Chuy's — Restaurant in Virginia

2023: Upgrading my review to 4 stars.

We went on a Saturday night at 5 pm when it was not busy.

I read reviews that the steak was great, so my wife had the combo fajitas with both chicken and steak strips, while I had the burrito with chopped steak and some nachos. A quick summary: the chips & salsa, burrito, and fajitas were great! The nachos need some improvement.

Our waitress brought chips and salsa right away. The chips were very fresh, thin, and perfect. They came with both a ranch flavored sauce and regular salsa. We enjoyed the ranch sauce more, perhaps because it was not your typical salsa. I ordered nachos, but without all the normal beans, lettuce, and pico de gallo that comes with it. All I wanted was chips, cheese, and jalapenos. It came super, super hot, so hot that I could barely pick up a chip. There were 7 large, thick chips instead of the small flaky ones that were served free. The cheese was generous and the jalapenos were spicy hot. That was the good part. The problem was the chips, which were tough and part of them inedible. I'm not sure how they got that way. Maybe they were microwaved to death. After struggling a bit, I solved the problem by sliding the cheese off and putting them on the free, flaky chips, then adding the jalapenos. Too bad they didn't just come that way in the first place.

My wife enjoyed her steak and chicken fajitas. I ordered my burrito with two different salsas on the side, because I didn't know the heat and flavor of all the options. The heat/spice level of the sauces do justice to Southwestern palates, and are not toned down to East Coast mild levels that many East Coast Mexican restaurants often cater to. The sauces come in 3 levels: mild, medium, and hot. The hot Hatch Green Chili sauce was at the upper end of my tolerance. I enjoyed the medium Tex-Mex sauce, both for flavor and heat level. To each his own.

The portions were very generous and we ended up taking at least half of our entrees home. We had a good experience and will not hesitate to come again.

2018: Not impressive. 2 stars.

We went on a busy Friday night around 8 pm. They told us it would be a 25 minute wait and they were accurate. The waitress was pleasant and we ordered everything at once, asking that the nachos appetizer be served before the meal. I asked them to skip the beans and tomatoes and give us the nachos with just cheese and jalapenos. It felt like 15 minutes before they came. Maybe it was less, but it felt like a pretty long time. Our entrees came immediately after we finished eating our nachos, so they really should have served a simple appetizer much sooner. The cheese was the skimpiest portion I've seen in dozens of years ordering nachos. It did not cover the entire chip, and the portion of chip it covered was super, super thin. There was an average of one jalapeno slice per chip. Very disappointing.

My chicken burrito was so-so. I ordered two different sauces on the side and tried them both. They were unimpressive. I'm used to thicker sauces from Mexican restaurants in CA. It could be a matter of personal taste. The burrito had no sour cream or guacamole.

My wife's chicken fajitas looked good and came on a sizzling hot platter. She...

I already called to let the manager know about our experience after we walled out. I forgot to mention everything so here is the while story. The host sat us at a table near kitchen or restroom. Was not sure, but it was not a pleasant view. We walked past about 4-6 tables/booths that were not bussed. We asked to sit in a a booth and the host said it would be about 15-20 to wait. Made no sense why it would take 20 minutes to clean one booth. We asked if there was another booth in a different area. He took us to the back room. There were a table and booth not bussed also. We sat down. Waited like 10 minutes and no one came to give us water or salsa/chips. No one came over period. This one man walked by (not sure if he worked there) because he was wearing jeans and not a uniform. He was looking around and said hi. Anyway we waited too long and plus you could smell the tables that were not bused behind us. Smelled gross and you could tell the food was sitting for a while. We walked out of the restaurant because we were really annoyed and saw 3 hostess standing there when we left. The young man who sat us was standing there. I looked at him like what the heck and waved. They all looked at us walk out. They did not stop us or try to ask what was wrong or why we were leaving. Awful experience. I have never eaten here before either. The hostess need to be more friendly and trained more. The person who sat us did not seem to care about anything. I know he was young, but that does not matter. Even if you are understaffed, you should not have 10 tables plus not bused in the restaurant. Plus, the hostess (3) could of helped buss the tables. Will never go back. The host that sat us saw us leave and did not...

Pre Covid this Chuy’s was our jam. We seriously ate here once a week at some point! During Covid so much changed and I appreciate how hard this Chuy’s worked to pivot to take out and keep people fed with delicious food. I don’t blame this location for menu changes - all chuys made changes and this location has the same menu as our Chuy’s in Texas (new state!)

I came back in town for a visit and a friend and I came for dinner. First off we had to wait 15 minutes to get a table even though restaurant was barely half full. Staffing shortages suck, but the wait was awkward and didn’t make much sense. Second when we did get sat the waiter came to our table only enough times to deliver a drink, food, and a check. No refills on empty soda. Again, there were very few tables with people so I do not understand the lack of service. The appearance of the restaurant itself was sad and dingy - made me sad to see how downhill it’s gone since it opened. Could use a good clean and some happy energy for sure. Lastly, the food. The saddest part. It wasn’t very good. I get the same thing every time - The Steak Burrito. Green chili sauce was watery, rice had a crunch, and worst of all the steak had this weird battered texture (almost like pre chewed, but not, just so rough and horribly over chopped) and was dry. I’ve never not enjoyed my steak burrito in all the Chuy’s I’ve gone to and this was just not good. They’ve obviously not been able to recover staff wise since Covid, and I try to be sympathetic, but there comes a point something has to be looked at. If I still lived here it would take a lot to get me back to...