A Visit to Chili's Mililani and Lessons Learned

Last month we dined at Chili's in Mililani.  The food was awesome.  The service?  Not so much.  (Note: Guest Relations has since addressed the issues I will be writing about below, and they did so in a very timely manner).

But first, shots of the food, which was very good, as usual.

Pepper Pals Corn Dog and Fries

Pepper Pals Grilled Cheese with Corn Kernels

Pepper Pals Mac & Cheese (which also came with fries, not pictured)

Southwestern Eggrolls (my favorite - I always have to order these whenever I go to Chili's)

Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad

Original Chicken Crispers - I usually always order the Chicken Crispers for my meal.  They were very delicious.

Now, for the service...

I'll spare all the minute details, but essentially, we had to wait A LOT (a long wait to be seated despite no others in front of us and a fairly empty restaurant; a long wait for our server - we actually had to ask someone to take our order after waiting for at least 10 minutes; a long wait for our food) and the overall service level was simply poor (our server never came to check if we needed anything or to see if the food was okay - we actually had to flag her down to refill our waters!).

If the restaurant was busy, I would've taken that into consideration, but it wasn't busy, and tables near us were being serviced promptly.

I actually tweeted to Chili's immediately after our dinner that the food was awesome, but the service was terrible, and they encouraged me to send an email to Guest Relations, which I did (I think it's the second time I've ever written a complaint letter to any establishment).

I wrote in simply wanting to share our experience in hopes of it not happening again, and they generously offered to send a "token of our appreciation," which I accepted.

We did learn a couple of lessons from this visit, however.  Next time we will:

• ask to speak to the manager so he/she could address our concerns right away
• keep the receipt (Guest Relations had requested specific info. from our receipt, but unfortunately we were unable to provide the info. since we did not take the receipt with us since we paid in cash).

Despite the terrible service, the food was great, and I was more than pleased that Chili's Guest Relations addressed my concerns PROMPTLY, and was impressed of their offer to send me something.

Now THAT is customer service.

What do you do if you experience terrible customer service while dining?  Ask to speak to the manager? Write a letter after? Nothing?

Chili's Grill & Bar: 95-1249 Meheula Pkwy. Bldg. P Mililani, HI 96789, 627-0888