find a vapor-friendly place to go. However, the manager did not have the cajones to tell me himself to stop vaping. Instead he sent his sweet bartender to do his dirty work. What a WIMP!!!! A lesser person would have tipped the bartender less even thought she was just the messenger. I did not. However, I didn't order anything else to eat or drink as I had no plans to spend anymore money at this establishment due to the next paragraph.

Second, if my non-offensive actions warranted being kicked to the curb if I want to enjoy myself, "management" should have also kicked the very distruptive jerk to the curb AND cut him off. While the no vaping rule is annoying, in no way would it ruin my evening or cause a bad review. It's the fact that this guy was practically able to get away with murder while I was not allowed to vape that chapped my hide. And of course management sending someone else to do their dirty work. If I were her, I would have said "not for $2.13 and hour, you tell her yourself!" But that's just me.

I do not appreciate being treated like a second class citizen while others can go around harrassing other customers (I saw TWO TABLES leave because of this guy!). I will never set foot in this or any Chili's again since their policy disallows vaping, but allows for drunk and disorderlies to ruin other people's evenings.

Luckily I was just passing through this podunk town and where I live, we have lots of options for sports bars. Hey Ennis - open a REAL sports bar and you bank! Judging from the other reviews here, people are dying for a decent place to go with...

Update:

Chili's was kind enough to offer a gift card for free food on the next visit. Management agreed that a cell phone should not be required to get onto the seating list and said they'd advise staff. The gift card was emailed right after i voiced my complaint and I apologize for not updating this sooner. We haven't used the gift card yet, but thank you very much for this gesture of kindness.

Army Captain Refused Service on Veteran's Day because he didn't have a phone. Upon arrival at Chili's around 5:30, we noticed at least 3 empty tabletops in the dining area. A party of 3, including a veteran, was ahead of us. The hostess told us there'd be a wait of 20-30 minutes and said we could sit in the bar if we'd like. I misunderstood and did not realize she was asking if we wanted to eat in the bar, so we simply remained standing in the entry and I asked to view a Veteran's Day menu. She handed that to me and asked which we were choosing, the bar or dining area. Now she asked the army captain for his phone number, and he said he didn't have his phone with him. She asked for my number and I too had left my phone at home. She told us that she could not enter us onto the waiting list without a phone. At this point, I said, in a bewildered tone," Well, then I guess we will have to leave and go elsewhere?" She offered no solution, only that we couldn't get onto the list without a phone, so we said we'd leave and she never offered any solution. Once outside, I asked the captain, who has cancer, and might not want to bother with this, if he'd mind if I go ask for a manager. We went inside, asked for a manager, and were told that we'd have to wait, because 2 others were ahead of us. She pointed toward 2 young women. I shrugged at the ladies and said that it's a busy day for the manager. After a couple of minutes, we decided to just post a review, rather than spend more time at Chili's waiting for someone with common sense. After all, the hostess could have simply entered her number or Chili's and then just used her words to tell us when our table was ready, as we were right by the hostess stand. I've been a loyal Chili's client since 1975, going to the original Dallas location on Greenville Ave. I think...

This is legit the worst chili's we have ever been to. We used to go a lot but it has just gone way down hill. We don't go as much as we used to because there seems to always be an issue. The portions aren't the same as all the other chili's and we go to others often. The service is typically lacking and rude and hard to get refills. The management typically doesn't care or apologize for mistakes or issues so we just try to avoid this specific location. We went on Tuesday for my husband's birthday because it was a week day and a work day we were trying to meet for a meal we didn't have to cook that would be continent for everyone so we landed on chili's. We let our server know when we were seated it was his birthday the restaurant was virtually empty we didn't think the visit was going to be an issue we were wrong. Refills were hard to come by our toddler was throwing fits because our food took well over an hour to come out and once we decided to take her soda away and it was hard to get a server over to ask for a water then once we asked for one it took forever to get the water like forever. We had to ask for napkins no joke 7 times. And at the end of the meal they never offered dessert or sang or anything we sang ourselves and paid the bill on the little kiosk and left it was ridiculous and kind of sad I felt so bad for my husband he works so hard and we tried to celebrate him and it didn't feel like much of a celebration it felt like we inconvenienced the restaurant for even being there. It will be a while before we are back if even at all. I do not recommend this location it is not a good one nor is it a clean one. Our bill was quite high too so it wasn't like we were ordering cheap so this is just completely disappointing and I honestly debated even wasting my time posting this review since they clearly don't care about their customers but maybe some future customers might care about...