Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Richmond

By far, the worst dining experience I have ever had.

I ended up calling the franchise owner to tell him that we would never eat at a Chili's again because it was so bad.

He asked me, "What can we do to make it up to you?" offering gift cards.

I said, "Absolutely nothing - nothing can get me to enter Chili's again."

The story: We were on the road with our infant daughter, shopping at nearby stores. We decided to have a nice dinner at Chili's since we had been before and we knew we liked several of the dishes. We were very early (around 4:00 PM).

About fifteen minutes after we were seated (which seemed long), a waitress came to our table, took our order, and she seemed really nice. The tables started to fill up by the time the waitress brought our water (around 4:25 PM). We asked about our food, and we were told that it would be right out. Five minutes later, we received the appetizer. "Great!" we thought... we were wrong.

All the time, we were feeding our infant daughter. My wife who was ridiculous with all the food she packed (I thought) was just finishing up the first container of baby food, and starting on the little banana flavored cereal treats.

If your not familiar with an onion appetizer, it's not something you should have time to finish (partly because it's greasy, partly because it's huge). However, we managed to have enough time to casually eat it and finish it and wait and drink all our waters and ask other waiters and waitresses if they had seen our waitress.

By this time, other customers who had entered Chili's after us were getting their bills (5:00 PM). They had tapped us on the shoulders and we chatted about how unusual and ridiculous we were being treated.

I got up from the table, walked the restaurant, and found my waitress. I told her that our food had not come, and we wanted to leave. She said, "Oh - I'm sorry. The food is coming out right now."

I then went back to the table, told my wife what she said, and we decided to give it five minutes. Low and behold, five minutes later, the waitress came to the table, and we said, "Where's the food?"

The waitress said, "It will just be a few minutes."

My wife indicated that we had run out of all the baby food (which I didn't even think was possible), so I said, "No. Absolutely not. This has taken far too long."

She replied, "Well... this isn't fast food!"

I have never laughed so hard at another person's stupidity. I said, "It's been over an hour - I want to see your manager immediately."

She was gone for another fifteen minutes, we got packed up, my wife headed to the car, and I was on the hunt for a manger, now. In the interim, I had asked other servers to bring me the manager, but no one had showed up.

Instead of a manager, the waitress found me, and said, "My manager said that your appetizer is free."

I said, "I didn't consider paying for it at all. Where's the manager."

She said, "He's busy, you can just go - no need to pay at all."

At that point, I realized it was a waste of our time to even try to speak to a manager - I would never actually get anything out of it. So, we left (5:45 PM), went through the drivethrough laughing about how Chili's is not a "fast food restaurant" in the slightest, and I called the location the next day. This time, I did get the manager. I asked for the number of the regional manager. I did get in contact with him. I asked for the number of the franchise owner. I told him about my experience, and he offered me what would have amounted to a free meal. I declined it, and he seemed taken aback. That's where the story ends.

That was back around 2009. Not only have I never eaten at a Chili's again, I always offer this story when someone mentions it. When we go out, we try lots of good eats, and I usually have good things to say. But there was no redeeming quality of that...

I don't know what's going (horribly) wrong here in Richmond, IN, but 3 x's since December 31st, 2021, we've had to call about how absolutely wrong the same order was!! And 3x's I've been told that "we're emailing you a digital gift card to replace your order," yet is now February and it still has NOT been emailed or replaced! Now we can only assume that the cooks, management, and staff aren't eating the food that they send out of the door, or they're taking the time and effort to make sure THEIR orders are correct, because every single time that we've ordered take-out, it was absolutely DISGUSTING to say the least! A triple dipper combo with half baked southwestern egg rolls, disgustingly RAW, still frozen with wet battered onion petals, and no matter how many times we've clarified "PLAIN mini cheeseburgers just add extra cheese," they've ALWAYS had bacon and onion on them. My guys steak was ordered medium-well twice, both times it was still bleeding to death, so he switched to ribs the 3rd time, and not only were they over-cooked, but this place failed to send ANY condiments like BBQ to help ease the dryness, or mayo & ketchup per requested. My advice?? DINE IN ONLY SO YOU CAN HAVE YOUR FOOD CORRECTED AS IT'S BROUGHT OUT, or skip this joint all together until shift managers and upper management are willing to meet these issues head on, with NO EXCUSES!!! We've heard "we're severely understaffed," "we've just received new fryers and are trying to figure out the proper temperature," and my favorite "We've had to fire a head cook because he kept getting it wrong!" 🙄 excuses, Excuses, EXCUSES!! Aren't MANAGERS trained to do EVERY JOB, including properly preparing the food!? It's been 2&1/2 months thay we've waited for the email, 2&1/2 months that we've requested that it just be put on a gift card and mailed to only hear "We ran out of physical gift cards due to the holidays," and 2&1/2 months of nothing aside from spending extra money and having to literally throw the food out. DINE IN OR SKIP Chili's UNTIL THE EMPLOYEES & ESPECIALLY MANAGEMENT TAKE THIS JOINT & THEIR JOB IN FOOD SERVICE/CUSTOMER SERVICE...

It was a good meal! UPDATE:. February 25, 2022:. Yes and no. There was a sign up saying certain products were not available. My parents ordered Thousand Island dressing for their salads. The waitress later came back and said they were out, so they ordered Honey Mustard dressing instead. The food is still good. I ordered Southwestern Eggrolls, and it was hot delicious, tasty and spicy as always. UPDATE:. April 16, 2022-I got a reward on the app for a free birthday dessert, since my birthday is next week. I redeemed it for a free piece of cheesecake, and also ordered a Cajun Pasta with Chicken and a Coke Zero. It was all delicious! UPDATE:. June 8, 2022-I ordered the Loaded Potato Soup and the Loaded Double Burger from the lunch menu. They were good. I must have been hungry, because I started to eat the Double Burger before I took a picture. When I realized what I did, I did take a picture. My parents felt sorry for our waitress, because she was pregnant, and she probably shouldn't be working as far along as she was. UPDATE:. October 12, 2022-I ordered the Triple Dipper with Southwestern Egg Rolls, Big Mouth Bites, and Fried Pickles. It was all delicious. I like to try a sampling of a few things, and I got to today! UPDATE:. February 19, 2023-I ordered the Shrimp Tacos with Black Beans and Rice, and Coke Zero. They were delicious, even though I prefer my tacos with a hard shell rather than as soft. UPDATE: March 30, 2024-I ordered the Southwestern Egg Rolls, Coke Zero, and I had a reward for free Chips and Salsa. I liked the Chips and Salsa, but there was so many that I couldn't eat them all, so I had to give some away. Still, it was delicious. UPDATE: April 23, 2025-I had a birthday reward for a free dessert, so I ordered the Southwestern Egg rolls and a Coke Zero. Normally, I would get their Cheesecake, but they didn't have that on their menu, so I ordered the Peanut Butter Pie made with Reese's. It was just as delicious as the Cheesecake, and the whole meal...