Chili's Grill & Bar — Restaurant in Virginia

My wife and I went here last night just after 10 pm. When you enter, you are in the middle of the restaurant. To the left, there was one long table with about 20 people. The rest of that side was closed. To the right is a partial wall and the bar with a few tables and booths. That side was open.

When we entered, the hostess was sitting at a table directly to the rear of the restaurant. She saw us, got up, and came to seat us. I asked if we could have a booth. She looked around, sighed, and said, "Is a table ok?" I replied."Do we have a choice?" Both of those statements are verbatim. At this point, she seemed confused and frustrated. She looked around (I'm still not sure at what) and said something to the effect of they only had one server so no booths are available. I said a table would be fine then.

As we turned right, facing the bar area, just on the other side of the wall were four booths. the bar was past them facing us along the end of the building. Between the booths and bar were a few tables. Two of the four booths were occupied. The other two were piled with dirty dishes from previous guests. I do not think anyone was in the center tables. To the right, along the front of the restaurant, were three (or four) tables, one was occupied but left as we got there.

So, to recap, there were 2 booths and a table occupied. The other two booths were not yet cleaned, and all the other tables were empty. Let's be fair and say there was another table with people that I didn't notice, so of the entire empty space, 2 booths and 2 tables had people.

We were seated in the front corner at a small table (see photo). We sat with our backs to the wall, so the front of the building was to our left, bar was to our right, and we we looking towards the middle of the restaurant and that table of 20 people on the other side.

We quickly decided what to order and waited to be acknowledged. And waited. And waited. The waitress went to one of the booths and took away some dirty dishes. We waited some more.

Then, a family of 4 came in and sat at the table by us. Because of how we were seated, we were looking at their table. Within a few seconds (yes, seconds), the waitress took their drink order and went to get their drinks. We never got acknowledged. My wife and I looked at each other and left.

Absolutely pathetic all...

About a week ago, my wife and I ended up in McDonald's. Don't ask why. It's a long story, and it wasn't really a choice. The universe works in mysterious ways, and on that day, it worked us into McDonald's. We ordered from the kiosk, so we got food. We were the lucky ones, or at least as lucky as you can be for someone eating in McDonald's. A lady came in with her two children. She was immediately told, by the manager, I presume, "I can't take your order. We're too busy." The lady and her children left. My theory is that McDonald's doesn't want people eating inside their stores any more, but that's a story for another day.

The reason I've said all of this is to say that I wish that's what someone had said to me when I walked into Chili's. Not because they were too busy, because they were hardly busy at all, but because the experience I was about to have was going to be dreadful.

We waited about twenty minutes at the table before I went to find a server to see if we could order at least something to drink. The kids finished the entire word find on their menu before we had a server at the table for the first time.

I ordered a medium-rare ribeye. It came out with the rest of our food, but after waiting a few more minutes to get some utensils, I cut into it to find that it was medium-well, so I waited several more minutes to see our server, and then asked them to re-fire.

The rest of my family started to eat, though, and managed to finish eating, by the time I got my new steak, which was also medium-well, but at this point, I just dealt with it. It was supposed to have garlic butter on it, but that was missing, and I was never offered anything to put on it in lieu of the butter, so I chewed and chewed, and eventually finished most of the steak.

I also want to note that Chili's must be suffering from a paper shortage. We asked twice for napkins, and eventually got enough that if we tore them in half, everybody could have 1/2 of a napkin.

Thankfully, I wasn't charged for the steak. However, I should have charged them for the courtesy of taking 900 calories out of the restaurant for them.

Would not recommend, in case you haven't figured...

Well a rare night without kids and we decided to finally try Chili's in lynchburg. I have been a waitress, hostest, bus boy, prepcook, and even a dish washer at several restaurants in lynchburg, and our waiter here, his name is Zach, was absolutely clueless. First we were sat at a table with super bright lights. We asked to move to an area with softer lighting . I told him this was our first time ever at Chilis and in my experience in the restaurant business when someone tells u that it's your job to impress and give the best service you can so they will be sure to come back. NOT THE CASE HERE!! We had to ask for suggestions on the ribs and on the strawberry diquri I order which was terrible by the way. It was blended well but it was barely pink and it should of been red. It had NO alcohol in it that I could taste and it was served to me in a plastic mug spilling over the side. We had to ask for napkins for our fried pickle app. My husband ordered a full rack of ribs on the mix n match menu, which was supposed to come with steamed broccoli and fries. He was half way finished with his ribs before Zach even bothered to tell us the fries and broccoli were still cooking. He never should of brought our food out with out it all being ready!! We were missing a fork the entire meal, he barely came back to the table to check on us. He was terrible , and it definitely gave us a bad impression of Chilies. Over all our experience was crappie and I dought we'll go back. This place really needs...