The day before I went to Chili’s for lunch, the world found out that Travis Kelce had proposed to Taylor Swift. She said yes.

This news was inescapable for about 36 hours, beamed out in at least every other scroll on social media. The universe, it seemed, was all thinking about the same thing.

There in the Chili’s on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard, I sat in a booth while a TV played a preseason game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Cincinnati Bengals. I thought about how Jason Kelce, Travis’ brother, had played for the Eagles, and how Travis Kelce has not played for the Bengals but did go to college at Cincinnati. I am reminded of these things despite having no reason to know them.

While we’ve all had other things on our minds, Chili’s has been there all along.

Chili’s is the ‘hottest restaurant’ in America

But in the last year, Chili’s has become the “hottest restaurant” in America, Slate tells us. Upending notions of value and expectation for chain restaurants, the brand has started competing with fast food instead of other sit-down restaurants.

There are still the iconic baby back ribs and a $30 surf and turf ribeye. But the resurgence is largely owed to a cheap lunch menu, offering perhaps the biggest bang for your buck in food.

For this week’s On a Budget column — in which we visit a restaurant having a moment, but keep the visit under $25 — I went to Chili’s to answer a calling and a craving, with $25 to spend. It turns out that was more than enough.

Chili’s lunch deals

Here you’ll find the viral 3 For Me deal, offering a burger, sandwich or chicken tenders, fries, an appetizer and a drink for as little as $11. At this exact moment, a Big Mac, large fries (is medium ever enough?) and a drink is $9.79.

Fast food is cheaper, but we expect that. What does it mean that a sit-down restaurant, with serving staff and made-to-order food costs only a buck or so more than the most famous fast food sandwich on earth? And you get chips! So many chips. (Or soup, or a salad.)

My always-every-time order at Chili’s used to be the original chicken crispers, which came with fries, corn on the cob and tangy honey mustard. There was nothing else like them, strips of chicken battered more like fish than chicken tenders. Well, those don’t exist anymore, discontinued amid sagging sales a few years ago. The new crispers are craggy and common, looking like all the tendies out there, so I did not try to recreate memory lane.

3 for Me

Instead, I ordered my first ever Chili’s burger on the 3 For Me menu, opting for the Old Timer for $13, a single-patty burger with a cheddar cheese upgrade, lettuce, tomato, chopped red onion (definitely prefer a slice), pickles and mustard. The meal comes with fat finger fries coated with coarse black pepper and salt, a choice of salad, soup or family-sized portion of chips and salsa and a soft drink.

Iconic as it is, a Big Mac is not as good as a restaurant burger and the Chili’s Old Timer is a solid example, the griddled patty crispy, maybe a bit dry, and large, spilling beyond the bun. Somewhat controversially, Chili’s puts the toppings under the burger, and I don’t know about all that.

I put a huge dent in the chips and salsa and still had enough left over to fill a takeout box. Because they are precious and ephemeral, I ate every fry and after this gigantic amount of food, left about three bites of burger.

Chili’s Triple Dipper

Another part of Chili’s viral moment is the Triple Dipper, a dish made of three appetizers, where one could order various combinations of sliders, chicken crispers, egg rolls, buffalo wings and fried mozzarella sticks for less than $17. Diners on TikTok do yard-long cheese pulls of the cheese sticks, and the Chili’s Instagram account only adds to the lore.

After taxes, my meal added up to $13.97, plus tip. I had the option of adding a mini molten chocolate cake for $4.59 and I could have had a frozen top shelf marg for $10.

What’s a good restaurant deal?

So what is a good restaurant deal? Chili’s will make you a better burger than any other fast food joint, for a dollar or two more. But you could go to a place like Lakewood Social ($10.50) or Standard Beer ($15) and get an even better burger for nearly the same price, though you’ll have to buy fries and probably a drink.

It seems fast food has already started tinkering with its sense of value, with reports that McDonald’s is set to begin slashing prices.

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