Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Jersey Village

It has been over a decade since I have been to a Chili’s, and it is going to be more than a decade before I go back.

On 29 January 2020 I went to the Chili’s Bar & Grill, Copperfield #641, located at 19825 NW Freeway, Houston, Texas 77095. We had driven a little more than an hour to meet our granddaughter for the first time since she was born about three weeks prior. Our experience, to say the least, had a lot to be desired.

Upon our arrival we were seated and our server, Michael M. asked us for our drinks which we promptly ordered. We then began to talk a bit to get to know our granddaughter’s mother, whom we have not met before this either. He came back a couple of times until we ordered.

The description of the Classic Ribeye caught my attention. “Marbled, thick-cut steak topped with garlic butter,” the menu said. I ordered it, medium rare, with a half side of shrimp. Then the steak came to my table.

I am remiss that I did not get any photographs of the steak as evidence, but it came out and it was not what I expected. The steak was less than one quarter of an inch tall, no marbling that I could tell, was overcooked, and dry.

When the waiter came back by to refill our drinks, the one and only time, I asked him if this was a ribeye, that it appeared to be a sirloin, and a poor quality one at that. He replied he told the kitchen that was what I wanted, but he didn’t know. I then pointed out that the steak was overcooked and dry. He asked if I wanted him to take it back and get another one, to which I replied in the affirmative.

A few minutes later he brought be back a new steak. Again, it was less that one quarter inch high, no marbling that I could see, but at least it was cooked correctly this time.

We never saw our server Michael again until he came by to check the little “Ziosk” on our table and told us it was ready for us to pay.

Later I went ahead and pulled the “Ziosk” to me, pulled up our bill and saw it was $74.07. I thought that was a bit high for what was ordered but having not been to Chili’s in over a decade, I accepted it as is and asked to have my receipt emailed to me.

Then I waited and waited for the receipt to arrive on my phone. It had not arrived by the time I left the restaurant. I saw my receipt this morning (31 January) in my email. I could not believe what I saw.

My wife had ordered spinach queso and Michael brought some chips, let a short time later the queso. We had not ordered the chips and thought they were like most Tex-Mex restaurants and simply provided them to all customers. Well, apparently, they charge you $3.99 for the chips and an additional $3.60 for the queso. My wife likes to put queso on her sandwiches, which was the reason she ordered it. No idea about the chips.

They charged me $18.29 for the Classic Ribeye, which I expected, but the thing that really angers me is when they took my steak back to give me a proper one (even though it still looked and tasted like a sirloin) they charged me an additional $14.29 for the new steak, labeled as “Ribeye only” on the receipt. In essence I ended up paying $32.58 for a very small piece of steak that was by no means “thick-cut” or marbled as per the description. They didn’t even let me keep the first steak which I could have given to my dog.

And to be fair, I did call that chili’s today and spoke with a “Guest Manager” Chris. He took my information and agreed to issue a refund for the extra steak. I most likely will still not go for another decade, but hopefully they will own up on the additional charges.

UPDATE

On 6 February 2020 I did receive a refund for one of the steaks, so they did follow their promise. Thank you...

Update: went back. Well oiled machine. Everyone was great. Southwest rolls and burger hit the spot! Was in a hurry but great service from front to back. Thanks guys!!!!

