Chicali Cantina — Restaurant in Sandy

EDITED REVIEW.....Sad to say, this will be our last time driving from Boring to enjoy a dinner at Chicali. We are repeat customers who have written "rave" reviews in the past. However, shortly after we discovered Chicali, the menu changed and the food was never quite the same in our opinion. But it is hard to beat their Cadillac Margarita with the exception of Margarita Factory and Jefe in Lake Oswego.

We usually eat out with our disabled daughter. Because of our level of care, our daughter appears much higher functioning than she actually is. Tonight, we drove our daughter's new medical transport van that we picked up this morning to Chicali for dinner to celebrate her new ride. Our daughter has a medical condition where she cannot leave home without having access to a toilet. Her new medical transport van is the only vehicle on the market that has a bathroom at the back of the vehicle large enough for 2 people.

Because of the switch to a new vehicle today, we forgot to load up our daughter's wheelchair. We panicked when we pulled into Chicali's parking lot when we realized this, because, due to behavioral and mobility issues, our daughter rides in her wheelchair at all times when out in the community. A wheelchair also provides our daughter with a significant amount of security and behavioral control and reduces aggressive behaviors towards strangers. We sat in the new van for a few moments trying to figure out if we should walk her into the restaurant and have her sit at a regular chair or leave. We decided to give it a try, so we unloaded our daughter, and with one of us on each side of her, we escorted into the restaurant. The only other time we have taken her to a restaurant without her wheelchair and had her sit in a regular chair, she became very anxious and kept getting up out of her seat, wanting to leave. So, we had to eat quick and leave.

Once inside the restaurant, we tried to scope out the best table, which is not easy to do even when our daughter is in her wheelchair. We decided to sit outside, so we could leave quickly if our daughter could not maintain behavioral control because of some "trigger." Going out to dinner with a severe autistic, non-verbal individual is extremely stressful and takes a significant' amount of pre-planning to make it work, and even then, many times we have had to leave before or during a meal.

We chose a table in the corner outside that we thought would be out of the way with a quick escape route. As soon as we sat down, we realized that there were misters spraying water to keep people cool. Our daughter is very hyper-sensitive to lots of things, and we feared that the sensation of water lightly spraying on her skin would upset her and cause her to stand up and want to leave.

We asked our server if the mister above our table could be turned off. She said, "no." She didn't take the time to explain that all misters were connected, and that she couldn't just turn off the mister above us, etc.. We, in no way, wanted to interfere with other's enjoying dinner, but the server didn't take the time to tell us she could move us to another table or tried to solve the problem. She lacked any compassion at all, and made no effort whatsoever to help us get more comfortable outside or inside.

When my husband (age 69) ordered his Cadiallac Margarita, the server looked at me and asked if I was driving. I told her honestly, "no." When my husband received his drink, he could tell that it was not made the same as all other servers had brought him in the past year or more. This is the second or third time that this particular server has asked us who was driving, and we don't appreciate it. We are not 20 somethings. I turned 70 last week and my husband is 69. If he was ordering his 3rd margarita, maybe she would have had the right to ask who was driving, but not for his...

We are visiting from out of town and decided to stop by Chicali Cantina to try out their happy hour offerings. We particularly wanted to try their cheese crisp because we used to get them at Mexican restaurants in Arizona, but they're hard to find these days. We had the house Margarita (delicious), then the chips with a flight of 6 different salsas. There was a great variety of mild to spicy. Enough of a selection to please every palate. I lean toward the more mild options, but the smoky flavor of the marita kept me coming back. I always love pico de gallo. The avocado sauce and chunky tomatillo Verde were delicious as well! The cheese crisp was very tasty. The tortilla was crisp (even if slightly burnt in places) and the cheese melted well. It was topped with sour cream in addition to what was mentioned on the menu. That was ok with us, but could be an issue for some dietary needs. The last part of our meal was the Beef Barbacoa "Flauta" Bites. We loved the flavor of the shredded beef and the crispy exterior. A couple of notes: It was wrapped like a burrito/chimichanga, not a flauta, but that didn't take away from the wonderful flavor. Flautas have open ends. Also, I think it would be more enticing if it was served with one of the salsas instead of boring (Anglo) ranch dressing. I understand this is a new restaurant and I'm sure they're trying new things all the time. There were a few inconsistencies between the menu and what was served, so I would recommend sticking as close as possible to the menu for people who have food allergies. It will save the kitchen from having to redo a menu item if the customer can't eat it. All in all we really enjoyed everything about our meal! The staff was very friendly and attentive and the ambiance is fresh and comfortable. If we lived nearby we would be there...

They took a reservation for us and said the wait time was 45 mins. We thought we ll drive by and come back in 30 mins. We get a call from them in 10 mins saying they have a table. We said we are 10 mins away we ll come back in around 15 mins and they were ok with it. When we came back they tell us they cancelled all our reservations.

WE COULD SEE FREE TABLES AND THEY STILL CANCELLED OUR RESERVATIONS. They could have atleast told us on the phones that they will be cancelling the reservations. We were all hungry and when we said we wanted to talk to the manager they just bluffed around. After we started getting a little pissed they are asking if we want a table. We just walked.

VERY BAD SERVICE AND ATTITUDE HANDLING CUSTOMERS.

Update after reply: it’s not that we didn’t have choices. We wanted to have Mexican food and came well early and waited our turn for reservation only to be cancelled without notice. We don’t mind you cancelling us since we understand resources are limited on mountains. But all we wanted was a notice on call(your waitress called and told us our table is ready after which we came in) and some respect after that.

The attitude of “we would have anyway given a 1 star” is the issue. I had another mishap early that day with another service and I didn’t write any review/ lament because someone came and apologized for it happening citing the short resources. We all live near mountains/ travelled to far ends of the world to understand what it means to have limited resources. We all work for some clients and being patient and respectful for your clients is the thing. And no, I don’t want to be “taken care next time” after being treated badly. Neither us nor any of our friends are coming here after your reply. Sorry but you aren’t getting our business since you don’t seem to...