Chi- Chi's: The Best Microwave Ovens in the Business
Written: Jun 18 '02 (Updated Oct 28 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good drinks and desserts
Cons: Much of the food is precooked and then microwaved.
The Bottom Line: Chi- Chi's is a restaurant I barely recommend. It has a few good things to offer, but you have to look for them.
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| Bryan_Carey's Full Review: Chi-Chi's |
Chi- Chi’s is a Mexican chain restaurant that was founded by Marno McDermott in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1976. This full- service restaurant has about 130 locations throughout the midwest and the eastern United States. It specializes in Southwestern cuisine with a festive atmosphere.
Menu Selection:
Chi- Chi’s offers a full range of menu items, from appetizers, to dinner platters, to sandwiches, to desserts. Starting with the appetizer menu, you can choose among a dozen or so food items like fajita pizza, nachos, buffalo chicken strips, Sante Fe chicken poppers, and several others. You need to be careful not to spoil your appetite, because many of these appetizers are quite filling.
Moving up from the appetizers, you will find a few selections of soup and salads, like corn chowder, buffalo chicken salad, taco salad, and caesar salad. This part of the menu only offers a few choices, but there should be something here to satisfy most individual tastes.
The sandwich menu is small, with only about 3 or 4 selections offered, usually a burger or two, and a chicken sandwich. It’s the dinner items that make up the bulk of the menu, with burritos, fajitas, enchiladas, and other Mexican fare making up much of the menu. You can choose from things such as chicken burritos with rice, cheese enchilada platter, or a combination dinner which includes a little bit of everything: taco, enchilada, burrito, Mexican rice, and refried beans.
If you’re not in the mood for Mexican food, never fear- Chi- Chi’s does have a few selections on the menu that are completely salsa- free. Some examples would include the New York Strip Steak and shrimp meal, Aztec Ribeye steak, and a few others.
If you’re still hungry, Chi- Chi’s has a few desserts to choose from. Mexican fried ice cream is the most popular, but there are a few other good items, too, like Kahlua hot fudge sundae and chocolate brownie avalanche.
Beverages:
Like most Mexican restaurants, beverages are just as important to the dining experience as the food. Starting with beer, Chi- Chi’s offers an assortment of Mexican malt beverages, like Dos Equis Amber, Dos Equis Lager, Corona, Tecate, Negra Modelo, etc. Also, to keep the less adventurous content, they offer a few domestics like Budweiser and Miller.
Margaritas are one of the showcase items on the Chi- Chi’s beverage list. You can choose between a regular margarita, strawberry, wildberry, Gold margarita, and 1800 margarita, so named because it uses Cuervo 1800 tequila and Grand Marnier.
Atmosphere:
Chi- Chi’s tries its best to keep things upbeat and festive, while also maintaining a feeling of coziness. There’s Mexican music playing softly in the background, on a continuous tape. The tables have small candles on them, to provide an intimate feeling and some natural light in place of the glaring lamps that you find in many other restaurants. The featured colors are mostly red, with a slightly less emphasized green and brown.
Service:
The service at this restaurant can sometimes get a little frustrating, up to the point of getting seated. There are often long waits for a table, if you go on the weekend. Most patrons will wander over to the bar area and get a drink, while they wait. When you get seated, the service is a little faster.
Pricing:
Chi- Chi’s is a moderately priced restaurant, with most of the dinner platters selling for around $10.00. Some are a little more, some are a little less. The drinks can be expensive, so be prepared. One bottle of Dos Equis beer will set you back about $3 to $4, which isn’t too bad, but a large margarita will cost you upwards of $6 to $9, depending on which type you order and what types of premium liquor is included.
Final Thoughts:
My feelings on Chi- Chi’s are mixed. There are some very good items on the menu, like the fried ice cream, the margaritas, and the beer. But most of the regular menu items are quite average and not much more tasty than you could get at Taco Bell or some other fast- food restaurant.
The main reason for the lack of freshness is that Chi- Chi’s typically precooks its food items and then microwaves them right before serving to the customers. They cook the enchiladas, burritos, and other Mexican fare beforehand, and then microwave it when customers place an order. This makes for quick service, which is nice, but the food quality is not as good as it could be. Among the food items that are served in this fashion, I have found that anything made with beans is usually the least appetizing. Refried beans just don’t taste that good when they have been precooked and then microwaved. Also, because the food is taken straight from the microwave, the plates are usually very hot, so you need to be careful.
Chi- Chi’s used to make an all- out effort with its advertising, but they have really slacked off on recent years. It used to be common to see ads on television and $5.00 off coupons for meals. I haven’t seen these in quite some time. The only time I see or hear about Chi- Chi’s now is in the grocery store, when I need to pick up a bottle or two of salsa. Chi- Chi’s sells salsa, seasoning, taco sauce, and refried beans in grocery stores throughout the midwest and eastern U.S.
So, it’s a mixed bag with Chi- Chi’s, in my opinion. I like some of the food, but I can think of other full- service Mexican restaurants that are much better. It’s the type of place that requires a few visits, to decide which things you like and which ones you don’t like.
Try Chi- Chi’s, if you really like Mexican food. Don’t set your expectations too high, though- you might end up very disappointed.
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Recommended:
Yes
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