Chix on the Beach — Restaurant in Virginia Beach

I have debated whether to post this or not....decided if it was still bothering me 48 hrs later, I should. My kids and I decided to take a last minute staycation and ended up down at the oceanfront Thursday August 28. Since I have visited The Shack and Watermans, and loved them both, we should try out Chicks and see if it was as good as their sister restaurants. First impression was great. Your hostess recognized me and my kids from years ago when we lived at the beach. She remembered our names and everything. That was awesome bc it has been years and made us feel good. She sat us outside, live band was playing, breeze was blowing, it was a great night to enjoy a good meal and some family time. We ordered our apps and dinner and were just chatting. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a man who is barely able to stand, fall to the ground. There are 2 employees within just a few feet of him so I figured they would check on him. They did not. The girl, server I am assuming, looked over and went back to chatting with her table. A tall guy, busser, was within reaching distance and just kept working. After about a minute of watching, I decided to get up myself. I asked the busser, if this was normal behavior and is that why he wasn't helping. ( I asked this bc it seemed no one was concerned. Didnt know if he was a regular that had a history of passing out) He just shrugged and went back to working. Our server, Sheena, i believe was her name, and I arrived at this gentleman at the same time. We got him up and seated in a chair and got him some water. Once I realized this wasnt a medical emergency, I stepped away and went back to my table.

My concern, as a bartender and server for 30 years, is the amount of alcohol he was served. He was very obviously past the legal limit and had a been served another drink (assuming it was his since it was in the area where he fell). His eyes were red and glassy, his words were slurred, he could not stand straight....all indicators that it was well past the cut off time. Second issue is the lack of concern by your employees. What if this had been a medical emergency...stroke, heart attack, seizure.....and your employees would have left him there to die? How does that look?

I'm not here to tell you how to run your business but I do believe some training is needed. As a bartender, we want our customers to have a great time but we also want them to be able to return. Cutting off people who have had to much to drink is our responsibility. Your staff really let the ball drop in this instance.

Food was good. Our server was awesome. Had this incident not happened, we would be sure to return. Seeing your staff so unconcerned about a customer just really left a bad taste in my mouth and I'm not sure we want to support businesses who have such little concern for...

Came yesterday with my pregnant wife and toddler; not really in their control, but I was raised to get up for pregnant women and children when there isn’t enough places to sit, which did not happen in their small waiting area, however that is not their fault; just a peeve. Nevertheless, the hostess was also a bit inconsiderate; she originally sat us at a booth, which again is difficult for someone who is 9 months pregnant. We had to go back and stand in the waiting room again to wait for a table, which was a great time for our hostess to tell us we would have to leave our stroller up front, which contradicted the other hostesses that told us the first time we waited, that all we had to do was break it down. At this point, we could tell our hostess was frustrated with us, so she quickly found us a space outside. It was muggy hot, however my wife is tough and was hungry, so we accepted being outside in the heat. But, the heat wasn’t our biggest concern regarding the seating arrangement; it was that the table wasn’t clean from the previous patrons, in fact, neither were the chairs, or the floor around the table. I mean pieces of scallops, shrimp and crab shells everywhere. I got tired of waiting for someone to greet us at the table to address the concern, so I took a wet wipe and cleaned the seating for us myself.

We then ordered our beverages and meals: an appetizer, two dinner meals, and a kids meal. The food was really good, so I can not complain about that at all, however the entire order came all together and was piled on the table all at once, but at this point, “What can we do?”, we ate, and asked for our check.

Now getting our check, we realized we were charged 3 times for the “refillable” sodas. We asked for the reasoning and waitress informed us we had to pay for a soda switch, which was due to the ginger ale being flat. We questioned that charge because the fountain drinks were refillable. Why would there be a charge to switch? Nevertheless, the waitress was adamant regarding the additional charge, so we just shrugged it off and deducted it from the tip.

Long story short, this restaurant has great ambience, and is next to a small platform where you can hear local artist; The food is also really good! But, they really should work on customer service all around being that this is a pricey family...

DINNER - This was a nice experience after the extremely loud drunk at a table next to us left. They really should have been moved outside or asked to leave since inside was mostly families with small children. My chicken was very raw but the manager came and inspected it and took care of my meal. He even saved the situation with good service. And, happily, I didn't get sick (I'd had a bite before I opened it up to see why something seemed off).

The food was, otherwise, pretty good at dinner. The street tacos were good. The mac & cheese was good.

They wouldn't let my pre-school daughter keep her Cookie Monster shake. They made her throw it away because she wasn't allowed to take her drink. So she was upset because that was her reward for finishing her dinner and I was out the money. We sat at the bar area (crowded and not kid friendly section) so she could drink some of her shake.

BREAKFAST/BRUNCH We took the receipt back at brunch, as it says on it to do, to receive 20% off. However, we only got $1.90 off a $75 bill (over $90 with tax/tip) because they only applied it to one meal since they said the others weren't "breakfast".

They wouldn't add peppers or onions to the home fried potatoes (which I usually see with those) but the potatoes were done well. The biscuits and gravy were good. The chicken Cesar wrap they did do on bread instead of tortilla but it wasn't super flavorful.

Now AFTER the breakfast meeting, a couple of us stayed to start off the weekend with mimosas. They have a build-your-own where they bring a bottle and 3 juices. We added a shot of amaretto because a skosh of amaretto in a mimosa is amazing. It's tough to pour since there are no spouts - just plain glasses - but we still made yummy ones...