Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Rockwall

DINE-IN/SIT-DOWN SERVICE We've been to this location several times and have had a phenomenal experience every time we've gone inside to eat. The service is phenomenal and the food is always top notch. The wait staff is friendly and attentive. They're friendly/personable and very attentive. Bonus points for keeping my drink full!! The restaurant itself is very clean. We've never run into that situation where you sit down and the server/hostess says "oh, let me get that table cleaned off for you." More importantly, they seem to do a good job of sanitizing surfaces and high frequency touch points, as well. Someone is always running around cleaning something so that's a good sign!

CHILI'S TO-GO The To-Go service, on the other hand, is quite the opposite experience. We've ordered takeout through this location on a number of occasions and its always been a significantly less positive experience than dining in the restaurant. We almost always seem to have problems with our order, like items missing (we do a thorough check now before we leave), super slow service or just poor food quality. Oddly enough, we've noticed that there is a noticeable difference in what you get when you order an entree to-go, vs ordering that same entree inside the restaurant. Not sure if that's coincidence (unlikely) or by design. When we order through the app, it often seems like they don't even start working on our order until we actually get there and check-in. If we call ahead to let them know that we're on our way, they seem to be much quicker to get our order ready, vs. relying on the app alone.

LATEST TO-GO EXPERIENCE We placed an order through the app and headed up to Chili's around the time that the app estimated our order would be ready. When we pulled in, the To-Go waitress was quick to come out to confirm the name for our order. Gave her my name and she said she would go check on our order and let us know if it was done or if it would be a little longer. I'm not sure if she forgot about us or what, but we sat there for about 20 minutes, watching several other people come and go with their orders, before she finally came back out to tell us that our order would be out momentarily, which it was. In any case, the longer wait time is understandable, especially given the times. But it would've been nice to know that they hadn't...

Lets be real here....Its Chili's. Wasn't expecting much to be honest, but as a person in Management (unrelated to food service) I know that making a customer feel like they are lying or wrong is NOT the way to handle any situation. I ordered shrimp tacos for lunch and when they arrived I kept getting a faint smell of a pungent odor. First thinking it may be the shrimp, it was not. So I continued to eat my one of three tacos when I thought that it may be the cheese that has a smell. Being queso fresco its going to have a little bit of a cheesy smell ( I wasn't born yesterday), but when I picked up a large piece of cheese and smelled it, I knew immediately it was bad. It smelled of old, spoiled milk and when you squish it, the smell was even worse. It was VERY clear to me the cheese was bad, no doubt one bit. I told the waitress of this and she apologized and asked if I would like anything else. I explained to her that I had an appointment and needed to leave. The waitress was sweet, but what happened next is my issue. The manager came over with a disbelief look on his place and said "I am sorry you did not like the shrimp tacos." Ummm..... No, the cheese was bad, I replied. Kind of puzzled by his approach. He then proceeded to explain to me that he checked the dates on the cheese himself that morning and things were fine. I asked if he had smelled it and he said my tacos just smelled like pico. I told him to grab a piece of cheese and rub it between his fingers and smell. He then told me once again that he checked it that morning and that the dates were fine. I was then getting a little upset because rather than apologizing for the mistake, he would have rather explained that he did his job. I told him that I did not doubt that he checked it that morning, but it was then 1:30 in the afternoon and the cheese was bad. He stammered, stuttered and walked off. They comped my tacos but I left feeling like they thought I wanted a free meal. Mind you I ate 2/3 of one taco of 3 and did not touch the rice and beans it came with. When I noticed they were off, I couldn't eat anymore, duh! To make matters worse, multiple wait staff peered through the service door to stare at me. Just wasn't a good experience for me at all. Maybe an in-service on customer service...

Consistently inconsistent. We really like the dishes, but we have gone 1 time in the past 2 years where we didn't send something back. Tonight our salads came out maybe 2 or 3 minutes after ordering, great. Then less than 1 minute later here is our food? It hasmt been 4 minutes since we gave our prder. We just poured the dressing on and hadn't taken a bite. So our honey chipotle crispers where just above room temp and the grilled chicken was just about the same and missing its grill marks. The manager, like always took care of us. The staff is always nice, but many need more basic training.

Hostess- My wife, young daughter and I come in, "how many in your party?" Three, "3?" As she looks at us bewildered, "Yes 3" she grabs 3 regular menus , so my wife says, "one kids menu please." Looking totally list and pauses, "a child's menu?" (6 yrs old) "Yes please."

Waitress- "your food isn't warm?", no, "do you want me to do something?" Yes, take this and bring a fresh cooked plate please." The good thing is she was very polite and then take the plate and checked on us. The disappointing thing was our Presidents margaritas came and the shaker was maybe half full and loaded with ice, our glass the same. I mentioned how little of the drink both of us have and she smiles and says, "it's probably just the bartender rushing or not wanting to serve more than 8 0z." ? That's it, she has walked away- lol

After that my water glass sat empty, got filled once in the first 10, at the edge of the table watching the waitress walk by, take our dessert order, bring the dessert and then the night ended. I could have asked, but I asked the first time and wanted to see how long it would go unnoticed. We'll go back, because our daughter loves them and it's Rockwall so you can't get much better service, but a few places, like Samee's...