Cheesy Quintessence

In a late celebration of 2006, today we went to Chili’s for the first time ever. That will probably be the last time ever, too, due to the miserable experience there.

To start things off, we were seated in the bar without being asked. Not only that, we were attempted to be seated at a high table rather than a normal table or booth. Now, when we go to other restaurants, we get asked before being seated in the bar; what’s Chili’s problem? After being seated in a booth in the bar, our waiter showed up for our drinks, which took them several minutes to get out to us. After that, refills of our drinks weren’t too prompt either.

Then came the food. It was mediocre. Considering the prices, it was poor. My parents didn’t like their food much, though mine was okay; the corn was pretty good, the fries were good except for being soggy, and the chicken was really tender, but some of the pieces were soggy. I’d have much rather had a similar dish at Cheddar’s for $2 less.

When we were finally done with our food, disgusted by how long it took to get service out of our waiter, we asked for some more to drink, only to have the waiter almost spill water on us by trying to carry too much stuff at once. We wanted dessert, and they seemed to have an inviting dessert, but we decided we didn’t wish to give them any more money. But before we could even pay, we had to go tell them we were ready to pay, because they’d take all day to come back around to give us the bill!

The bill turned out to be about $36. My father left them a tip of $0.16. After that miserable experience, we went on to Cheddar’s for dessert. Therein, the service was fast, courteous, and the dessert was excellent. Our waiter there got a bigger tip on a $4 cake than the waiter at Chili’s got on that $36 meal.