Chuy's — Restaurant in Gainesville

First of all, what a nice place to eat. From the eclectic decor to the exaggerated tex-mex theme, it truly feels like you're out to eat for the evening. There are several dining rooms you might be placed in. The first one you see has giant plastic palm trees built in the middle of the room. In another, the ceiling is literally made out of old hub caps from junker cars. And how could I not mention the room completely lined head to toe with impressionistic paintings of dog people. So yeah... it's definitely unique.

Moving on to the food. Pretty tasty if you ask me. You don't go here for authentic Mexican street food. You go because they nail what Tex Mex is all about, starting with the chips. Yes, the tortillas are all made IN-HOUSE every day. In fact, you can actually watch the kitchen cook them up on a rotating flat-top behind a glass wall in the main dining room. Now that's what I call fresh. Then, they take these perfectly lardy flatbreads, and fry them up into the most beautiful, crispy, wafer-thin, and deeply flavored chip. All you can eat. But guess what? It doesn't end there. I haven't gotten to the salsas yet. You'll get the classic pico de gallo and creamy jalapeno (amazing) delivered with the chips, but they have a plethora of other sauces to choose from. I had to rant about the chips because they just keep bringing me back to eat there.

My favorite entree is the steak burrito with boom boom sauce. Boom boom is a mixture of their queso and hatch green chile salsa, so it is both cheesy and flamin hot, just how I like it. The burrito is most literally a 12 inch tortilla brimming with what I think is an entire fajita steak (I think it's a skirt), which is tender and so extremely flavorful from the beautifully-seasoned grill. Then, it's doused in the cheesy, saucy delight.

Side-note: they also make a mean frozen strawberry margarita at the bar, among many other options, if you're into that type of thing.

The service here is always fabulous. The servers are attentive without being pushy, and it almost amazes me how they come around with a fresh scoop of chips to refill your basket at the exact moment the first ones run out. It's like a magical never-ending chip fountain. But in all reality, it's just an awesome wait staff with great management behind them.

So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I know this is a chain, but I find it delectable and a great place to take your parents when they visit or the kids for family night out. Whatever it is, just get you some boom-boom and a drink, and it'll be a...

I wish I were exaggerating but this was the most disrespectful dining experience I ever had. We were seated and waited at least 5 minutes before we were even greeted by a waitress (I don’t recall her name but she had distinct green hair). She never brought us straws like we requested, she almost didn’t bring us napkins (we asked our server twice; we asked another server and she also didn’t bring us napkins but at least gave us straws) and blamed it on other staff that they sometimes put napkins on the table or don’t. She only checked in on us once throughout the entire experience (appetizer and entree). Never asked or received drink refills, nothing you would typically expect dining out. And then we timed it that she disappeared for 10 minutes once we were done eating to the point that we went to the front desk and she bubbly skipped up and said she was just on her way (right). We would have been there passed the closing time if not having gotten up ourselves to pay. The restaurant was fairly empty too so nothing reasonable to account for. The other employees were giving her looks. Not to say that employees can’t have fun, but it sounded like there was more horseplay than professionalism going on by most of the staff, one even tagging another and saying they got “queered” which I found extremely insulting. Let me also stress that we are very respectful (we stacked the plates for her and left the table clean despite her negligence) and usually tip well and sometimes even the full bill (we just did days ago and the waitress was so overwhelming happy; she deserved it). Tonight’s dinner was supposed to be a celebration and because of the service, it was stressful and demeaning instead. We are a biracial couple so I genuinely wonder if we were being discriminated against? The service and treatment was just so bad. I honestly want a refund and would not recommend to anyone who wants a catered dining experience. I do want a manager response to these concerns as soon as possible because that sort of behavior can really hurt...

Coming into the place it was so beautiful, but the queso wasn’t even traditional white cheese. It tasted more like a cheeseburger. It was honestly disgusting. The alcoholic drinks are heavily overpriced so I didn’t get to try it. My husband & I love Mexican food and had really high hopes because of the reviews.

My two favorite things are usually the sides.. which I’m not sure if it was the kitchen or the servers fault but it stated on the menu that the enchiladas came with spanish rice and refried beans. I only received rice. The spanish rice was extremely dry & my husbands refried beans looked unappetizing. It looked watery and strange. Neither of them were good. The enchiladas barely had any chicken in them. It tasted like the frozen ones you can get from Walmart. My husband ordered the steak burrito which said it had peppers and onions inside and it was only cheap watery flank steak. He asked if they could add a little queso on top. This thing came out SMOTHERED in that cheeseburger queso. The moment it sat the table I said something to the server. She asked if we wanted anything to go. The only thing worth taking home was our soda. We just asked for the check after taking a couple bites, waited 20 mins for it, paid and left immediately just to end up leaving the to go drinks behind. Such a shame. This place is SO beautiful but the food is low quality & very expensive. We spent 55$ on the two of us....