Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Mobile

Here's a minute-by-minute breakdown of the worst dining experience I've ever had. (Spoiler: Two hours after ordering, we left without the food we paid for.)

5:35p My wife, my two kids (5 yo and 7 yo) and I arrive at Chili's. We're told the wait would be 20 minutes.

20 minutes later (5:55p) Right on queue, a table opens up. My wife had been craving some Honey Chipotle Crispers. I was honestly pretty excited about their chips — that thin style tortilla chip really is the best. Our kids' first Chili's experience. We'd been hyping it up. Only minutes away...

5 minutes later (6:00p) Server arrives. He takes our drinks. Our kids order sodas, but we're informed there are no fountain sodas. No problem... We're not really a soda family. My son (7) orders a bottled root beer. No root beer either. My daughter (5) orders a strawberry lemonade. The server is unsure about the strawberry lemonade, but says he will check. Okay, waters all around. We also ordered food. At this point, we learn there are no Honey Chipotle Crispers for my wife's Triple Dipper. Okay. Do we leave? No - we're here. We're committed. We're doing it. We order our food, and kick it off with an order of Bottomless Chips.

20 minutes later (6:20p) Bottomless Chips arrive. Turns out they do have root beer, so my son's root beer has arrived. However, still no waters. Also, at that point, my daughter, who is excited about the prospect of strawberry lemonade, is told there is no strawberry lemonade. She'll take a root beer.

5 minutes later (6:25p) The waters and the added root beer finally arrive.

30 minutes later (6:45p) Two baskets of chips in. The server continues to assure us that the food is coming. I'm surrounded by tables of angsty families with food-less tables. Didn't that table get here before we did an hour ago? Wait... Didn't that one as well? Nah, surely not.

5 minutes later (6:50p) My wife makes a chatterbox out of the kid's menu. Brilliant.

15 minutes later (7:05p) The chatterbox was a hit, but it's my time to keep the kids entertained. I start asking some good ole fashioned Would You Rather Questions.

2 minutes later (7:07p) My wife's game was way more fun.

8 minutes later (7:15p) Still no food. We start discussing the prospect of leaving, but we don't have any cash. We want to pay for the chips and the root beer. Hmmm... Okay, we'll wait. After all, how much longer could it be? The server assures us it will be out in 5 to 10 minutes.

15 minutes later - 1.5 hours after ordering (7:30p) Finally, our food arrives. Well, our kids' food arrives. But my son's cheeseburgers don't have any cheese. Oh well, he's starving so he eats them anyways.

5 minutes later (7:35p) My food arrives. Shrimp fajitas. They really do look good. But, wait... No silverware. Where's our server again?

5 minutes later (7:40p) We finally flag down the server. Silverware, check. Also, can we go ahead and pay the check? Also, where's my wife's food? He assures us that her food is coming out shortly. I pay $75 for our food. Wow. #ThankYouBrandon

5 minutes later (7:45p) We're assured my wife's Triple Dipper is coming. Just a few more minutes. We start discussing leaving. I'm apprehensive, since we already paid for the food, including her Triple Dipper. The server asks if we want the Triple Dipper boxed to-go. No, we reply. If it's only a few minutes away, we'd rather just go ahead and eat it here.

15 minutes later (8p) Still no food. Can't find our server. Our kids are falling asleep, after sitting in a Chili's booth for 2 hours. At this point, it's not worth it. We head to the car.

EPILOGUE I've been a happy Chili's patron in the past. And I believe this was my first visit to this particular location. However, after tonight, it's also likely...

I've been to this Chili's a couple of times since I moved to Mobile, and the experience varies every single time I go. Depending on what server you get, service will either be fantastic or awful, and if you go in on a Friday or Saturday night, expect a wait. The food is mediocre, obviously reheated from a frozen state, but it's not awful.

I had a waitress named Brittney one time who was absolutely amazing. She had the most amazing attitude and she made my evening awesome. She's by far the best server I've had there and I recommend her highly to anyone who goes. Not all servers are on her level, for sure, and if they had fifty of her working I probably wouldn't complain. I don't remember the names of the other few I've had, but out of their wait staff there's only a handful that are consistently friendly and provide great service.

Also, I just have to say that the hostess they have working is super sweet and polite, and I say it because I feel like this poor girl deserves it. One night I had gone in when it was pretty busy, and I felt horrible for her because she was doing the work of two or three people on her own, which included cleaning tables and clearing away dishes, something I was sure was supposed to be done by servers or a busboy and NOT the person who is supposed to be promptly greeting your guests. She apologized profusely for not seating us as quickly as she could, but I can't blame her when she's doing three or four other people's jobs.

It's obvious that they're short-staffed, and I'm sure that there must be some policy on seating during a wait and all, but having us wait 30 minutes to an hour when there's tons of open tables is utter bull, especially when your servers have enough time to bother the hosts but not to get people drinks. You don't have to take orders right then, especially if your kitchen is backed up, but at least seat people and give...

It took from 6:30 to 7:25 too get our food. When we did the Texas Cheese Fries were cold. Another waiter came by with another batch of fries and said "Oh you already have yours". We told him yes but they were cold and he gave us another cold batch. Our food finally arrived and my wife's loaded potatoes were a little warm and so was her steak. My steak fries were hot but my baby back ribs were stone cold. After our meals arrived, our salad shows up. We then had to ask for silver ware. We told the young lady we ordered from to bring us carry out trays to take our meal home so we could put them in the microwave to have hot food. We asked to talk to the manager. He came out and we told him of how things had went and he said he would take the texas cheese fries off the meal. Problem was it was part of the 2 for $20 meal special. When we got our check we were charged full price. When we started to leave I asked for the manager again to get the Regional Managers name and number so I could contact them about the treatment we received and the service. He would not come back to talk to us but sent another server to do his dirty work. They never did give me the information I requested. However, after requesting the name and number of the regional office he refunded our so-called meal. I felt so sorry for our waitress, Shandi Miller. She was the only person in Chilli's restaurant on Shillinger's Road in Mobile that treated us like we were somebody. Everyone else treated us like crap until we asked for the regional managers name and number. We will NEVER eat there again. It was worse than TGI Friday's. And I didn't ask for their information and have not been back there in...