I have been a patron of Chili’s since their first restaurant on (now Old) Airport Road, next to Kemp Fort. Chili’s brought tex mex to India when international food was just becoming popular. And they have stayed ever since. They were known for great cocktails, margarita happy hours and wings. Most of these have been inherited by this new outlet of Chili’s (yes, with a single ‘l’) in Indiranagar, The restaurant was kind enough to host us on a Sunday, and we reached the venue, and were ushered to the family dining area. It was a typical urban table setting, a little cramped, but that could be due to the packed crowd on a weekend. We eventually moved outdoors, which was bright and sunny, and almost perfect sans the incessant hovering flies. The chef for the chain, Mr.Abhijeet was visiting this nuevo outlet, and he recommended some of their signature dishes and drinks to us, and it was a gastronomic delight.

Our lunch started with their signature cocktail Presidente Margarita, El Nino and Peach Hills. With some watermelon lemonade to go on the side! The margarita is a big, strong drink. So their cocktails are served in these huge glasses, and Presidente actually comes with a bottle to refill the drink! And as the saying goes, the more the merrier! We also got the blue pacific, which looks gorgeous green, minty melon, and honey melon martini for me, since I like sweet drinks. The cocktail wasn’t very strong, to be honest, none of them seemed that strong, but quite nicely made, fresh and light enough for an afternoon lunch. Their menu has a lot of options for mocktails as well, which is good for non drinkers as well.

For food, we had chicken crispers, buffalo meat burgers and the famous chicken wings. While the crispers were decent, and the meat bacon burgers were quite juicy, the boneless wings kind of took away the show! Served with hot sauce on the side, the soft chicken melts nicely in your mouth, and with no bones to mess things up! For vegetarian starters we got the quesadilla bites, crispy and fresh, cheese poppers – the favorite, and south western rolls. Every item came with its own sauce, suited to the dish and palate. So you have ranch sauce, sour cream, salsa and many other dips going around. For the mains, we decided to cut back on the portions so we could taste more. There was Chicken Salad, tasty and simple with not too much dressing and Jambalaya with rice and prawns – probably the yummiest dish with the right amount of spicy. We also got mushroom jacked fajitas, with a hot salsa sauce, which we had to wrap in bread and eat, totally worth the effort. Then there was the baby back ribs, which came with the barbeque sauce and a honey barbeque sauce as well. We decided to go with the barbeque, as the too much sweet and meat is not really suited for our palate. That turned out to be spicy sweet as well, the meat was tender and amazingly well cooked, served with fries.

To end this long lunch, we had the molten chocolate cake and the paradise pie. While the chocolate cake was a visual delight, and definitely appreciable by chocoholics , the pie (confusing name) was loaded with ice cream on top, nuts and caramels and hard flour in the base, with generous amount of chocolate sauce, kind of balanced the sweet with crunchy, and won the dessert round hands down!

For vegetarian, there was probably not as much variety as there was for the carnivores. But every item was well prepared, and beautifully served. The portions are large, and VERY share-able. The service is courteous and prompt. It’s a great place to go with friends, or even family and hang out. The music isn’t too loud, and there are separate sections for bar, family, outdoor, making things simple and compartmentalized. With like 3-4 floors of space, this is the largest Chili’s ever. They don’t have happy hours and the usual offers that are seen in other outlets, because this outlet is being branded a little differently. But so far, I like. I would definitely be back here.

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