Its Saturday night at 7pm, we wanted some food so my wife and I traveled to Chili's Grill and Bar on Washtenaw in the Arborland Shopping complex.
We arrived and I immediately noticed the parking lot was PACKED and felt like I was going to be waiting for a while to get a seat. I was wrong. We walked right in to the dark lit restaurant and was greeted by a nice young lady and led to the back of the restaurant to a 2 person table. I immediately noticed directly overhead was a very bright light pointing directly downward making it hard for me to see. Its one of those pendant lights that are kind of directional if you know what I mean. There were huge tables full of people and small 2 person tables all over the place that were full. It was loud as heck with the music and the chatter of people. Almost unbearable but what can you expect for a sports bar. Definitely not a place to take a small child on a Saturday night, but the restaurant advertises that its a college 'hangout'.
We were greeted by a nice wait and asked what we wanted to drink, and also if we would like an appetizer. I told him that we had a coupon for a free appetizer and told him we would like the nachos. He asked us if we wanted to upgrade them to chicken or steak because it usually cost more but since we had the coupon for a free app, the upgrade would be free also. Kudos for this guy telling us this. He brought us our sodas, took our order of a crispy chicken crispers and crispy honey-chipotle chicken crispers and soon after he brought out our appetizer. We werent being very adventurous today and the chicken looked good on the menu.
We received our appetizer, and man was it good. I have never had tortilla chips like they had on there, I still have to try putting chips in the oven for homemade nachos. But the mix of cheese and chicken and the other toppings made this appetizer a winner. I ate the whole thing and the wife not liking nachos also ate a few of them stating that they are good!
After we were done with the appetizer a different waitress brought out our chicken plates stating she was working with our waiter. The wife usually orders the original chicken crispers at Chili's and was a little disappointed she hadn't ordered them this time because the breading is definitely different on these chicken strips. My chicken came drizzled in honey-chipolte sauce which is odd to me because even KFC can totally cover chicken strips in a sauce, surprising a sit down restaurant cannot do this. Definitely not like the pictures on the menu. The honey sauce tasted like exactly that, they mixed honey and a chipotle sauce together and drizzled it over the chicken. I was a little unimpressed with my chicken. The plain chicken 'crispers' came with honey mustard dipping sauce, which from previous experience is awesome on the chicken and on the french fries. My chicken came with ranch. What a wierd and almost disgusting combo of honey, hot, and ranch. I left it alone.
The chicken plates came with a ear of corn on a stick which was covered in salt and pepper. Instead of looking like a caveman/woman my Wife and I decided to take a knife and cut the corn off onto the plate so we didn't get corn stuck in our teeth. Also on the plate were french fries. There was absolutely no room left on the plate for any ketchup, or for that matter to cut the corn off the cob onto the plate.. (I made a mess on the table) The corn was delicious and the fries were so so and only warm, they were not hot/fresh just out of the fryer.
We wrapped up and the waiter took our bill and he deserved to be tipped well and was.
Food 7/10 - We didnt try anything but some chicken, not what Chili's is famous for.
Wait Staff 9/10 - They were attentive and very nice. Helped us get more for our coupon/money.
Cleanliness 10/10 - I seen no problems with this place at all.
Decor 9/10 - Nice college sports bar attitude. Deducting 1 point because the very bright light directly overhead.
Atmosphere 9/10 - Very loud. A few tv's here and there. You would expect the loud bar atmosphere to be contained in the bar and actually be able to think or talk to your people at a regular table but its sometimes hard.
Overall 8/10 The main part of the food was so so, the sides being just okay. The appetizer was very good. The waitstaff were very good. Points deducted for the entree not being well and the atmosphere being to loud.
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