I have been to this location many times. Literally for over 20 years. It's nice how they have renovated the place to make it look New. I always have a great experience here and the worst thing that's happened is they forgot to add fries to a burger! Anyhow, today, I met a friend, had some drinks and shared some food. Delicious! To add to the amazing experience, we had a server by the name of Nikki. This young lady has upper management written all over her. I don't know how long she has worked here but wow!!! My friend and I were both impressed by her work ethic and kindness. It was great until we witnessed something disturbing. There was a party of 3 and when I heard them order, I knew they were going to try to get a free meal, give Nikki a hard time or just not tip well. As far as we heard they did 2 of the 3 but I bet $1000 dollars they didn't leave a tip. They seemed like they were tweekin from the start. Ordering fast, kept changing their mind and by the end of their order. They had complaint about everything. To us, it seemed like they were trying to get a free meal from the start.. Nikki would check on us and then on THAT table and they were difficult from the moment they ordered to the very end. At one point the grown man, who had a little girl w him, yelled at Nikki and cussed her out!!! We could tell the server was emotional but she told them, let me talk to my manager so I can make this right, I apologize. IF ANYONE SHOULD OF APOLOGIZED IT SHOULD OF BEEN THAT GROWN MAN. I was expecting the Manager to maybe CHECK THEM A BIT AND MAYBE TELL THEM SOMETHING LIKE "SIR, SORRY FOR THE INCONVENIENCE BUT PLEASE DONT TALK TO OUR EMPLOYEES LIKE THAT OR ILL HAVE TO ASK YOU NOT TO RETURN". SOMETHING along those lines but nope. Manager just compted their Meal and redid their burgers. I understand customers won't take accountability but that's when a manager or supervisor should intervene and point out how bad The server, was treated.I don't care if they haven't had power for 3-9 days or whatever made them come in w such a negative energy. You are in AC w cold drinks, a hot meal and a great server, WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT?? You guys need to add gratuity. Ppl like that want to scam and not tip. This is also Texas, the Manager should have also told them to never come back, as we can refuse service to anyone. I've reviewed a lot of places and this takes the cake for how badly of a customer they were but also, how the Manager didn't even want to deal w them or hold them accountable for their actions (which almost ruined our experience). The Manager is just basically saying "Hey, it's okay to cuss out and go Hulk-tweeker mode on our employees, here's a free meal". Chili's is great but the Manager on duty July 18th, needs to do better. Period. I gave this place 5 stars a year ago. Not trying to get the supervisor or manager on duty in trouble, but c'mon. If that was my daughter, I would of had some harsh words w that "man" and might have gotten into a fight in the Parking lot. I know you guys are working hard and probably are busy because of the hurricane but please do better upper management. I'll come back in a week later to see if things have changed as this is a location I love. I have faith in you guys make this right. I hope some empathy was shown to the server, at least...

We had such a bad experience here. I was going to let the TERRIBLE service by Jayda go but at 2am this morning I had a child throwing up the food she’d eaten 7 hours earlier. To set the stage, we had all come in from Ft Worth early in the morning for a cheer competition. We were trying to eat and get back on the road for another 4 hour trip back home after a very long day. To start, 4 of our 8 people showed up and Jayda got our drink order. She was very kind and I thought she had a sweet smile so I had no problem with her. A few mins later the rest of our party showed up but Jayda had been missing for a while. I saw her standing and chatting with a guy who was not in employee clothes- looked like a personal visitor. As we all waited for her to come back I saw the (very sweet) hostess go up to Jayda and let her know we were all present and ready. Being only about 20 feet away I saw and heard Jayda’s response. She threw her hands up and chewed out the hostess talking about “I’ll get to them when I’m good and damn ready.” Then continues to chat it up with her buddy. She finally came to take our order then sat down on her phone, chatting it up with her friend again. Someone completely different served us our food. By then we had empty drinks so we let that nice lady know. She said she’d tell our server. About more than halfway through our meal we finally saw Jayda for the second and last time and got our one refill. I ordered a steak cooked Medium that did not have even a sliver of pink (photo attached), the steamed broccoli was very raw, the kids Mac and cheese had a tiny glob of cheese goop in one spot than just a bowl full of dry noodles, the southwest rolls were dry and just thrown on the plate very messily, and the spicy chicken strips apparently gave my daughters friend food poisoning at 2 am… just wow. I have SO much respect for servers and will tip anyone for just about everything. Even if a server isn’t great i always leave something. I had $20 on our $107 bill to give as a tip. By the time I saw Jayda’s outburst at the hostess I realized I just saved myself $20. Every action (or inaction) of hers afterwards solidified that. We travel to Houston a couple times a year and I will be avoiding this place at all costs. I really wish we’d have just waited for a table at Texas Roadhouse but we were exhausted and trying to get home before midnight. Seriously, Jayda either needs some serious help controlling her anger at having to work AT WORK, or she needs to find a job where she does not work with the public- or coworkers. And please conduct some basic QC before you send an order to the table. I have to explain to another parent why their kid was up all night puking...