Chi-Chi's

Independent Sources

Shown for context — not merged with USAComplaints' own numbers.

Contacts & Payment

• Official restaurant website (St. Louis Park): https://chichisrestaurants.com/
• Restaurant phone, St. Louis Park (home page): (952) 657-5385
• Restaurant email (home page; also accessibility feedback): [email protected]
• Reservations (Reserve button links to OpenTable): https://www.opentable.com/r/chi-chis-reservations-minneapolis
• Gift cards (link on restaurant site; page not loaded in check): https://chichisrestaurants.cardfoundry.com/giftcards
• Restaurant accessibility page and feedback route: https://chichisrestaurants.com/accessibility-page-01
• Retail Chi-Chi's products site (Hormel Foods): https://www.chichis.com/
• Retail products: MegaMex Foods Consumer Response: 1-800-725-7212
• Hormel Foods 45-Day Satisfaction Guarantee (retail products): https://www.hormelfoods.com/about/contact-us/hormel-foods-45-day-satisfaction-guarantee/
• Retail Chi-Chi's feedback form (Contact Us page): https://www.salsas.com/chi-chis/contact-us/
• Hormel Foods product questions: 1-800-523-4635 8 complaints mention this number

Locations

Chi-Chi’s today: the restaurant, the retail salsa and tortillas, and where to take a question

The pages quoted below were opened on October 4, 2026. The name Chi-Chi’s now points to three different things: a restaurant in St. Louis Park, Minnesota; retail salsa, tortillas and chips sold by Hormel Foods; and the original U.S. restaurant chain, whose remaining U.S. restaurants closed in 2004. The route for a question or complaint depends on which one you dealt with.

1. The restaurant (St. Louis Park, Minnesota)

• The restaurant website, chichisrestaurants.com, lists one location: Chi-Chi’s, 1602 West End Blvd, St. Louis Park, MN 55416. Hours shown on the home page: Monday–Thursday 11am–10pm, Friday and Saturday 11am–11pm, Sunday 11am–9pm. The home page gives the phone number (952) 657-5385 and the email [email protected].
• Reservations: the “Reserve” button links to OpenTable (opentable.com/r/chi-chis-reservations-minneapolis). OpenTable’s own terms were not opened for this page, so no cancellation policy is described here.
• Gift cards: the “Gift Cards” menu item links to chichisrestaurants.cardfoundry.com/giftcards. That page did not load in the check on October 4, 2026, so its terms are not described; the restaurant’s phone and email above are the published way to ask about terms before buying.
• Menu notice: the food menu page carries the line “*Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish, or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness; contains (or may contain) raw or undercooked ingredients.”
• Website accessibility: the accessibility page asks for feedback at [email protected] and says “We try to respond to feedback within 2 business days.” That sentence is about website accessibility feedback, not about other complaints.
• Suspected food illness: the Minnesota Department of Health page says “Call 1-877-FOOD-ILL (1-877-366-3455)”, or submit its confidential online Foodborne and Waterborne Illness Report, or email [email protected].

2. Retail Chi-Chi’s products (salsa, dips, tortillas, chips, chiles and mixes)

• The brand site chichis.com is marked “2026 Hormel Foods, LLC”. Its Contact Us page lists “Call Us 1-800-725-7212” and the mailing address “MegaMex Foods, LLC, Consumer Response, 1 Hormel Place, Austin, MN 55912”.
• Refunds: the Hormel Foods 45-Day Satisfaction Guarantee page says “If for any reason you are not satisfied with a Hormel Foods product you purchased from one of our authorized sellers, you may request a coupon, credit or refund.” Requests go “through our website at https://www.hormelfoods.com/about/contact-us/ within 45 days of the date of purchase”, with “a valid proof of purchase from an authorized seller”. The page also says the guarantee “is not available for products purchased from unauthorized sellers” and is “limited to the original purchaser”. Questions about whether a seller is authorized go to [email protected].
• The same Contact Us page also offers a “Submit your question or feedback” form, which is the ordinary route for a product comment or complaint (the refund route above is separate and goes through Hormel Foods).
• Hormel Foods’ own Contact Us page lists 1-800-523-4635 for product questions and a contact form, and says “Your message will go directly to our dedicated consumer response team.”
• Product problems can also be reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration; its Consumer Complaint Coordinators page says that if the SmartHub online tool cannot be used, “you may also call 1-888-INFO-FDA and follow the prompts to report a problem.”

