Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Riverdale

You know... I thought I would give this restaurant the benefit of the doubt, because everyone is allowed to have rough nights here and there. What they are experiencing is not that. About a month ago, my sister and I went in for a small dinner around 8 PM on a Friday night. We waited 30 minutes for a table, we're seated for 5 minutes... 10 minutes... 30 minutes... and finally a waiter showed up. He took our drink and food order all at once. We ordered chips & queso as well as cheese fries. Drinks showed up 5 or 10 minutes later, and we sat for another 30 minutes... then an hour... after the hour mark I ask to speak with a manager. He was apparently so busy that he looked at our table and avoided us by hiding in the kitchen. It seemed that he was working in the kitchen the whole night to avoid talking to disgruntled customers. After 1 hr and 30 minutes, our appetizers came out. Queso was ice cold and the cheese fries were covered in burned cheese. I talked to the waiter and he offered us a free dessert for our troubles; We did not take the dessert. Another patron came up to us as we were paying because she heard us talk to our waiter, and she apparently had been waiting for her food for almost two hours at that point, with no one even checking on them or anything. Fast forward to tonight... Waited 20 minutes to be seated. We were put next to an extremely loud, obnoxious, and massive group; my ears were literally ringing from how loud they were. 5 minutes pass... 15 minutes pass... and after that we were out. Did I mention nobody came up to us to say anything or grab our drink orders? Nobody said anything to us on our way out, and on our way to our car we ran into some friends who we told about our experience. We all went to Applebee's instead as chili's is not worth that much of a wait. The fact that chili's felt the need to print off a sign for their entrance explaining their downfalls is just ridiculous. Being short staffed is no excuse for consistently horrendous service. If you can not handle serving the customers you are seating then you should not be seating. I have heard of some of the shady dealings of chili's and their need to undercut their own staff, which is probably why competent workers do not stay long, but I am unsure how factual this claim actually is. Putting a sign up advertising your foibles is a massive red flag and a huge turn off to...

So usually the customer service and food is outstanding here. But the reason I'm giving it two stars is because of my experience last time I came here. So before I start I have a ton of allergies. So severe that I've almost been hospitalized a number of times throughout my life. So I have to be careful of what I eat and what my food touches. So to start off usually I'm pretty understanding when mistakes are made especially when it is a busy night like this night was. A friend took me here for my birthday a couple weeks ago and we sat in the lounge area. I ordered a burger PLAIN, I explained to the waiter that I have a ton of allergies and so it needs to be JUST THE BURGER AND BUN. To me that means no cheese, no bacon, no tomato, no lettuce and no sauce. Well the burger came out with cheese and bacon on it. I told the person that brought it to us, that I cannot have the cheese or bacon. So he took it back. The waiter brought out the second burger, it had cheese on it. I proceeded to explain to him that I'm allergic to the cheese and bacon and I cannot eat it. Well instead of making it right. He got mad at me and told me that "I need to tell him specifically what needs to stay off the burger." I kinda looked down at the table and I told him that I was sorry. Even though I thought I did explain it. I was in tears when he left. And my friend kinda vouched for him saying it was a busy night and he was stressed but I told her that I shouldn't have been treated like that. Anyways someone else came out and told me the burger should be out soon and I couldn't even look at him because of how emotional I was. And when the waiter checked on us, he didn't offer me any boxes for my fries and he didn't offer me any water when I was out, heck he didn't even make eye contact with me. Needless to say, I probably won't be coming back to...

I don't want to be contacted and offered any type of discount or gift card, I just want to share my experience. My husband and I went here to try to celebrate our first anniversary. First, we ordered the spinach dip, it came out warm and so thick that it broke our chips, when it's usually more like a dip, and so hot that I've burned my hand on the skillet before, by barely touching it; this time I was literally able to hold my finger on it. My husband got the honey shrimp and steak sirloin; the asparagus, tomatoes and garlic were not even grilled, like they were supposed to be, the mashed potatoes were old and dry and his steak was supposed to be medium rare but it came out medium. I got the shrimp fajitas and they had no flavor. We sent our food back and the manager came out, and told me that the shrimp was pre seasoned, which means it's probably frozen, and I think maybe the peppers and onions may have been frozen with them; maybe that's why they lost the "fajita" flavor that I love. When the manager came out to talk to us, it really made me uncomfortable and embarrassed because people were staring. I really just wished that the food was as good as the Layton location that we enjoy so much. It was a waste of time going there, especially for our first anniversary, that we can't ever get back.

Jennifer, I may look white but I'm full Mexican and definitely not privileged. I'm sorry if my review bothered you that much. Everyone has different experiences and opinions, I'm glad that you had a good experience; hopefully mine will be as...