Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Riverside

Got here after a long day of exam taking at my college. Was super starved, me and my boyfriend came to eat. This was my second time coming, I came with my family for my first time and had a good experience here. From the minute we got sat, we were already being ignored. I don’t even know my servers name because she never introduced herself. Waited around 20 minutes just for her to come take our drink orders, by that point we were ready to order the appetizers too but the minute she noted down two waters, she left again. Mind you, it was not busy at all. Waited around 20 minutes to order our food, and our drinks. She takes our order with a frown, looking everywhere but at us and speaks as though we’re inconveniencing her, once again IT WAS NOT BUSY. I would completely understand if it were, I work within the food industry too. There was no reason to be treating us that way. We wait an HOUR for our food, no one checked on us within that hour, never brought our drinks, plus no chips or salsa? I had come before with my family and received them without anyone asking and I noticed other tables were getting them too, don’t know why we never got any. Eventually she comes up asking what we ordered?? So I guess they lost our order or something. Appetizer comes out, and one of the items is wrong. I tell the waiter, she’s a different one, and she looks at me as though she expects me to just accept it, asks if I want the chicken on the side then. I had to tell her I literally can’t eat corn for her to stop discussing with me and just take the appetizer to be fixed. Also the lemonade drink still hasn’t been brought. They go and fix it and my bf asks for the lemonade for a third time and they finally bring it out with the correct appetizer combo. Our food comes out and I’m relieved finally, I haven’t eaten all day and I’ve been here for more then an hour now. My bfs 6oz steak looks smaller then what it should be. And my pasta has the wrong protein. At this point I’m so done, I didn’t even want to ask them to fix it because throughout this entire ordeal, the waiters seem annoyed and miserable to be serving us. Not a single apology nor acknowledgment of how terrible this service has been. A third different waiter asks if everything’s okay and I let her know I had ordered the chicken not the shrimp. She goes to get the correct one and there goes another 10 minutes I’m not even hungry anymore. The entire time that I was there, it never got busy, the place was dead and slow. I don’t understand, I’ve been here before with my family during peak busy hours and the service was great, food came out at a reasonable time, and we received complimentary chips and salsa, and our waiter was very cheery. Truly disappointed by the difference in treatment. Will likely not be coming back. Didn’t even mention how they had no silverware, they gave us plastic forks...

If I could give zero stars I would. I keep giving this location another try, but I won’t again.

My family and I were seated tonight at 6pm. We ordered quickly as my kids were hungry. 45 minutes later, we finally got our food. No refill offers in the mean time, and a salad we ordered never came and we had to ask for it.

Then our food came and my wife and my dinners were both cold, they brought an extra salad that they forgot we had to ask for before, my son’s meal didn’t come out, and my other son didn’t have ranch dressing for his chicken tenders. At this point we still hadn’t seen our waitress since she took our order. A food runner brought us our food. We let her know we needed ranch and our sons meal, and that both our meals were cold. She looked confused and wandered off. About 10 minutes later, we hadn’t seen anyone. My very pregnant wife walked to the front to request to speak with a manager at which point the hostess went back to talk to the manager, only to return to tell us the manager was very busy and it may be a while. We said ok but if she could please get us some hot food and have our server come see us we would appreciate it. 5 more minutes. Nothing. Finally, I told my family to get up and that we were leaving. We walked to the front and I made a point to let the hostess know we still hadn’t seen a manager or our SERVER. I let her know our cold meals were on the table and we left.

On the drive home I called and asked to speak to the manager only to be out on hold for 5 more minutes before I hung up.

The manager and server should be embarrassed. I won’t return to this...

The food was good on my visit, chili's usually is. My issue is with their new "Ziosk" device. Basically a tablet that sits on your table providing the ability to order some bar drinks and deserts as well as pay your bill. First, table space is at a premium, this thing uses a fair amount of it. Also I can't order off the menu only what I mentioned above. It has games with unlimited play for a dollar. I'd rather they add a dollar to my food and make me feel like I'm getting a freebie. Here is the problem I have with Ziosk, I noticed as I was about to pay that this tablet is equipped with a camera, I would assume it also has a microphone. This allows an unprecedented level of access to my dinner table. Also there is nothing informing you that you may be monitored. I'm sure they would deny using the functionality. Who can access the video and audio streams? If you say "gosh desert sounds good but I'm on that diet" will the waitress appear and nudge you into a purchase? All kinds of questionable stuff potentially going on here.

On a functionality note, I paid through the ziosk, which gave me no confirmation of or receipt of payment. Since the server doesn't have to accept payment anymore, once you initiate payment on the Ziosk, the green light on it's top turns red (just like the robots in I Robot) there will be no more attention from them. So I figured I made my an honest effort to pay my bill, got up and left with a feeling of uneasiness that I would be tackled crossing the parking lot. So far I am either paid in full or still at large. Because of all this, I think I will...