Chuy's — Restaurant in Pembroke Pines

Founded by Mike Young and John Zapp, the original Chuy's opened up in 1982 in an abandoned barbecue restaurant in Austin, Texas. Now they are 100 restaurants over 19 states. Although a little different in decor, every Chuy's has the hand painted swimming fish, the hubcap ceiling, and the shrine to Elvis which was a fixture of the original store.

On February 16, Chuy's opened their first Broward County restaurant in Pembroke Pines in the new Pines City Center. They have both indoor and outdoor dining. I heard good things about the chain so I met my girlfriend there for a Sunday afternoon lunch. Our server was Jackson.

I started off with one of their famous margaritas, frozen strawberry with a sugared rim. It was delicious and the perfect accompaniment to the complimentary chips we munched while looking over the menu. The chips came with salsa fresca and a Chuy's signature item, a creamy jalapeño dressing. It started out as a dressing and it is now a dip with a following. At most Chuy's you have to ask for it but they are offering it here gratis. You can even purchase it to take home with you. Two dips can never be enough so we also ordered the queso that is a beloved menu item. One taste and I became a fan too.

The menu has a number of Tex-Mex favorites and Chuy's is known for their large portions. They also make all of their own tortillas. You can customize how spicy you want your food by pepper choice. I wanted everything on the menu but I ended up ordering the steak burrito. It comes with refried beans and rice. I asked if the beans could be left off and I was told they could not. Every other Mexican restaurant I have ever been to leaves off the beans and doubles the rice for me. I can't understand their refusal to do that. The burrito also comes with a hatch chili sauce which I was warned was spicy and which I was able to get it on the side which I appreciated. Despite the beans touching my burrito it was huge and filled with tender, flavorful steak. I loved it and would have loved it even more if they left the beans off my plate. Sadly I did not have any room for their tres leches cake but I am sure I will be back to try it.

After I ate I checked out the rest of the restaurant and I loved the cool decor here. I especially love the dog room with all of its pictures of chihuahuas. Chuy's works with local rescues and anyone who loves dogs is my kind of people. If you bring in a framed picture of your dog they will give you a free appetizer. I think the next time I come in they need a picture of my own Mexican bundle of love, Taco. The food I tried was fantastic and the prices were more than reasonable. Pembroke Pines is a bit out there for me but they are...

(I only put four stars, because everything but my waiter was wonderful) I had a wonderful experience a previous Chuy's locations, so it was a joyous thought to have a nice lunch experience at this location, we arrived and it wasn't crowded one of the few groups that arrived after opening had a WONDERFUL hostess (Courtney) who provided the two children of the group with coloring supplies to keep the distracted, and to start our Server was subpar (Carlos A) wouldn't recommend at all. The service was completely a cycle of forgetful orders and a huge delay in service throughout the time, we didn't get a refill on our drinks (which we had to ask several times before we even got 1 refill) nor chips until we asked. Once our meal was completed we WAITED an additional 30-40 mins for me to receive my card back after our meal was already paid for per my bank notification. Thus I decided to withheld my tip for the server (Carlos A). As I left the establishment and walked to my car the Server (Carlos A) literally followed me out and then wanted to know why a tip wasn't left on the $176 order and and I explained that the service was completely trash and he didn't deserve a tip. The server enough had extra time check on us at the table and make sure we had everything we needed but he didn't tables that came after us received all the check-ins with the their waiter/waitress and we were left waiting on several occasions. Especially following me back to my vehicle could have been a dangerous situation for myself or that waiter, that's where the line was crossed. I could've easily added a tip however, I didn't want that waiter to receive a single cent from me.

I would whole heartily recommend people trying Chuy's its a wonderful throwback themed restaurants, with wonderful food. But the expectation for a wonderful tip with bad services isn't fair.

I hope waitress (Carlos A) get's trained properly so this Chuy's location doesn't fall into a cycle of bad reviews because of one...

This place should not have any good reviews. Just went to this location it was packed which is typical for Chuy’s so we asked to sit in the bar area so it wouldn’t be as long. We were told by the hostess to wait by a table to be cleaned we waited ten mins before I had to ask someone to clean it for us. The whole time the woman working in the bar area ignored us standing by the dirty table. Once we sat down we waited patiently for the two people working the bar area to acknowledge us. They didn’t on their own we waved down the woman and she pretended not to see us. It was clearly not her table. The guy behind the bar finally came over after she whispered something to him. The bar tender (Nick) came over thanked us for being patient and asked what we would have to drink. My husband said we can go ahead and place our whole order too. (Nick) rolled his eyes and clapped back “well, let me just go and grab my note pad then” with a sarcastic tone. This really upset us and we asked for his to get the manager. Once the manager finally came over after asking twice for. (Matt) the supposed manager asked how he could help us. We explained how we had been waiting for service and once we finally got acknowledged (Nick) gave us attitude about being there. The manager said he would pull him aside and he could get us a new server. My husband said at this point we are concerned about how our food will be served and the manager assumed that we were accusing them of spitting in our food. We were so upset at this point we just decided to leave. We have been eating at Chuy’s for over fifteen years. We have never had a bad service experience ever! We have eaten in several different states and locations. This was so upsetting we settled for a chipotle down the street. The food was hot and served with a smile so they received a tip. Do not go to this location if your out of town visiting Fort Lauderdale it’s not...