Chili's: My Favourite Burger

That's what I call a burger. A better look below.

We were at Rockwell last Monday and were looking for a good place for dinner after watching G.I. Joe: Retaliation. While Alvie's default go-to restaurant in Power Plant is Pepper Lunch, mine is Chili's, the home of my favourite restaurant burgers (I have to specify that so no feelings are hurt).

A lively Monday night crowd.

We weren't going to order much since we were already full going into the meal. This was due to excessive munching on the Power Plant Cinema's delicious White Cheese Popcorn. That, for me, is the only advantage of watching movies here (Haha). We started dinner off pretending to eat healthy.

Caesar Side Salad, P235.00

For 95 pesos, you have the option of having grilled chicken added, but we chose the plain version. It wasn't bad. It gets quite flavorful with the cheese and dressing. It's about as normal as salad gets, though.

Ground Peppercorn Burger (served with fries as in first picture), P410.00

And now, the main attraction. Just look at that mesmerizing mess. The Ground Peppercorn burger isn't actually on the menu. My cousins strongly, and I mean strongly recommended that I order this apparently secret menu item and so I did. At Chili's, they usually ask you how you want the patty cooked, and on what bun you want it to be served, to which I always reply, "medium" and "wheat". As you can see in the picture above, "medium" gives you a pinkish, juicy, lovely, patty and I prefer the wheat bun over the regular because its texture is more fun to bite into. Alvie found the patty to be quite bland, but I didn't mind because I prefer the more natural raw-ish meaty taste. It was a standard burger with not just onions, but onion rings! It improved the whole experience of the burger. I asked my cousins and did my research, and it seems this burger should come with blue cheese dressing. Ours didn't and that was very disappointing. It was great as it is, but I can almost imagine how much better the burger would have been.

Verdict: 
Caesar Side Salad: Okay
Ground Peppercorn Burger: Great! (probably would have been Excellent, had it come with blue cheese dressing)

Chili's still comes out on top for me as the best restaurant burger. Other possible contenders for the spot right now are Texas Roadhouse (UPDATE 04/23/13: not the same owners as Chili's here in the Philippines and the burgers are very similar, I hear) and Friday's (I almost always find Friday's food to be overpriced and not good so I doubt it).

Thanks to Laine de Jesus-Vallar, Marketing Manager of Chili's Philippines for clarifying that Chili's and Texas Roadhouse Grill do not have the same owners. Keep up the great burgers! :)

Sadly, too full to have anything else.

Love Chili's? Hate it? Let me know by commenting below, or you can always just tweet me!

- Joaquin, who is having a veeery hard time writing this right now while having oatmeal for lunch.

CHILI'S BAR AND GRILL
Ground Level, Power Plant Mall, Amorsolo Drive
Poblacion, Makati City
(02) 659-6527
Operating Hours:
Mon - Thu, Sun: 11:00 am - 9:00 pm
Fri - Sat: 11:00 am - 10:00 pm
Facebook: Chili's Philippines


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