Chilin' at The Wharf
Ambience
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Cuisine
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Value for Money
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A few months ago, I was surprised to see a Chili's sign at Canary Wharf. When did this American chain make its way across the pond? Was anyone going? And was the experience the same?
As it turns out (according to some legal records available online), the restaurant has been open since 1995; yes, people are going; and yes, the experience is the same - right down to the slightly beat-up Mexican tiled tables.
Fresh from a visit to Chili's Too at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport - and coming from a very long history of eating at Chili's in the US - I felt prime for a comparison. So my husband and I went before the cinema and ordered what we'd had just mere weeks before: a Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad and a BBQ Ranch Burger.
The salad wasn't as fresh and pretty as it had been in the US, and it was smaller too. But I still wasn't able to finish it. It tasted pretty much the same, though - which is to say that it tasted really good and not very healthy at all. The burger was actually a little better than it had been in the US, but I distinctly remember when Chili's burgers changed from being really excellent (with lots of shredded lettuce and mustard) to being nondescript burgers of the chain variety. So any improvement on that in a Chili's environment, and I'll notice it.
We downed two margaritas, which were equally good - and should be, given the fact the margarita rules at Chili's.
And a little while later at the cinema, we passed on ice cream, since the damage had already been done with our dinners.
Our takeaway? Chili's is the perfect place to stop at the airport, or for a post-drinking, post-post-work burger, when pleasures are at their guiltiest.
Cabot Place East, top floor.
You can't miss it, unless you're me.
Fresh from a visit to Chili's Too at the Minneapolis St. Paul Airport - and coming from a very long history of eating at Chili's in the US - I felt prime for a comparison. So my husband and I went before the cinema and ordered what we'd had just mere weeks before: a Boneless Buffalo Chicken Salad and a BBQ Ranch Burger.
The salad wasn't as fresh and pretty as it had been in the US, and it was smaller too. But I still wasn't able to finish it. It tasted pretty much the same, though - which is to say that it tasted really good and not very healthy at all. The burger was actually a little better than it had been in the US, but I distinctly remember when Chili's burgers changed from being really excellent (with lots of shredded lettuce and mustard) to being nondescript burgers of the chain variety. So any improvement on that in a Chili's environment, and I'll notice it.
We downed two margaritas, which were equally good - and should be, given the fact the margarita rules at Chili's.
And a little while later at the cinema, we passed on ice cream, since the damage had already been done with our dinners.
Our takeaway? Chili's is the perfect place to stop at the airport, or for a post-drinking, post-post-work burger, when pleasures are at their guiltiest.
Cabot Place East, top floor.
You can't miss it, unless you're me.
Here Is The Writer : Sarah Western Balzer
Sarah Western Balzer is the managing director of HITC Life and is always on the lookout for reader-writers, so if you'd like to be one, make yourself known (sarah.western@hereisthecity.com). Sarah moved to London six years ago from New York but is originally from Florida, and still suntans like it's 1989. She is so grateful to the banker who introduced her to Here Is The City that she married him, and they live in Wapping with their son.
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