@@gregbrightwell662 That is brilliant because everyone knows the best way to make a better burger is by cooking it faster and not by using a higher quality of meat. 🤔
@@madhavyu If you are going to chili's and expect fresh ground prime beef.... And as I can tell me you have never cooked professionally, yes, if you cook a smash burger faster it will be juicier. I've seen slow, lackluster preparation destroy high quality ground beef, rendering it dry and tasteless. Cook cold and slow, and you will see what I mean. If you want higher quality, don't eat there.
Clamshells have been at McDonalds since the 80s at least. Maybe not auto, but I used a quarter pounder clam in the mid 80s and the local zoo McDonalds used a full grill clamshell for regular patties.
Most restaurants operate this way, even high end ones, they’ve just moved the prep off-site. There’s obviously a difference between factory frozen soup in a bag vs prepared fresh earlier in the day, for example, but all restaurants focus on efficiency.
95% of restaurants in the United States are closer in quality to McDonalds than they are to fine dining restaurants. We have the lowest quality of dining experience in the Developed world and it’s embarrassing that so many Americans fall in love or otherwise put up with fast food as long as it’s on a plate with a Chilis or Applebees logo on it. Support your local businesses and eat real food!
Reminds me of the McDonalds sesame seed story. One brilliant (Harvard?) MBA figured if McDonalds put 5 fewer sesame seeds on a bun the company would save millions. Of course, the next year another MBA did the same. After a while the company noticed fewer customers. As usual the decline was blamed on inflation, taxes, competition, regulations, etc. Lowering product quality and reducing service is a favorite tactic of the short term CEO's so admired by WSJ readers.
Its extremely funny how so many degrees get clowned on but somehow 'masters in business' still gets to pretend it is a real thing lol. complete looney tunes fake degree.
Yeah, they started cutting down menu items and quality and they though they would save money; which I'm sure they did, but in turn they lost lots of customers including me. I think they forgot that the restaurant industry is highly competitive and it's easy to just go somewhere else.
I was impressed at how adopting a pickle jar screw-on lid will save them half a million dollars annually. That illustrated pretty well that inefficient chores do add up on costs when you compound that to over a thousand restaurants.
It sounded a little off that they don't save on the employees but want to save half a million by saving working time. For me this ssounds only possible if they were understaffed before.....
I worked at AMC dine in before the pandemic, and it was interesting how fool proof they had made the kitchen. We had those same flattop grills and also self-rising fryers, and I always thought wow those are going to be in other restaurants and eventually the role of the human cook minimal
You can bet the hole pre-portioned the shrimp thing started from a bean counter who decided they were giving out too many shrimp with each order. Rather than factoring in the cost of shrimp versus the labor that person just change the rules and made them count shrimp.
Totally.. this whole video is like.. a reversal. Buying a 5 gallon bucket of pickles that some poor schmuck has to soft through also probably sounded like a W for the supply cost people
@@schneider90000 The 5 gallon bucket was probably a good idea. They something in bulk with a long shelf life that the put into usable containers for daily use. Now they have 1 gallon bucket that cost more per pound that still has to be put into a usable container for daily use. The shrimp thing meanwhile isn't even based on weight, so they wasted a bunch of time, energy, and effort on something that didn't even make money let alone improve the quality.
Except these time savings don't mean more time for each worker to do things, it means the company hires fewer people for the kitchen and each individual is still forced to do more.
There have always been Chili's near me, but in my 30+ years of life I've never been to one or heard of anyone going to one. My perception is that it's higher quality than fast food, but lower quality and often more expensive than many non-chain burger joints. If I'm wrong on that, then they need to spend on advertising.
I've got one not far from me that I eat at regularly. A lot of times I'll do curbside pickup at lunch. They have a thing called three for me which is an entree and appetizer and a drink. So for 1099 I can order a really good cheeseburger with a side and then I can get a cup of soup or a salad for the app and they have some pretty good blackberry iced tea. So for 11 bucks it's a good lunch. It goes up from there some of the three for me is go up to like 15 to $16 but it's good food.
I used to work in the kitchen at Chili's. I used to see the timer in my sleep. My biggest issue was the Awesome Blossom. You had to make sure it came out of the fryer at the buzzer and watch it closely at the end. I will say that we had fun!
