Sharonda D.
Yelp
THIS SHIP WAS SINKING!!!
For many people that know me well, they know that I am a big fan of Willie's Grill and Icehouse. I'm here once a week while on my summer vacation from being a school teacher, which is a stressful and demanding job. I find Willie's to be a relaxing scene, but also a fun and vibrant scene where you can let your hair down, kick back, and unwind. They serve delicious All American Texas style burgers, chicken sandwiches, seafood, Margaritas, and a series of ice cold brews at an affordable price. Not to mention, they're a family/friendly oriented company. However, as of late they have been making a lot of fumbles in the kitchen.
Recently, during one particular visit, my husband and I ordered a large fried catfish plate with a salad, a chicken fried steak dinner with fried onion rings and Texas toast, and chips and queso with salsa as our starter. All of the fried food tasted like it had been fried in old grease. My salad consisted of withered and discolored lettuce leaves and cucumbers. The coleslaw that comes with the fried catfish was spoiled. It smelled disgusting! The tortilla chips had a weird flavor as well, as if they too had been fried in old grease. It was awful! What a distasteful act it is to serve a paying customer out-dated lettuce, spoiled coleslaw, and fried food that's been cooked in old grease! It left the weirdest taste in our mouths. We complained to management, which didn't help at all. She only removed my husband's fried onion rings from the bill and apologized for the poor quality of food. What was her purpose for doing that when all of the food was horrible? She didn't even assure us that she would go check with the Kitchen staff to see if they were in fact frying the food repeatedly in the old grease without switching to fresh grease. My husband and I did not want for her to give us our food for free. Instead, we wanted to be assured that she would rectify the situation by checking on the kitchen staff to see if they are doing their jobs properly. This was not the first fumble this establishment had made. This was about the third or fourth mess up on their part. I began to grow tired of giving them chance after chance to get it right.
Furthermore, I know you're probably wondering why I gave this establishment a five star rating when all I'm doing is complaining about the poor quality of food and service that my husband and I had been receiving repeatedly. Well, after our visit, I logged into the Willie's points and rewards app on my phone to scan my ticket so that I could receive my points. After I finished redeeming my points, it then asked me to rate my visit and to also leave a review. I gave them a two star rating and an honest review of the poor service and quality of food presented to me and my husband. After posting the review and my rating in the app, the district manager emailed me about an hour later. In the email he was addressing the negative comments that I wrote and was letting me know that I was right. He said as soon as he read my comment, he headed to the location that I had just visited, and he checked in with the kitchen staff to find that they were frying the food repeatedly in the same grease without changing it out. He apologized for their incompetence and offered me and my husband a substantial amount of store credit for our troubles. Now talk about wanting to make things right for your paying customers! I was shocked, flabbergasted, and grateful all at once! This type of service does not exist anymore, well at least I have not witnessed it in years.
In conclusion, I am sticking with my five star rating because it is extremely rare to find establishments with District managers that truly care about satisfying their customers and giving them their money's worth! I can honestly say that the food is always served hot if not fresh! I almost made a decision to give up on them but quickly changed my mind when the District manager reached out to me and fixed the issues. Ever since, I have not had any more issues, but I can only compensate for the early shift which is between the hours of 11:00 am and noon time. If you visit after those hours, things may not be so fresh! I don't know because I don't visit during later hours. There are way too many issues going on, especially around evening hours like 6:00 pm. I highly recommend everyone to give them a try but at your own risk. What do you have to lose? The food is inexpensive comfort food and the ambiance is very lively and colorful with country tunes and a mixture of the best of the 80's and 90's tunes spewing out of loudspeakers, but not tone-deafeningly loud. It's a great place to bring the family and your friends. If you're a Carrie Underwood fan like me, then you'll love the music. Shout out to my favorite server AnnaLisa!!!