Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Monrovia

I am not one for writing a review but the horrendous and negligent experience tonight at Chili's was beyond atrocious. And not the way a restaurant and personnel should behave ever.

It started from the moment we stepped foot into the restaurant. We were left waiting in the main lobby for more than 10 mins with staff walking by without even acknowledging us or telling us there would be someone to assist us soon. I had to call the restaurant to get someone ...anyone's attention. I was told there was no hostess on site. I had to literally call them on the phone to get someone to even check their lobby where there was a few people including us who were waiting to be seated.

We were finally seated after an additional 10 mins of waiting. We then had to wait for a server to come to the table to ask us about our drinks. Mind you the restaurant wasn't packed for there no to be more attention to the tables.

The menu has drastically changed which given the pandemic we can understand. However if you're wanting a taste of that classic Chili's flavor you won't get it here. They are out of so many items. But fine we could understand it...but why not tell the customer upfront if there's an item not on the menu. And certainly not 40 mins after you've placed the food.

This is exactly what happened to us tonight. The waiter came to our table after 40 mins to tell us that they were out of the mango habanero crisper. 40 mins!! This is so unacceptable. Why not have the decency to tell us with in 5 mins of us submitting our order. What made it worse was the lack of apology or even patience to let us figure out what substitution we wanted to do. Whoever is training the staff needs to be retrained themselves.

To add insult to injury when the food was finally at out table it was cold, salty and you could easily tell it had been frozen. The Texas cheese fries which should have come piping hot was stiff and colder than snow in Big bear. This let's me know that they had our food just sitting there until one of the waiters deemed to give us their time and give us our food.

Throughout rhis whole nightmare experience no refills were offered on our drinks or even a " how is everything going ?" you'd atleast expect one of the staff to make one appearance. There was never an apology or recognition of the long waits, the cold food or the subpar service.

It is obvious that Chili's in Pasadena and even the company as a whole has given up the towel. The disregard to quality food and service is just the nail on the coffin to this once neighborhood favorite.

Nothing will ever persuade me or my friends to ever venture into a Chili's again. If you ever have a small inkling to try Chili'sat this location go grab a...

Stopped by after a high school football game with a party of 7. Grabbed a drink from the bar. The gentleman running the bar was great. Friendly and efficient. Our party was seated fairly quick. Most of us ordered the "3 for Me" special, so the chips and salsa were a must order. When the chips came they were covered in Salt. Not sure why they added any salt. Usually, when the server makes first contact with the table, a hello or a welcome is something that should be said to break the ice. Something to make the experience welcoming. NOT this guy. He wore glasses, hair parted in the middle, and rude. I am big on remembering names but this guy was not worth the time. Chili's really needs to evaluate some of these servers with a standard. At my usual location in Valencia, CA there is a server named Chuck. Chili's needs to put this man in charge of their customer service department, Chuck is the reason why we stopped at this Chili's, instead of going to In-n-Out, that is in walking distance. We ordered 2 baked potato soups, and they came cold without spoons. We had to flag down a food runner to request spoons, drink refills and another tray of chips "With No Salt". The server was non-existent throughout the visit. It didn't end there. When it was time to pay, we went to use the table device and it wasn't working, when we flagged down the server his response was, "Oh, let me bring you another device that works, this one is frozen" (he knew it wasn't in service). I will never return to this Chili's location. I will take my $200+...

I want to start this review with the statement - I'm not a fan of Chili's. I don't like the one in Lancaster or for that matter, any of the others I've eaten at. My better half told me that we should try their $10 food special. Yeah, I've seen these things before, but I was hungry and we don't live too far away.

Parking isn't very good here. There are a lot of spaces, but there's many other shops and the parking lot is too small for the number of stores. Oh boy, I'm bracing myself for a disappointment.

It's busy inside. We get a seat in the bar and order soft drinks. What, they come with the special? Nice!! We ordered a couple burger specials. She got some soup, so did I. She customized her burger. So did I. I ordered some tortilla chips for us to share. It's also part of the meal? Fantastic. We ate what we could and needed to take some home. Our waiter was great the whole time and when he brought us to go boxed, he also brought us a fresh bag of chips and salsa! The bill was very, very reasonable. I joked that it would cost more going to Carl's Jr!

So, my Chili's dislike it now broken. We've eaten here a half dozen or so times and we're very pleased with the food and the value. Can't beat it.

And, with the lower bill, we can tip more too! Though the staff has been great and they deserve the higher tip!

I can't believe I'm writing this, but I highly recommend...