Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Hutto

First of all I would like to say that the service & customer service on my recent visit was awesome! I have always said that I will pay extra for great customer service, and it was great!

Sadly, the food wasn't as stellar. Now, I know we are in the middle of unprecedented times and everyone is still trying to figure out how to move forward during these times, but regardless of that, you have to maintain good customer service and quality product. People will only support you so much with subpar quality.

I ordered the Classic Ribeye and this was a curbside order. I don't typically like to order steak to go, but I figured I would give it a try. I thought I had their steaks before and it was decent. The first one felt like it had been cooked, frozen and then thawed and reheated. What got me the most was the texture. I've eaten a lot of ribeyes in my life. I used to be a meat-cutter so have a good amount of experience with all cuts of meat. The ribeye is my all-time favorite and arguably the best cut on the cow. It resembled a U.S.D.A. Select cut when I was expecting U.S.D.A. Choice. Most restaurants serve Choice while most premium steakhouses serve U.S.D.A. Prime.

Now I wasn't expecting Prime but definitely at least Choice. Anyway, as much as I hated to, I had to call up the store. The manager and staff were great and offered to replace my steak which I accepted. The 2nd one was definitely better but still the texture wasn't quite right. I cut in to it before I left the store (the top cap part of the ribeye) and it seemed better, but when I got home and cut in to the main part it just didn't look right. Again, my thoughts, either its a select cut of meat or fresh, then frozen during the whole shelter in place, then thawed again.

The rest of the meals seemed to be okay. The rest of the family devoured their plates.

I will visit them again, it might be awhile, but I may not get the steak ever again. Only because the staff was...

The server is the only thing saving this review. He was friendly and brought refills quickly.

The kids' food came out 10 minutes before my husband and I received our plates. We both ordered shrimp items for our lent Friday dinner. I got the fresh mex bowl, he got the tacos.

The shrimp on my bowl was cool to the touch, as was the rice on both of our plates. The shrimp in both of our plates were floppy and translucent, definitely not cooked to the 145°F recommended for killing pathogens. We let the manager-on-duty know as he walked by, as our waiter was with another table, and he said he would get it re-fired after declining to touch our food as we invited him to do to understand how cold our food really was.

My replacement bowl arrived with the waiter after another 10ish minutes, covered in chicken, which he realized as he handed it to me, so he sent it through to be replaced again. My kids were done with their meals by that point. 5 minutes later, another bowl arrived, along with my husband's taco plate, carried by a food runner, and all were stone cold.

I don't ever like to be "that customer," since I'm a restaurant manager. I also don't like to suffer the effects of food poisoning from undercooked food that was served in the TCS danger zone, so we declined to eat it. We alerted our waiter, who apologized profusely, and alerted the manager. We had planned to pay for the kids items and beverages, but the waiter informed us that the manager was declining to talk to us, but instead told him to tell us to have a good night.

I came here to redeem my birthday dessert coupon with a nice family dinner. It definitely did not happen.

I don't know what was going on with the kitchen and the expediter, but it really needs to be turned around before a shigella (or any other foodborne illness) outbreak happens that can be traced...

If I could give zero stars I would. We did not even get seated. Who ever was working the hostess podium was awful tonight. We came in with a party of five, was told that it would be a 10-15 minute wait. No problem, she took our phone number so we can receive text when table is ready and sat down. We sat down inside the restaurant and directly in front of the hostess podium. 20 minutes go by.. Nothing. 30 minutes go by and I'm noticing that parties our size are being seated. At 40 minutes we walk back up and all what's happening. The lady says that we were called and after 10 minutes of being called you get removed from the list. Showed the phone to prove that nothing was ever received and she responds that sometimes happens. Great.. So you literally know that the system is flawed, but don't call out or say anything to anyone? Said that we've been sitting there for 40 minutes and she didn't notice? She says that so many people come in that she can't keep track of who is sitting where. ( Literally her job ..but w/e) We had to ask of we can be seated now! She says yeah and we are standing in a pile in front of her and she turns away to help another customer that just walked in. We stand there for another 8 minutes while they talked about where to be seated. Then she gets the lady standing right next to us and starts to talk about seating her. I've have not been so ignored and treated so rudely in a long time. Why in the world would you seat everyone else around us when you said you would seat us next? We just walked out... Not sure if I want to...