3. The original Chi-Chi’s chain

Same company as the chain that closed in 2004? The filings checked describe two different corporations. The company behind today’s St. Louis Park location says in its SEC filing that it was formed on January 9, 2025. The October 8, 2003 Chapter 11 petition was filed by Chi Chi’s, Inc., which a Prandium, Inc. SEC report calls an indirect operating subsidiary of Prandium. Oak Point Partners, whose own page says it acquired the Chi-Chi’s, Inc. bankruptcy estate’s remnant assets in July 2010, states that it did not acquire books and records. None of the sources checked on October 4–5, 2026 says that today’s restaurant company took over the old company’s operations or assets; the restaurant company describes its rights to the name as a license from Hormel Foods. The 2003 hepatitis A outbreak and the bankruptcy are described in the sections below.

Public-health record: the 2003 hepatitis A outbreak (original chain) and what was checked for today’s brand

No matching Chi-Chi’s food recall enforcement report was identified in the openFDA food enforcement query for “Chi-Chi’s” in product descriptions run on October 4 and again on October 5, 2026 (the query returned “No matches found”). That is the only regulator database searched for this section; FTC, state attorney general, state restaurant-inspection and USDA FSIS records were not searched, so nothing is said here about them for the current restaurant or the retail brand. The records below concern the original chain: a 1996 federal antitrust penalty against its then-parent and the public-health investigation of the 2003 outbreak.

1996 premerger-notification penalty (then-parent Foodmaker, Inc.). The Federal Trade Commission’s press release of August 13, 1996 says Foodmaker agreed to pay a $1.45 million civil penalty to settle charges that its subsidiary Chi-Chi’s, Inc. acquired Consul, Inc., operator of 26 Chi-Chi’s franchises, in October 1992 without the premerger filing required by the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. The release says: “This consent judgment is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation.” The court record is in the litigation section below.

The 2003 hepatitis A outbreak at a Monaca, Pennsylvania restaurant

• CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report dispatch of November 21, 2003 describes an outbreak among patrons of “a restaurant (Restaurant A) in Monaca, Pennsylvania” and does not name the chain. It says that “As of November 20, approximately 555 persons with hepatitis A have been identified”, “Three persons have died”, and immune globulin had been provided to approximately 9,000 persons. In a case-control study, “Of 133 menu items, only chili con queso and mild salsa were associated significantly with illness”, both containing uncooked or minimally heated fresh green onions, which the dispatch says preliminary traceback indicated were grown in Mexico.
• The final investigation, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2005 (Wheeler et al.), reports: “Of 601 patients identified, 3 died; at least 124 were hospitalized.” Its conclusion: “Green onions that were apparently contaminated before arrival at the restaurant caused this unusually large foodborne outbreak of hepatitis A.” The abstract also says all restaurant workers were tested and none “could have been the source of the outbreak”.
• A BMJ news item from 2003 identifies the restaurant as Chi-Chi’s: Pennsylvania and CDC authorities “traced the outbreak to contaminated food at a popular Mexican restaurant, Chi-Chi’s”. A law firm that represented victims (Marler Clark) says on its website that “over 650 confirmed cases” were linked to the Beaver Valley Mall restaurant and that four people died. The counts in these sources differ and are not added together here.

