Chilli's Costa Rica

Let me take a minute here to gripe, er, blog, about my Chilli's Costa Rica dining experience.  Now let me just start off by saying, I used to LOVE Chilli's back in the states.  In Boston, Hubby and I went to Chilli's every chance we got.  It was, in fact, where we had our very first date and when we started out as a young family, that was our go-to restaurant.  They catered to us in a way a lot of other restaurants didn't (with the exception of The Cheesecake Factory).  Not to mention the food was delicious and the price was always right.

Fast forward to my Costa Rican days and Chilli's finally made it's way to the central american country I now call my home.  I was super excited.  Like how my son was excited when Applebee's came to Costa Rican, I was stoked to try out Chilli's.  I had given up a lot of favorite things living in Costa Rica and now that the country was becoming more and more Americanized, they were catering to a lot more expats like myself.

The first time I tried Chilli's, it was a lonesome experience.  I took myself to lunch at the Chilli's located in Lincoln Plaza Mall, a suburb just 10 minutes from where we live. I was pregnant with baby A at the time, so this was not too long ago. The food was OK, but I figured the next time I went to Chilli's for a proper meal, it would be better.  Plus I couldn't beat the price.  American style restaurants are notoriously over-priced here so I was happy to only have spent about $12 on my entire meal, which included a drink, a salad, fries and chicken tenders.

Last weekend, we went to the mall as a family (which has fast become my favorite mall by the way... Lincoln Plaza... http://www.lincolnplaza.cr/).  In all our excitement, the kids wanted to go to Chilli's and I was finally excited to be able to go with my family and sit down to a 'real' meal.  Well, it was not a good experience and I have to say I do blame it in part, but just in a small part, due to my new diet.  You see, I am still on that diet I think I blogged about; the diet where I can't eat a ton of stuff due to my colon being swollen/inflamed. Well, my diet restricted me to only a few items on the Chilli's menu, items that, in a past reality, I would never order.  I felt stuck.  The options for me were so limited, I felt like my Hubby who has come to dislike Chilli's and other chains like it due to their lack of good and affordable options on their menu for non-meat eaters.

Well, I couldn't eat any of my favorites: no french fries, Boo.  No fried chicken, whaaa.  No salads, whoa is me.  Not much on the menu for me at all.  They had like 3 options for pasta.  Seriously, like three.  I know for a fact the menu in the states is far more varied and a lot less expensive (Costa Ricans are being tricked). I finally agreed to order their margarita chicken with rice, substituting the black beans for corn without butter. I sipped on my strawberry lemonade, which was delicious, and waited for the food.  I have to insert a side note here and say service was pretty lacking, but I expect that now in Costa Rica, ha ha ha.

Anyway, food arrived and I wanted to laugh.  I thought the stuff I ordered the last time I ate at Chilli's was small but I thought that was because it was like the cheapest thing they had on their menu, which was about $9.  Well, my plate of food was really small and for the price of almost $11, I expected much more.  Plates are much bigger in the states, so what a rip off.  Then I went to dig in and I was almost on the verge of tears. The food left MUCH to be desired.  I would have sent it back but honestly after taking like 3 bites of rice and trying to force down 3 bites of their dry chicken, the plate was almost empty... I couldn't send an half empty plate back with a serious face, and say "I am not paying for this, it sucks".

So I sucked it up.  And looked forward to the corn, which arrived smothered in butter.  Well, first, my plate arrived with french fries.  Way to tempt me huh.  I had to shove them aside while Hubby got the waitress to bring me my corn, which she had to bring me again this time without butter.

The food, now what can I say about the plate I ordered.  The rice was salty and dry.  They also had these skinny tortilla chips you usually top over salad at the bottom of my plate which were soggy, not crunchy and unnecessary since I didn't touch them.  The chicken was tasteless and had a burnt taste from the grill marks.  It was seriously dry, and tough and in desperate need of some kind of sauce.  I spilled rice off my plate trying to cut into that thing.  They call that chicken?  I cook better chicken at home.  Where was the juicy? Where was the tasty?  Where was the delicious?  It was very much missing in action on my plate.  Hubby enjoyed his dinner of fish tacos though.  And the kids thoroughly enjoyed their plates, which I have to say was also really overpriced.  It was almost $10 for a kids meal.  Now, it does bring a lot of stuff.  Kids had the option of choosing from pizza, chicken fingers, burger or mac and cheese.  And they had a few side options as well, like corn or fries.  And they get ice cream for dessert.  But for my meal, I think I overpaid.

I don't think I will be going back to Chilli's any time soon, especially not while I am on this diet.  Sorry, but their menu is a let down, the food is disappointing and the prices are shocking, to say the least.  Also, we waited so long for the check, we had to go up to the register to pay... we could have walked out.  As I said, service was not up to par that day, none of the 4 waiters we had in the beginning came to check up on us during our meal and then they had the nerve to ask us how we liked our dinning experience as we headed out the door.

We were lucky in the financial department though.  We walked out of there paying just under $50 for a meal for 4 people, even if one of those meals went almost untouched.  I bought mine home to my older son, who was happy to have gotten a Chilli's meal and had no complaints.  I was so hungry when I got home, since I didn't eat at the restaurant, I went next door to my in-laws and loaded up on a plate of my mother in law's arroz con pollo.  It wasn't the tastiest rice with chicken I had ever eaten, but it was 10 times better than the crap I got at Chilli's.  Next time we head to the mall, I'll take my $10 elsewhere... maybe I'll get some sushi or something.