After a group decision, we ended up at Chili's a couple of weeks ago.
I don't love Chili's, and I don't hate it either. They have lots of great things about them (like free chips and salsa when you eat in the lounge - classy tip). However they are not one of my top 5 restaurants.
Based on past experiences I traditionally have extremely low expectations when I go to Chili's, however when I walked in this location in Orlando I was shocked by the intense remodel of the inside of the restaurant. Long gone were the dangling toys, unusual signs and giant peppers everywhere. 
The ugly 1991 tile, lamp shades and booth seats have all been replaced with new contemporary colors. The changes in the bar are the most significant with baby blue seating and brand new leather blue bar stools (see the pic on the right).
It's impressive, sexy and finally makes Chili's a more contemporary restaurant.
Suddenly looking forward to this experience, we all take our seats at what seems to be the only clean restaurant in the table. There we were sitting in a beautiful new restaurant with three dirty tables on either side of us (how lovely)....about 8 minutes later are rather sloppy server showed up and took our drink order.
Our drinks eventually came, the server disappeared and a little later he magically reappeared to take our food order. I was feeling a little adventurous so I ordered something I never had before, the new Crispy Chicken Tacos.
I only got one refill, we had to beg for our chips to be replenished, and once our food was dropped off we didn't get checked on.
The food, surprisingly was great. My tacos had a unique, crispy, spicy flavor and it was a good sized portion. They were a refreshing twist to a sometimes rather unexciting menu item.
Once we were done we sat around for awhile waiting for our plates to be cleared and the check to be dropped off. After we paid we got up and walked out...the tables that were dirty when we sat down were still dirty....
So a brand new restaurant, fairly good food, decent prices and awful service. Is it enough?
It seems to me that if you're going to spend the time and money to completely renovate your restaurant you should start by reinventing your staff first. A restaurant, without an empowered staff is just an empty, lifeless room.
Not enough.
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