At no time was it mentioned that the employee's salaries would increase or food prices would decrease. Expect raises and bonuses for those who implemented and signed-off on these changes!
these changes reduce the amount of work that employees do for the same wages. it makes no sense that they would increase wages while reducing the amount of tasks the worker is doing.
@@erindreams5610 and if there wasn’t workers with no degrees and no Ambition the whole restaurant industry would collapse capitalism needs a base of “uneducated workers with no ambition” to survive
I’ve been to Chili’s twice. One time before a sports event when we were in a hurry, one in college for a friend’s birthday. All I remember is the food was fine but it was always way more expensive than would make any sense when you include a tip
3:40 I used to be a dishwasher at a chilis and the baskets were easy to wash but soooooo pointless to have, just put it on the plate lol sure it might look cool in a basket but most people arent gonna care especially if they already downed 4 margaritas lol, plus it saves a lot of time in the kitchen not having to use a basket or call out for the servers to bring them, especially since fry side is already a nightmare. The OG crispers being gone sure its a shame but it also is worth it since we sold so little, you would be surprised how little we sold compared to the crispy crispers, not to mention the fact that the OGs took a little more care to make, so it wasnt really time efficient either. The other thing people dont realize is that chilis operates ghost kitchens too, so some of the sauces that are "gone" like the mango habanero are still available technically.
sorry bud their margaritas are nasty most people only drink one if that their chicken fingers are sometimes juicy and most of the time, they are so dry that you have to have some kind of dipping sauce, or you can't eat them for being too dry.
McDonald's has been doing this for literally decades. I will say, we went chilli's for the first time since the pandemic and we had some of the best service I've had in years.
I noticed this about a month ago we went and it was the best experience I’ve ever had at a chilis. It was faster service and the food was so good. It didn’t taste like the appetizers were fried three times over after sitting out for awhile. Very cool they’re doing this stuff
Eating out at restaurants is such a joke now. It's become TOO EXPENSIVE, and I learned how to cook better during Covid. So, for me, I'm not going out and spending $13 - $20+ bucks for simple burger. I'm going to cook at home for around $1.50 or $2.00 bucks for the best burger that you ever had. And, for us, we haven't eaten at one restaurant since before the Pandemic.
Going out to restaurants was a really fun experience when we had our dog. We'd go for a long walk and sometimes Brisco would lead us to the pub downtown, or to the bbq joint in the next town, or a bit further to the Mediterranean restaurant where the grumpy owner always brought out a dish of pulled chicken just for him. During Covid, we kept it up to help our local restaurants survive. It was also nice that suddenly we had 10x as many restaurants willing to seat us outside with a dog. We have a lot of wonderful memories of how well Brisco was treated by these small restaurants. I'm a much better cook now... my family even prefers my pizza to any restaurant... but we still try to support a local independent restaurant once/week. Chili's though... the quality plunged around 2000-2005, and it went from my favorite lunchtime burger to one of the worst.
So...their approach is to turn into a sitdown McDonalds? Those automated grilles are what is literally found at a McDonalds (and other fast food franchises). Sounds like Chili's is about to go from bad (which it always was) to worse. They opened one near me, 10 minutes from my home pre Covid. It closed pre Covid, it was open for a whopping 8 months. Was a brand new building too.
These are the things that make chain restaurants suck, at scale. Efficiency improvments over time and at scale will improve many things. The key here is over time, be patient and when leadership turnover inevitably happens they need to continue the effort.
Only thing I loved at Chili’s was the Chicken Crispers… that’s one thing they shouldn’t have changed, that’s what set their tenders apart from every other company.
I've never had them and i haven't been to a chili's in over a decade. The only thing I hear people talk about is how they missed the chicken crispers. Apparently they seemed very popular.
Yeah, they're finished. They even have corporate lackeys claiming no one ordered it when everyone complained about them taking it off on social media.😂
I'm with you on that. It was also one of my favorite items and is one of the only reasons I'd ever go to Chili's. On the other hand, I've also been to culinary school and the topics as to the whats and whys of a restaurant make all the sense in the world to me. The profit margins in restaurants can be pretty low. At the end of the day, you still have a business to run.