Company background: restaurant operator, trademark owner and the original chain

Who runs the restaurant today

• Chi-Chi’s Restaurants, Inc. files annual reports under the SEC’s crowdfunding rules (EDGAR lists it as “Chi Chi Restaurants, Inc.”, CIK 0002056316). Its Form C-AR dated April 21, 2026 gives the address 240 Meadowbrook Rd., Hopkins, MN 55343 and says the company “was formed on January 9, 2025” in Minnesota and “operates Mexican Restaurants under the brand name Chi-Chi’s. There is currently one restaurant open in St. Louis Park, Minnesota.” Michael John McDermott is listed as CEO, President, Director, Secretary and Treasurer.
• The filing says the company “invested $990k into Rojo West End, LLC to convert the space to Chi Chi’s” and $600k into Rojo Maple Grove, LLC, and that “Our next milestone will be opening our second Chi-Chi’s location by the end of 2026.” The company’s February 2025 offering memorandum says the manager of both Rojo LLCs is McDermott Restaurants, LLC, of which Michael McDermott is the sole member and manager. The filing pages reviewed do not say which legal entity holds the restaurant’s liquor and food licenses or employs its staff, and the restaurant website pages opened name no legal entity.
• The press release of December 3, 2024 (PR Newswire) says Michael McDermott, son of founder Marno McDermott, was granted use of the name under “a new agreement with Hormel Foods, owner of CHI-CHI’S™ trademarks”, for “physical restaurant locations”. The offering memorandum filed with the SEC in February 2025 describes the terms as “a ten-year (renewable) exclusive licensing agreement” for the restaurant sector in the United States, with “a royalty fee of 1% of each Restaurant’s net sales, with a cap of $35,000 per year, per Restaurant”. That description comes from the company’s own offering document; the license agreement itself was not seen.
• The first restaurant opened on October 6, 2025 (the first-use date in the USPTO record below; CBS Minnesota reported the return “on Monday”). The company’s own announcements name the company inconsistently: the December 3, 2024 release describes “CHI-CHI’S™ Restaurants, LLC”, the February 25, 2025 and September 30, 2025 releases describe “Chi-Chi’s Restaurants, Inc.”, and the Form C-AR and EDGAR use the corporation name; no state filing was reviewed to explain the difference. The Maple Grove Rojo Mexican Grill, which the company had planned to convert, closed in November 2025; CCX Media reported a manager saying the building “isn’t big enough to suit the needs of the future Chi-Chi’s”. The sources checked show one open Chi-Chi’s restaurant.
• Funding and plans, as the company states them: the February 25, 2025 release says the company planned to raise $3.5 million through StartEngine with a minimum investment of $250 and describes “both company-owned and franchised opportunities”; the September 30, 2025 release says “More than 2,000 people have already invested over $2.3 million” with the campaign “closing soon”. Snell & Wilmer, the law firm that announced it had secured the licensing agreement, described it on December 11, 2024 as a “long-term licensing agreement” for “its initial restaurant and future franchises”. The final amount raised and the terms of any franchise program were not verified. Press releases dated August 18, 2026 (new lunch menu) and September 29, 2026 (one-day first-anniversary prices on October 6, 2026) say the company is “exploring” further locations; no second open restaurant was identified in the sources checked on October 5, 2026.

Who owns the name

• The USPTO’s trademark search for “chi-chi’s” (2,287 results on October 4, 2026) lists live registrations for food and drink goods owned by Hormel Foods, LLC, a Minnesota limited liability company at 1 Hormel Place, Austin, MN. Two examined in detail: registration 3480277 (salsa, registered August 5, 2008) and registration 1779107 (flour and corn tortillas, registered June 29, 1993), both listed as live and owned by Hormel Foods, LLC.
• Application serial 98849139 for the stylized CHI-CHI’S mark for “Restaurant services” (Class 43), filed November 12, 2024, names HORMEL FOODS LLC as owner; the record shows first use in commerce on October 6, 2025, a statement of use received November 12, 2025, a non-final Office action of August 8, 2026, and a response entered September 21, 2026. The USPTO status reads “LIVE/APPLICATION/Under Examination”, so no registration for restaurant services had issued as of that record. Two earlier applications for “Restaurant services” filed by McDermott Restaurants, LLC (serials 98651533 and 98651546) show as abandoned; serial 98651533 was expressly abandoned on November 19, 2024.
• CBS Minnesota reports that Hormel “has owned the Chi-Chi’s trademark since 1987”; the offering memorandum says that in 1987 Hormel “acquired the rights to produce and market Chi-Chi’s branded salsa and related products in the United States”.

