Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Fultondale

I've always been a fan of Chili's but haven't been to one in a few years, I know that in general restaurants across the country are in trouble and Chili's sadly has also been on the decline just as most of these types of restaurants have been in recent years. I decided on a recent work trip with some coworkers to stop at this location just outside of Birmingham for lunch on a Sunday and after our visit I think this particular location may have one foot in the grave and if they don't do something soon then both feet will be in. It was early when we arrived for lunch and we weren't even sure this place was open because of no cars in the parking lot and a sign on the door, Google said that it was open so we pulled up by the door to see if the handwritten sign on the door says closed, it didn't, it said that one of the doors was broken and to use the other door, while waiting for them to open I noticed a couple other cars driving through also thinking they were closed due to the sign. I'd wager that the door didn't just break and that it's been broken with that janky sign taped up on it for a while now. Once inside there were just a couple other people in there at this point, the place seemed to be pretty well staffed but the employees seemed less than enthusiastic about even being here, no one greeted us, the hostess was looking at her phone. We were seated, the waitress was pleasant and did a good job and the food was average. Now that's about all I feel the need to say about the food and service but wanted to point out in this review what I see as a customer that is wrong with the place, it's not clean and no one seems to care, There was plenty of staff standing around waiting for I guess the expected lunch rush and they were doing nothing much from the looks of it. As we were sitting waiting I noticed things wrongs that are easily remedied if only someone cared and took pride. The things that I saw in my 45 minute visit, there were multiple light bulbs out, that looks terrible and is an easy and cheap fix. There are large glass windows between the dining area and the bar that go almost to the ceiling, the glass was dirty and very noticeable, it's not hard to grab some glass cleaner and microfiber cloth daily to make sure these things are clean but no one seems to care. There is bad, stained and chipping paint on the walls and trim and dust on the ceiling fixtures, all of that could easily be painted and cleaned. Before we left I went to the restroom, it was fairly clean but needed an update and guess what, that early in the day and there were no hand towels, who's job is it to make sure the bathroom is cleaned and stocked. Management and/or owners seem to not care and as such this place probably won't be around much longer. A total makeover and tens of thousands of $$ is not necessarily what is needed in this place, just some general housekeeping goes a long way, I would never go back to...

(Edited to add. Chili's commented below, wanting me to reach out to them. When I did, they said they would review the claim and get back to me asap, and I still haven't heard anything from them. They are just posting these comments but not doing anything to fix the issue.)

We arrived here 2 hours before closing time. When we walked in we waited a little over 5 mins before anyone showed up to seat us and there were only 3 tables with people sitting at them, when seated we waited another 13 mins before anyone ever walked over to our table all while there was a group of waitresses sitting at a table talking and cutting up. An entire row of table next to us still had food and trash where previous customers had eaten and it was never cleaned off (That stayed there the entire time we were there) finally someone came out of the kitchen and saw us sitting there and told the group of waitresses that we needed to be tended too. None of them got up or even budged. Finally someone that was off the clock came over and took our drink order and apologized that Noone had seen to us. We finally got our drinks 5 mins later from the same person that was still off the clock. She then took our order. It was late and we didn't want to eat heavy so we just ordered appetizers as our meal. We got the chips and salsa with a side of guacamole and a order of the loaded cheese fries. That was our entire order besides drinks and we had to wait for 25 mins on that. We finally got the food (once again from the girl that was clocked out for the night) and the fries were cold and tasted freezer burnt and the chips were stale. While waiting on the food my husband had drank all of his dr pepper. When the food arrived he asked if he could get a refill. They never brought it or came back to check on us. Finally they brought the ticket. I told them we never received his drink and that our food was not great. They replied with well we will bring you a Togo cup and asked how much we were going to tip. We paid $34 for terrible food and no service. We love chili's normally but I doubt we will...

UPDATED REVIEW

I changed my rating and I wanted to replace with this- I appreciate highly your management team, Amanda, calling me today to receive feedback and hearing me out. On a Sunday, none the less. It speaks volumes to the attempts that are being made to make this a great place to dine. There will be poor managers in every business and that it was recognized and handled is all any patron can ask of a business. Thank you Amanda for making this right.

I am disgusted with Miles your manager. We ordered our food & expected a little wait. Our sons food came out, a pizza within 10-15 min of ordering. I ordered the salmon &asparagus & my husband ordered the smoke house combo. We waited over 40 minutes, our son was done with his food for quite some time by the time my salmon was delivered but my husband still didn’t have his. I went to start eating & noticed, the asparagus was cold,the bottoms not trimmed. They served me warmed whole Spears of asparagus. The salmon was so dry I had to cut it with a knife just to get a piece. At that point, I requested the kitchen manager from our waitress. We waited 10 minutes after she went back to get him & said he’d be out in a few minutes. I had to get out of the booth, walk onto the serving floor just to get him to come out of the office to speak with us. When he came out, I asked him why it took me having to go back to get him, he tells us that the waitress never told him. We know 100% he was lying. our waitress crystal did everything she could to make us comfortable, I would like to know she will not get in trouble for a horrific leader in that location. On top of his dismissive demeanor to your customers, we wanted to pay for the food our son ate and our drinks and he just comped the whole thing in an obvious attempt to get rid of us. So not only did he drive customers away, he decided you didn’t want our...