A New Thing-a-ma-Jig at Chili's

Holiday weekends usually throw me off my schedule. Labor Day weekend was no different.

My oldest son, Alex, came home for a visit, which threw me off my schedule even more than usual. I usually do my weekly grocery shopping on Sunday afternoons. This past weekend, because of the holiday and our out-of-town visitor, I did not get to my shopping until Monday.

We found ourselves on the West Side of town, and after a mean game of rock-paper-scissors, the winner decided that we were eating at , 1480 Randall Road, Algonquin.

We arrived at 2 p.m. and were seated immediately. As we walked to our table, we noticed something different about Chili’s. Each table had an electronic thing-a-ma-jig.

After we were seated, our waitress explained that the thing-a-ma-jig actually is called a Ziosk. The Ziosk is an interactive pay-at-the-table device that many restaurants are starting to use. Our waitress explained that we could browse the drink and dessert menu via our Ziosk, as well as check out the news and play games.

Alex was the first to take it for a spin. He read us the headlines as we looked over our menus and let us all know what the weather was going to be like for the rest of the week.

There are several games you can purchase and play while you wait for your food to arrive, however, we stuck to the free game and let each of the kids have a turn playing.

We all ordered drinks and a basket of chips and salsa to munch on while we waited for our lunches to arrive. I ordered the lunch combo — soup and a salad. McKenzie also ordered the lunch combo, but she went with a half-turkey sandwich and soup. Tom ordered a Hatch chile burger and Alex ordered the California club sandwich. Tom and Alex had fries with their sandwiches. Logan ordered the kids cheese pizza with fries and Piper ordered the mac 'n' cheese with pineapple.

Our lunch was brought to us in a timely manner and everything was hot and delicious. McKenzie and I had the broccoli and cheese soup — I thought it was fantastic, however, McKenzie thought it was too “cheesy.” I also tried a small cup of the loaded potato soup. It was really tasty, but just a little salty.

The boys both claimed their sandwiches were “winners” and the kids ate every single bite of their lunch.

When we finished our meal, we paid for our lunch using the Ziosk. It was quick and easy and we were out of there in less than an hour.  

Chili’s is definitely a place we will be dining when we are in a hurry and want a filling delicious lunch!