@@RonJDuncan Sure trimming down to one style of crispers made sense. Choosing to keep the one that is sold at every other chain was the mistake though. Keep the one that is different so people who like strips have a reason to choose you.
IF AN ORDER COMES IN AND THE FLAT PLATE IS ALREADY DOWN, LETS SAY IT JUST WENT DOWN, YOU WOULD STILL HAVE TO WAIT 2 MIN TILL IT WAS FINISHED, THEN START THE NEW ORDER, THUS STILL MAKING IT OVER 4 MIN TO MAKE A BURGER
As a consumer I will say right now that speed of service trumps nearly anything I could like or dislike about a restaurant. If I can get something quickly and efficiently I’m willing to sacrifice it being good on every other category even though I really shouldn’t have to.
Honestly, you can get a burger, drink, fries, and a bowl of soup for $12 and it’s really fast. It’s a good really affordable date night for me and my wife; and the food is equal to everything else in that price category.
Yeah anyone wanna point out that McDonald's has been using these " Clam Shell" grills since the late 80's early 90's???? This is nothing new in the industry!
1:39 and this is why I don't go back to Chili's. They decided to get rid of the best thing on their menu to make boring crispy tenders just like every other restaurant. Those tempura battered tenders were unique to Chili's they should've never ditched them
The company hasn't heavily focused on utilizing technology to improve the quality of service, quality of product. Machinery could be doing highly 'precise' and 'complex' processes that replicate what highest quality chefs do,. In very short time. That would also increase sales, and boost brand experience. Something that they haven't done, which is money left on the table.
I remember when the southwest eggrolls became like a third of the size one day 10+ years ago. Menu was revamped to some quasi bbq joint fare instead of southwest inspired. Went there all the time. Haven't been back since.
Ever since they got rid of my Fajita Pita & side of Queso for my fries I haven't been to Chilis in over 10 years. Sad because I used to go at least once a month or more
I don’t eat there, but I applaud their efforts to streamline. But I feel the pain about menu cuts. I used to eat at PF Changs. But they also did massive cost cutting of their operations, including cutting many of their dishes. Last time I went there, there was nothing I wanted to eat. So it is very possible to cut your menu too far. PF Changs has forgotten that it competes against GOOD Chinese American restaurants with diverse menus.
I'm especially impressed that they put little computers on the tables so a person can order food and drinks without involving a waiter, it only needs a food runner to bring it to the table, and then you can pay with the tabletop computer also so no waiter is needed to run your credit card, so now you don't have to leave a tip! Brilliant!
I don’t get why Olive Garden is so high, there are so many better Italian restaurants out there especially if you live in a decent urban area, Applebees is great I do love them, Texas Roadhouse as well I love their steak as well as their rolls and the cactus blossom is a stellar appetizer.
"Annoying certain customers by taking away certain items is worth the risk because we make more money that way." (paraphrase) And this is why I don't go to chains. It's all about profits, there's no love; you either make more money and serve more people, or you lose. Local shops don't have to contend with this sort of min-maxing because it doesn't make that much of a difference, but it's very noticeable to a multi-national chain, like how American Airlines saved something like $1M by removing one or two peanuts from each package, it's just silly. It makes sense, but it's silly.
this is an interesting idea but I've never been to a chilis that was so crowded and had such a line out the door that saving 2 minutes on flipping burgers would have made any material difference in sales... I expect they're just going to use these changes to fire more people and force the fewer remaining employees to take on more duties. I'm sure it'll be nice for corporate profit margins but I'm not sold that this will be best for society as a whole.
Im glad a chain realized how stupid portioning can be. I also can see during a rush that grill being more of a pain then a help. Your cooking a burger then a bus comes in and you can't start then for 3 min while the do nothing managers is yelling about the buses order.
Chili's was my favorite casual dining restaurant 20 years ago but the food quality went down quickly and my wife and I stopped going. Watching this video, it seems like Chili's believes service and efficiency are what's keeping customers away. It's not. The food is bad. I still try it about once a year to see if it's getting any better but no luck on that front. Last time I was there - 5 or 6 months ago - I tried their chili burger. The patty was small and bland. The chili was so salty it gave me a headache. Maybe I'll try again in 2025 if they're still in business.
