26 July,2014 06:06 AM IST | | Deepali Dhingra
If you love all things retro, then drop in at Chili’s Grill & Bar to savour the original items fresh off the eatery’s 1975 menu
Chili's Grill & Bar, original items, fresh, eaterys, 1975 menu, Mumbai, Powai
The further backward you look, the farther forward you are likely to see'. It's not as if we were thinking of Winston Churchill's famous words when we headed to Chili's Grill & Bar in Powai to try its Original Circa 1975 menu.
The Terlingua Pride
But let's be honest, we were pretty intrigued when we came to know that the restaurant is bringing back their original set of 11 dishes, with which they started their restaurant in 1975, in Texas, USA.
The funky ambiance at the American Tex-Mex casual dining restaurant, with its colourful lights and bright interiors, cheered us up the moment we stepped into the eatery.
Chili's Special Soft Tacos
After making ourselves comfortable, we happily waited for the first of our dishes to arrive on the table. With ample time on our hands (and space in our tummies!), we decided to take it slow and ordered the Chili's Pie (Rs 225).
It arrived on our table, a big dish topped with chillies, onions, tostada chips and jalapenos, and we're happy to add, oozing with cheese.
The combination of the crunchy chips and the gooey cheese, along with the tangy hit of the jalapenos, made this dish a sure winner. The Homemade Sangria (R295), which we ordered along with the pie, was strictly okay.
Now, we were ready to go for the main course and so, we placed an order for the burgers. While there is a choice of three burgers in the menu, four if you count the No-Bun Burger, the buffalo meat patty remains the same in all and so does the price (Rs 465). Be warned the burgers are huge and there is no sophisticated way of eating them.
So we let go off our pride and dug into Our Own Chili Burger, which came with the burger patty smeared with mustard, lettuce, tomato, pickle and chillies and Chili's Trip, which was flavoured with chillies, cheese and sauteed onions.
While the meat patty was soft and flavoursome on its own, we couldn't really differentiate much when it came to the taste of the two burgers. That changed when we were served the Terlingua Pride.
Now that, was one delicious burger, with just the cheese and hot sauce. Maybe it was the simplicity of the burger that wowed us, but we were sold. And when we're speaking about the burgers, how can we not mention the accompanying fries? Crisped to perfection, they were exactly how we expected them to taste. Full marks for that.
By this time, the space in our tummies had considerably reduced, but we could not really leave without trying out Chili's Special Soft Tacos (Rs 325). Now we've usually tasted tacos with the crispy base, so the soft tacos made with flour was an unusual combination with chillies, cheese, onions, lettuce and hot sauce. It was love at first bite.
As we proceeded to devour the tacos with their sweet and spicy tornado of flavours, we inwardly wished we had not stuffed ourselves with the burgers. But then we consoled ourselves with the thought that the special menu is on till September at least. Again, we were reminded of Churchill's words we are looking forward to the next time.
