I saw some reviews of Chili's posted online, and the food looked amazing in the pictures - huge, delicious looking portions. Perhaps the fact that I was starving played a part, and I decided to head over for dinner.

We were greeted with a smile, the service staff there are generally youthful, and have no problems with spoken English (I've learned not to take this for granted, even at the most unlikely places). I'm uncertain why they attempted to seat us at a high table when a normal booth was available, but when I said I'd wait for a low table they showed me to one without any delay.

I always have a tendency to over-order, doubly so when I'm hungry. I restrained myself admirably this time, in light of the consensus with regard to the huge portions - 4 of us shared 1.5 racks of baby back ribs and a fried chicken dish (fork tender fried chicken something, the name eludes me). We also had an order of the "bottomless" tostada chips to share, as well as 4 "bottomless" drinks.

One thing I noticed about chili's - there were quite a few foreign-looking diners, predominantly white males with rather rotund physiques. I took this as a warning to myself not to frequent this place.

The full rack of ribs we had were done with honey chipotle dressing. I felt that the marination was reasonably tasty, and it also came with some form of bbq (honey?) sauce to pour over the ribs. The portion was fairly large as well, but at $33 or so, offered only reasonable value. I did not like the marination for our half rack ($13 to add on to any entree) as much - this was their "original" marination, and I found that it tasted too bland. In addition, for all the ribs, the meat was quite tough and I only wolfed it down double-quick because I was starving. I found the ribs very mediocre.

The tostada chips were decent, not that it's easy to go very wrong or very right with chips. As long as they aren't soggy I don't think I'll have anything to complain about. The salsa was quite generic and boring, but I had no problem with getting the attention of the servers for refills, for both the chips and the drinks.

The fried chicken thinggy wasn't very tender, nor was it very juicy. It also had a weird processed synthetic taste that I did not enjoy. I'm pretty certain it was reconstituted meat.

I probably enjoyed the side dishes the most. The fully loaded mashed potatoes came topped with bacon and cheese, and it was as decadent and delicious as it sounds. The corn on the cob was indeed dressed with some weird salt, which complemented the sweet corn very well. The other 2 sides (mushrooms with some veggie rubbish and mashed potato with some cheesy sauce) were decent as well.

There are a few flat screen televisions scattered tuned to the sports channel, contributing to the noisy, informal and extremely convivial atmosphere. I felt quite comfortable eating there.

It doesn't sound like we ordered much, but all 4 of us were stuffed by the end of the meal, and did not have room for dessert. This is why it's good to have girls along when you're hungry, you can always count on having leftovers to mop up. This doesn't apply when you have to pay for said girl.