Chili's

Let me just day, I use to be a big fan of Chili's but have not eaten at one since they stopped making the Lettuce Wraps. Yes, I have boycotted Chili's over lettuce wraps for years now. It's true. Deal with it.

So, this past weekend we were in Brownwood Texas visiting family when Uncle Bill (it's debatable that he is still in his right mind) suggested we dine at Chili's. After trying to sway the crowd I reluctantly agreed, and let me say I did NOT gloat one single time during the entire "experience". And boy was it an experience.

We had a party of 7, each of us having a butt that would require a chair. The hostess leads us to a table with 6 chairs. I said to her "but we have 7". She then suggest she could get a chair and put it at the end of the table. I made the observation that if she did, that person would be sitting in the isle leading directly to the door and would be a fire safety issue. Then she suggested that instead of the chair we could move a table meant for 2 people and put it in place of that extra chair. I explained that would still be blocking the isle.. She didn't "get" that I was trying to keep her and the restaurant from getting into trouble. While all of this was taking place they sat a party of 5 in a booth that would have easily accommodated at least 10, maybe 12 people. The hostess insist she could do that so I asked that she asked a manager. She came back and of course couldn't do that. I said "Okay, so?" She says "Well I don't have anyplace for you." I say "Could we wait until you do?" and she says "That's what I was saying". Me: "Can we wait somewhere other than in the isles?" She: "That's what I said." Me: CONFUSED! So we went to the bar where another waitress who was cleaning asked if she could help. I explained our predicament  and she went to see if there was anything she could configure. At this time we had been there a good 15-20 minutes and NOT ONCE did the manager (a young looking guy, very clean cut) come to check on us. I stopped him as he walked by one of the many times he did, all while ignoring there were 7 people standing around in his bar not being helped. I explained to HIM our predicament and was basically ignored. You'd think he would have at least offered to get us drink while we waited, but no. No he didn't. SO, they finally found a place to comfortably seat us after about a 25 minute wait.

Our waitress was very cheery, took our drink orders, took our appetizer orders and brought our appetizers shortly after, and I thought "Okay, here we go! NOW we're going to experience the Chili's I use to know!" Boy was I wrong. I can only guess they informed the waitress about the previous situation because she then proceeded to ignore us as much as possible. No, seriously! She went from Jekyllina to Hydrina (that's my female Jekyll and Hyde). I mean, when she walked by she completely looked the other way! We had to flag her down to ask her to take our order. We had to flag her down for drink refills because ALL 7 drinks were empty. We just happened to be talking about dining out, how hard waitressing is and how we tip when service is really good or really bad. As she poured our drinks I said "I tipped a waitress 100% once because the service was just that good!" First of all, that's a true story, second of all the timing of me sharing that wasn't an accident. My son leaned over and said "I bet our food comes out within the next two minutes". Sure enough, here it comes! I looked at the food as it was served and it was obvious it had been sitting a while. My mother-in-law's chili had that tell-tell sheet of drying chili that she had to break through. My husbands Cajun chicken pasta was warm, like heat lamp warm. My tilapia, rice or broccoli was anything but warm. I'm posting a picture of my tilapia doing the backstroke through puddles of oil, which give me serious doubts there was anything "lighter" about that choice. Anybuts, our waitress did not check on us one single time. We even had to flag her down AGAIN to get crackers for the chili. Yes, I know what you're thinking... "Surely the manager, knowing you had waited almost 30 minutes to be sat when you could have easily gone elsewhere, surely he check on you, right??" No, No he did not!

Now I could tell you how much I disliked the mango-chili tilapia, but do you really care? Didn't think so. For the most part I think most everyone liked the food, but as they say "starvation is the best seasoning" or something like that. Fortunately the 3 octogenarians, 2 quinquagenarians, my son and I all survived before totally starving to death. And thank goodness these people are in the restaurant business and not medical care, and I really hope they don't own pets because if they do, someone really should check on those pets.

Cold, stale fries on dinner entrees.  Salmon and tilapia entree portions were tiny.  Beer was good and hamburger was fine.  But not even up to chain restaurant standards.  Sigh...  Not impressed and that is why only one star.  I shouldn't have to be disappointed in a chain restaurant -- my expectations are already adjusted for that.

4-stars? Really Brownwood? I only give this place 3 stars because it is actually a good place to get shitfaced on cocktails (if you want beers, go to Duke's). The margarita chicken is ok, but this restaurant is the poster child for chain food. It's the McDonald's of sit-down chain restaurants. There is probably enough MSG in this food to put a Chinese buffet to shame.

More than anything, I judge a place by the steaks. The more sauce I have to put on a steak to be able to eat it, the worse it is. I guess you really can't expect much for $10 an entree, but I can't imagine giving the place 5 stars. Also, the ribs here aren't near as moist or scrumptious as they are at Pete's. For $10, I'd go to Underwoods or Pete's. It's been awhile since I ate at Pete's but they have one of the only steaks I've ever eaten that required NO sauce. A much better value....