Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Meridian

As a former Canadian, I wanted to try Chili's really bad due to all the hype from movies etc (Austin Powers etc) and I actually planned this visit 2 weeks in advance for a milestone dinner. I looked at the online menu, and picked out the Appetizer Trio (Sliders, Boneless Wings, Chicken Quesadilla) as well as the Trio BBQ Platter (Ribs, Jalapeno Sausage, Brisket Quesadilla), while my Hubby did the Nachos + Cajun Pasta.

However, when I ordered, I found out that the Chicken Quesadilla is not an option for the Appetizer Trio, despite it being on the online menu, so I ended up switching it out for the Southwestern Egg Rolls cause I couldn't really think of anything else I wanted even though I didn't actually think they sounded good. Atmosphere was really loud, too loud to enjoy a nice dinner with my Husband, but when the Apps came with our drinks, we started getting a lot of missing things. The Waitresses only brought 1 straw for the two of us for our drinks, and when they refilled, they would throw out our old one and forget to bring us our new straws, the Nachos, despite having paid extra for chicken, did not have chicken. Instead of waiting to redo them, we opted to just have the extra charge for chicken removed, they were "ok" without them, but honestly, it was found wanting without a meat item. Sliders were ok, nothing special. Kinda like White Castle Frozen Grocery store sliders... but fresh made without the freezer burn, so that was pretty decent, the boneless wings are boneless wings, again, nothing special. The Southwestern Egg rolls on the other hand were AMAZING. I was REALLY surprised at how good they were, and I wish I had more than just 2 but that's just my eyes being hungrier than my stomach.

Dinner on the other hand, was REALLY disappointing. I love BBQ, and Chili's being supposedly famous for their Ribs.... Was a HUGE Disappointment. There was barely any meat on the ribs. I could maybe scrape together 1/2-1 forkful of meat per bone, it was severely overcooked and dry, and the BBQ Sauce was so vinegary and watered down, that I could barely stand eating the few shards of dry meat I could get. The garlic bread, I expected something... not a whole lot, but at least something and I was disappointed with that too, barely any garlic butter at all. I felt like I was eating toast with nothing on it. The Mexican corn though, was Fantastic! and the Fries were pretty decent, flavourful enough that I could eat them without any condiments. Hubby's Pasta was pretty dry and noodly. There wasn't much flavour in the sauce at all, and while there was sauce with the penne, the sauce just tasted like pasta water with a hint of alfredo and a smidge of black pepper. They also forgot the Shrimp and nearly billed us for it.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed from my experience. I went from literally being ecstatic that I was going to get to eat all my fav foods in one go, to having everything but the appetizers being extremely dismal. The only 2 things that I was actually happy about was the Corn and the Eggrolls.. and I didn't even initially want the eggrolls. This place is supposedly "famous" for its Ribs... and it was literally the worst thing on the menu...

C'mon...

If I could give them a ZERO stars, I would as this locations doesn't even deserve to be open for business. I was at this location on Sunday, January 13, 2018, and we had to wait a long time to get sat. When the hostess finally came to the front, we were promptly sat. It took a decent amount of time for the server to come over to take out drink order. When our drinks were placed on the table we were ready to order our food. My mother ordered hers and, when my stepdad went to order his, he could not quickly locate the ribeye he wanted on their menu, so my mother state, "You wanted the ribeye didn't you?". The server bypassed my stepdad, who is physically disabled but not mentally, and asked my mother, "How does he want it cooked.". My mother said, "I don't know dear, how do you want it cooked?", and that is only when the server started addressing him, but talked to him very childish. After the server left, I took a drink of my water and it tasted just like soap. When our food was dropped off by another server, I advised her that it tasted like soap, but did not want anything else to drink. For some reason, without prompt, she said she would get a manager to come to the table. The manager, which that is giving him too much credit, came to the table he had an attitude and another glass of water. I told him no thank you for the water and that is where it all began. My mother and I both had the crispy chicken crispers and they were cold. We told him and he took them back saying he would get us some more. When they were brought the food back out, my meal was short two tenders and they seemed overdone. My mother noticed one that looked to have been one she cut when we originally had our food brought out to us. The manager came back to check if the food was okay and I was just trying to decide if I was going to say something or not. He looked at me and said, "You want to say something, come on, say it!". I told him it looked like they had been recooked due to the one looking like the one my mother cooked. Well...he stated, "They are the same ones, I had them put them back in the fryer. And, for you information, they were 150 degrees when I took them back there.". I stated that chicken was supposed to served at 165 degrees, of which he only responded with, "well, the cool down over time.". I told him to take the food back, there was no way I was going to eat the food. My mother ate some of hers, but they were disgustingly salty. My stepdad's steak was so fatty that he couldn't even eat it. We were not charged anything for my meal, but had to pay full price for theirs. If we wouldn't have had the cops called on us for theft of services, we would have walked out without paying a dime. My mother contacted Chilis Corporate Office about the issue and they stated it would be addressed because it was not the Chilis way. I hope this gets addressed as the manager was VERY unprofessional and about got me in his face, and the server stopped coming to our table after the run in with the manager other than to drop off the check. We will NOT be going back to this location, or Chilis for that matter, ever again for them allowing someone so untrained to...

The kitchen is consistently slow. It seems the less tables they have the slower the service is. I have dietary restrictions including wheat/gluten, lactose and soy. One of the reasons I go to Chili's is because they have several options for customers with allergies. I ordered the pork tacos with corn tortillas and no cheese. The waitress was very polite, friendly, attentive and repeated my order back just as I had said it. She was completely understanding of my restrictions and very patient which I greatly appreciate. I know that special orders can be frustrating and taxing for some. It took so long for my order to come to the table that I ended up getting chips and salsa in the meantime. When it arrived I immediately noticed the filthy plate it was on. Gross yes but things do happen. I removed my tacos and handed the plate back to the runner, stating it was dirty but not a big deal. I then noticed the tacos filled with cheese. I grabbed a passing waiter and said I was sorry but I couldn't eat it. He took the plate and assured me a new order would be out shortly. The runner was very prompt with the second plate, apologetic for the kitchen's mistake and made sure to bring me a very clean plate. I look down to see pork tacos in flour tortillas. I'm sure the first plate probably had flour tortillas as well but I was so distracted with the cheese and dirty plate that I didn't notice. I asked the waitress if they were flour tortillas, she looked down and said yes, looking frustrated that the order was still wrong. I didn't want to bother her anymore, she was being so nice, so I said no big deal and scraped the taco insides out of the tortillas and put them to the side. I was feeling like a pain and started to doubt whether I had ordered it with corn or not. She walked past again and I told her that it was probably my mistake and I may have not mentioned the corn tortillas. She assured me that yes I had and she had written both corn tortillas and no cheese. At this point I was just over the experience all together. I had filled up on chips and salsa and was not willing to wait on yet another correction. I grabbed myself a box to take home what was left of the tacos and the waitress so considerately wrapped up some corn tortillas for me to take home. Fortunately the taco filling was tasty but besides that the kitchen was terribly slow and couldn't seem to get my relatively simple order right. The only positive thing about my experience was the wonderful waitress, waiter and runner who tried and tried again to provide me with a...