Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Fairview Heights

Had the worst experience here last night. Our family wanted to have dinner together before my aunt, uncle, and cousin had to go back home. They were visiting us from out of state. Shortly after we were seated, my aunt ordered a margarita, and shortly after she ordered, the manager came up to our table and said they unfortunately will not be serving her because they have reason to believe she was intoxicated. My aunt was sober. She hadn’t had anything to drink the entire day. We hadn’t even been seated for more than 5 minutes so this took us all by surprise. We all quickly jumped to reassure the manager saying “oh no, she hasn’t been drinking we have all been with her all day, she has disabilities!” Which was the honest truth! My whole family felt super uncomfortable because of the way the staff handled it. The manager said because of one employees judgement that my aunt couldn’t be served. I get you have the right to turn away service, but I don’t get where the line between discrimination vs rightful denial of service. My aunt is naturally bubbly and silly but she also has had several injuries due to working in construction and falling 16 feet off a ladder onto the concrete while on the job a few years ago. She has been disabled since. What upset us was no amount of reassuring them they not only didn’t believe us but they were all making rude comments and rolling their eyes and smiling at each other in the back. My husband even overheard a waitress saying to the table by us “did you guys enjoy the show? That lady was definitely drunk and she was saying she wasn’t “ etc basically gossiping about our incident. My husband said to the waitress “actually she hasn’t had anything to drink at all” and the waitress said “yeah right whatever”. My aunt told the manager she was going to call corporate to complain of the rude comments and them accusing her of being drunk and a liar. The manager said “oh I already reported it” with an attitude. Then she asked for the corporate number and the manager said “you can look it up online I’m not giving you that.” She even asked if she could call the cops and have them breathalyze her just to prove she was being honest and they just laughed at her. It was just the disrespect behind the accusations that we couldn’t get behind. We all felt so embarrassed being there after that because we felt genuinely harassed and offended. Again I understand the right to refuse service but it was the way they treated her and us. Claiming we were all lying when we most definitely weren’t. Maybe this will teach them that some people have disabilities and just want to have a margarita with their family on their last day of vacation. And you shouldn’t just assume someone is intoxicated from a 5 second...

We ordered online from here in the middle of a cross country road trip, because we had a gift card to use. We planned to coordinate our lunch with our next bathroom stop. We arrived before our food was ready, and walked in to use the bathroom, only to be immediately accosted by an employee saying we were not allowed to enter the building and to wait outside. We would have cancelled our order right then if not for the fact that we were using a gift card, so they already had our money. We went to the Lowe's next door to use the bathroom, which they were glad to let us do, despite us not being paying customers (as we were at Chili's). Of course, we understand the danger of the pandemic, and we wore masks, but we do not agree it is reasonable to preclude your paying customers from coming inside to use the bathroom. Are you not already wiping things down with disinfectant to prevent the spread? If not, I am even more disgusted. If so, then I don't see the problem. It's a pretty normal thing for a restaurant to expect their customers to need to use the bathroom. During this entire pandemic, I have never had a restaurant I ordered from tell me I couldn't use their bathroom or even enter the building. Absolutely ridiculous.

So we get our food, and it is just atrocious. We ordered the Santa Fe chicken salad and the chicken tacos with a side of asparagus. The chicken in the salad looked like fake, white rubber. There was no color or texture to it. It was so off putting, we couldn't bring ourselves to even take a bite of it. Then, the avocado on our tacos was brown and rooty (as in, way past it's prime- we would have thrown it away and tried another one if we were at home making our own food). Even worse, it was dried out and rubbery, like it had been cut the day before and left out in the open air overnight. I have never been served such a disgusting looking avocado at a restaurant before. Finally, the side of asparagus we got had an interesting seasoning/flavor to it that I would describe as that of a dirty and uncleaned grill. So, in our whole meal, the only things we could eat were some lettuce and spinach from the salad and the side of coleslaw we got. We barely ate any of what we got, and we threw the rest away and ate a couple of cliff bars we had in the car instead. It was a complete waste of time stopping for lunch, since we couldn't even eat our lunch. A truly and all around terrible experience. Maybe we will give the other $25 on our gift card to someone without standards. Or maybe we'll spend it on alcohol. They can't possibly mess that...

This was only my second time visiting Chili’s, and I’m so glad I gave it another chance because Patricia completely changed my experience for the better. During my first visit, I accidentally left my wallet behind. That visit wasn’t great the waitress I had seemed rushed and didn’t really take time to make the experience feel welcoming. I left disappointed, and later realized my wallet was missing. I called the next day and was told it had been found, and that I could come back in to pick it up. So I decided to dine in again and give it another shot. When I arrived, I let the host know I was there for my wallet, and they said the male manager would be notified. After a while, someone came and told me my wallet was no longer there. I was confused and stressed since I’d been told it was there just hours earlier. The manager didn’t come out to speak to me. He seemed to be focused on the kitchen most of the time and I was eventually told I’d have to come back the next day to speak to someone else. That’s when Patricia stepped in and truly became the hero of the night. Once she noticed I was still sitting there 20 minutes after finishing my meal, she realized something wasn’t right. Without hesitation, she approached the male manager directly and pushed to get real answers. She then took it upon herself to call the other manager, follow up on the situation, and locate the wallet herself. And guess what? My wallet was there the entire time, right out in plain sight. Patricia went way above and beyond when she didn’t have to. She showed genuine care, took initiative, and treated me like a person not just a customer. If you’re going to this Chili’s, ask for Patricia. She’s the kind of person who turns a stressful situation into a positive, unforgettable experience. She’s the reason I’ll actually look forward to...