As part of his Father's Day present, I/the girls offered to take dh out for tea. He got to choose the restaurant. After a few seconds of consideration, he made his decision. Chili's.
We first went to a Chili's restaurant when we lived in Reading but it wasn't one of our regular haunts. When we moved to London and started frequenting Canary Wharf, it became a bit of a favourite. It used to be on my commute home from work so pre-girls, about once a month I would call dh on my way home and suggest that we went to Chili's for tea. We first took the girls there at the end of last year for my birthday lunch. The staff made a fuss of them and they loved the food. We also went there for dh's birthday in January, for a treat in April and with one of our friends in May.
We had visitors last weekend so postponed the meal until today. We bundled the girls into the car and drove to Canary Wharf. As we wheeled the buggies along the shopping centre at Canada Place, I mentally went through the menu and had already decided on my starter (the sharer) and main course (mushroon jack fajitas) as we mounted the escalator. As I looked up, I could see that something wasn't quite right. The neon Chili's sign wasn't lit, the restaurant was in darkness and there were yellow boards over the windows. Uh-oh.
There was a small typed sign on the door. Chili's had gone into administration on 17th June and had closed the following day. I peered through the boards and could see the salt and pepper pots on the tables and the chairs stacked up. It had closed one evening and not opened the following lunchtime.
For a moment, we stood, non-plussed. I asked dh, as it was his treat, where he wanted to go instead. He looked disappointed and with a sigh deicided on Pizza Express. It was a perfectly nice meal, with a helpful waiter in a lovely location but it wasn't as fun as Chili's.
