Chili's Grill - Española

Came in on a slow hour when we could see less than 6 tables seated and was told there was a 15 minute wait, when we were finally seated they didnt even ask if we preferred one of the many open booths and sat us in the center of the dinning area in full view of all other patreons. We noticed two large families enter after us and were both seated without wait on both side of us sandwiching us between several loud children when there were so many other seating options. Our server also kept disapearing for long periods of time, promting the bus boy to wait on us and neighboring tables. By the end of this ridiculous and long experience our total came out to $71, we paid $80 in cash to the busboy and told him to keep th change but he informed us he couldnt, so we just asked for change back, our server then brought us out $5.75 in change... im sorry but where is the extra $3???in addition mh meal was supposed to come with mac and cheese that never came out and obviously we paid for it! So someone took an unauthorized tip for an unfulfilled order, absolutely ridiculous. I wish i could say this was the first time this has happened but this specific location has to be the absolute worst returaunt ive ever been in, im so super surprised its able to keep its 3.5 rating cuz it certainly doesnt deserve it. I cant believe or understand how this place is still in business. Id give zero stars if i could in all aspects.

I honestly never thought I would give a Chili's a five star because I always have problems that every single one. You never see management etc. But this time everything was perfect. We sat at the bar. The bartender was super friendly and outgoing. A food came out quick and cooked perfectly. The food runner was extremely nice and helpful also. Definitely one of the cleaner chilies I've ever seen. If not the cleanest. They deserve this five star! This was Unlike a lot of the other chili's I ever visit. I just go because I can get a cheap cheeseburger but I know usually it's going to be screwed up but now I found one that has it together! Maybe it's the manager. Maybe it's the friendly people of Espanola. Why don't we just say both? So thank you for making a good experience for us!

The food was terrible. The service was horrible. This site was extremely understaffed, and frankly did not care about customers, and even said “ we know it took too long we know that it’s probably not to your standards. If you would like to speak to our manager, he would be happy to tell you that we are understaffed so we don’t recommend that you talk with him” Do your brand a favor and immediately close on this location. I spent over $115 everybody was extremely disappointing with the quality of food.

I love chilis. They make the best long islands. So much that I drove an hour to the closest location for it. I even overlooked the ripped seats and the literal pigeon in the rafters. Super understaffed. I think there’s only one server? One time we waited a while to be sat, and once were, the server expected us to know what our family of 5 wanted to eat as soon as we sat down. He said “it’ll be at least 20-30 minutes until I can come back again”. So we left because I didn’t want everyone to have to listen to our kids complain about how hungry they were for an hour+ until the food showed up. This last time it was just us 2 adults. Stood there for at least 10 minutes and no one came to seat us. There were a few other customers and 3 other employees standing around waiting for something to do. Two separate groups were waiting as well. I had a gut feeling that we would have to spend way too long here again if we kept waiting, so decided to eat somewhere else instead. Unfortunately I guess I’ll have to drive even further to another town for chilis from now on. Or maybe order to go ahead of time (although I hear thats iffy too).

They were doing the best they could with a short staff and minimal hours. 11-4. So the food wasn't fresh. The service was great.