Confessions from a Former Chili's Hater

Have you ever been dragged to a restaurant expecting it to be horrible?

The reality of life is that if you go out to a restaurant with someone except yourself it can sometimes be hard to all agree. Therefore, somebody in the group is going to be annoyed by the restaurant everyone else has picked.

Being the controlling restaurant freak that I am, I rarely let this happen to me. When I go out to eat, I dine with purpose and I try to avoid a bad experience at all costs. Last Saturday however I found myself in an unusual and sticky situation.

I wanted to try the new Coal-Fire Pizza restaurant in town. Everyone else however wanted to go to.......Chili's. Yes, Chili's the very restaurant that I have opened bashed here and here on this very site. However after much debate and verbal abuse I was still out numbered 3 to 1. So, I lost. I only had two choices: Chili's or starve.

As you probably can guess by now, I opted for Chili's over starvation.

I grumbled under my breath the whole car ride there about how it's going to be a horrible experience and a giant waste of money for everyone. My complaining continued until we got to the front door and we were pleasantly greeted by a hostess. This was rather shocking as I've now been well trained that when you eat a Chili's you have to stand around and hope to catch someone's attention if you want to get seated.

We asked to sit in the lounge (Free Chips and Salsa in the lounge if you didn't know). Once we sat down and ordered our drinks I carefully pondered the menu. I was on a budget and the last thing I wanted to do was throw my hard earned cash at a restaurant that was going to give me an inferior product anyway.

The 10 under $7 menu is a fairly decent deal, although it's nothing compared to Friday's recent $5 entree extravaganza. (Speaking of Friday's, here is a coupon for a buy one entree, get one free). All things considered, all of the entree choices are under $7 and while some are half portions you still get a full side of your choice. I opted for the new bacon ranch Fire Grilled Quesadillas.

We asked for a refill of our chips and salsa a few times (free chips and salsa is the ultimate) while we waited for our food. By this time through dinner my complaining had pretty much subsided. Our service wasn't good, but it was good enough to keep me quiet. The chips and salsa were great and I was anxiously awaiting my $7 dinner.

The food came out and my half order of quesadillas were served with a heaping portion of Chili's french fries and for only costing $7 I was feeling pretty good about it. When I started eating I got even happier. These fire grilled quesadillas were.......awesome. Cooking them on the open flame makes the tortilla extra hot and crispy. The combination of melted cheese, ranch sauce and bacon on the chicken was outstanding. They were juicy, crunchy, melty and extremely tasty.

Suddenly I wasn't so upset that we came to Chili's. My wife was happy with her chips and salsa and I was happy because she was happy. The added bonus was that my entree, which ended up being really good, only cost $7.

Let's get this straight. Chili's is far from quality. It's likely they won't provide you a memorable, heart warming experience. But they will give you what you pay for and charge you a fair price. Why would you got to a restaurant like Panera where you have to wait on yourself and pay more for less food?

The secret to Chili's is first to manage your expectations and know you're not going to have a world class experience. Second, sit in the lounge for the free chips and salsa. Third, order something off the 10 under $7 menu. What you'll get is decent service and good amount of food for an extremely affordable price.

I guess sometimes it's worth trying something you think you're going to hate. You might end up loving it.