Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in North Charleston

Okay so today 9/16/24 I went to lunch with my son, niece and sister. We walked in around 1:30pm, only about 10 tables total were filled. Our waiter Caleb had 3 tables total. We told him from the beginning we had two separate checks.

Our appetizers should have been the first clue of how the rest of the meal would go. The triple dipper, included 4 extra burnt mozzarella sticks and two big mouth bites so over done and burnt it tasted like raw charcoal. The Texas fries came with zero jalapeños, or green onions and we had to ask for the ranch it came with as well. The side salad was no where to be found and brought out after the entree and the drinks were only refilled when asked.

The entrees: my triple dipper that I ordered as my entree also included burnt mozzarella and burnt burgers, my sons rancher double burger included two black hockey pucks, and the onions and pickles we had requested to be removed 3 times.

At this point I could no longer hold it back that I was unhappy, I asked to speak to the manager and a woman named Kia came to the table. At first she was nice and respectful, however she told us the burgers were not burnt, he just needed to scrape the grill, we told her we both have kitchen experience and that is overcooked not bc he needs to scrape the grill. We asked her to remake them. She had immediately attitude change.

We watched her walk back to the POS system where Caleb was standing, she berated him very loudly and we saw him take off his name tag and apron.

When Caleb came back to the table to let us know they were remaking the food, I could tell he was upset. I told him he was not in anyway responsible for what the kitchen messed up and I’m very sorry if he was in trouble because of it.

While Caleb does need to work on his refill times, he’s new it comes with practice and learning. There is no reason in the world he should have been punished for the kitchens mistake.

Another table near us also had a kitchen related issue. Caleb was kind and sweet and has a wonderful personality for customer service. The kitchen on the other hand needs to stick to an easy bake oven, and Kia needs a refresher course in employee management training. Berating an employee in the middle of the restaurant for a mistake that was out of his control and sending him home early, costing him possible food out of his mouth was disgusting.

PS when the remade food came back out it was still burnt, and we still had damn onions...

We LOVE the consistency of eating at Chili's. Pretty much nation wide you can get a great sirloin, salmon etc.... but the Summerville location (that we have eaten at many times over the years) was today BEYOND HORRIFIC. The back house dropped the ball and the back house manager LITERALLY did not care.

Burnt Salmon.

A "rare" stake that was 20 min PAST well done. With absolutely no butter or seasoning on it. My wife and I love the seasoned broccoli... RAW cold broccoli on the plate with no seasoning and no butter.

At tgis point i was done. But my wife needed to eat, so we asked for a menu to to order something else.

They NEVER CAME BACK TO GET THE REPLACEMENT ORDER....... the place only had 4 other tables with customers. 4......it was empty. We asked for The front house manager 4 times....he/she never came out... the back house manager came back out and we said that due to the extreme lack of servive, food quality, and management ability to handel the issues at hand, we were done and leaving and felt that there shound not be a charge for the experience. He said "Fine have a good night" turned around and walked back to the kitchen.... we were at a loss forbwords at his excessive rudeness. So we got up and walked out.....as we did the two other fron house staff made the coments to us "now you see why this place is empty" ... and "the back house is useless". As we were getting in our cars a lady runs out and shouts at us that we did not pay our bill. Now....we had not see this person the entire evening...yet she said she was the assistant manager. We walk back up to the outside seting area of the restaurant and we explaind what had happened. As we did, the kitchen manager sneaks up behind us and pipes up that he "never said or acted that way" as I turn around, he puffed up his chest and literally akted like he was some kind of bouncer trying to keep us from leaving. I looked him dead in the eye and said simply, "yes you did say that and do that, your the back house manager, Its your job to fix it." At this point my wife and I walk to our car and left. They Obviously did not care about any of the core aspects of running a successful business...

So my family has been here twice, so every one can understand, the last time we went anywhere before this was outback where the service was terrible and we eventually found out that because we had small kids the wait staff were arguing over who would take us. Fast forward to our first chili's visit, a young male waiter, who was extremely exuberant and animated to say the least was at our table asking about our drinks almost as soon as our rear ends hit the chair. His service and timely manner proved for what became one of my most favorable experiences. Absolutely astonishing. I made sure his tip reflected his service. He definitely deserves a raise. Fast forward to our second experience, so obviously with high expectations from our first visit, I expected either the same or not quite as good service, what I did not expect was the exemplary service that far exceeded the service from our first visit, I didn't realize service could get better than that. Boy was I wrong, this young waitress not only made my wife and I feel valued, but she went the absolute extra mile for my children, even to the point of having stickers on deck for my smallest. If there is a wait staff university, this young lady would be the Dean. I am absolutely to the moon head over heals in love with the service we have received at this location. My family are also in the same mindset. That being said, that was just the wait staff, now let's get to the food and drinks. My wife had one of the holiday drinks both visits and has been raving about them since, the food, was delivered hot and fresh, the appetizers came out first, with suitable time to enjoy them over conversation, without being rushed into our main courses as does every other restaurant. Also, every bite was absolutely delicious, with the perfect amount of flavor. Mind you, this happened both visits. I cannot wait until our next family dinner, Chili's, we are definitely coming back. We absolutely love this place making it our number 1 family favorite place. Thank you so much from a father and...