The retail line

Hormel Foods’ brand page describes the retail brand as “Originally established in the early ‘70s”, with “a full line of delicious sauces, tasty tortillas and legendary salsa” in retail stores. The retail Contact Us page names MegaMex Foods, LLC, Consumer Response, in Austin, Minnesota. MegaMex Foods’ own page says it was created in October 2009 by Herdez del Fuerte, S.A. de CV of Mexico and Hormel Foods, and Hormel’s company pages list MegaMex Foods, LLC among its family of companies.

The original chain

The restaurant website says Chi-Chi’s was founded in 1975 by Marno McDermott and former Green Bay Packers player Max McGee in Richfield, Minnesota (the company’s February 2025 offering memorandum says the chain “started in Minnesota in 1976”, and its September 29, 2026 release refers to prices “when the first Chi-Chi’s opened in 1976”; these company descriptions are not reconciled here). The press release says it reached more than 200 locations and that “a series of ownership changes eventually led to the chain’s closure in 2004”. A Prandium, Inc. report to the SEC states that on October 8, 2003 Chi Chi’s, Inc. and Koo Koo Roo, Inc., “both indirect operating subsidiaries of Prandium, Inc.”, filed voluntary Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (case numbers 03-13063-PJW and 03-13069-PJW). The petition date is earlier than the identification of the outbreak, which the New England Journal of Medicine report dates to November 2003. CBS Minnesota summarizes: “bankruptcy and a hepatitis A outbreak at a location near Pittsburgh sounded its death knell in 2004.”

Complaint record: USAComplaints posts, Trustpilot and BBB

USAComplaints has no approved complaint posts about Chi-Chi’s in its archive as of October 4, 2026 (the check covered the offender, title and text fields for “Chi-Chi’s” and spelling variants; the few unrelated matches concerned other businesses such as a boutique and a flower shop). This page therefore shows no complaint themes.

Other profiles, as displayed on October 4, 2026 (the Trustpilot page and the St. Louis Park BBB search were opened again on October 5, 2026 with the same result):

• Trustpilot: the page for chichisrestaurants.com shows “Unclaimed profile”, 0 reviews and 0 reviews in the last 12 months.
• Better Business Bureau: a search for “Chi-Chi’s” in St Louis Park, MN and a search for “Chi-Chi’s Restaurants” in Hopkins, MN each returned the BBB “No Results” page. A nationwide BBB search for “Chi Chi’s Restaurants” lists separate businesses with similar names in other cities (for example in Warren, MI and Alexandria, VA); the restaurant’s website lists only the St. Louis Park location, and no connection to those listings was examined here.
• Yelp and Google listings were not captured in this check, so no rating from them is given.

The absence of listings or posts says nothing about guest experience; the restaurant has been open since October 2025, and the routes in the first section are the published ways to raise a problem.

Lawsuits and bankruptcy: what the records show

Current restaurant company. The Form C-AR dated April 21, 2026 says in Note 4: “We are currently not involved with or know of any pending or threatening litigation against the Company or any of its officers.” That is the company’s own statement. A CourtListener (RECAP) search run on October 4, 2026 for case names “Chi-Chi’s Restaurants” and “Chi Chi’s Restaurants”, and for “Chi-Chi’s” together with “Hormel”, returned no dockets; the search does not cover state courts.

1996 federal case against the then-parent (Foodmaker, Inc.). In United States v. Foodmaker, Inc., Civil Action No. 96-1879 (D.D.C.), the Justice Department’s case page lists a complaint dated August 13, 1996 (failure to file under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act) and a Final Judgment dated August 26, 1996. The Final Judgment, entered with the parties’ consent, orders Foodmaker to pay a civil penalty of $1,450,000 within thirty days and states that it is entered “without trial or adjudication of any issue of fact or law” and “without this Final Judgment constituting any evidence against or an admission by any party”. The defendant was Foodmaker, Inc.; the FTC release describes Chi-Chi’s, Inc. as its wholly-owned subsidiary when it made the 1992 acquisition.

The 2003 bankruptcy. The Prandium report to the SEC lists the Chapter 11 petition of Chi Chi’s, Inc. (D. Del. No. 03-13063-PJW) filed October 8, 2003. The court’s own page for case 03-13063 (“Chi-Chi’s Inc. et al.”) links a Memorandum Decision dated February 2, 2004 (Judge Charles G. Case II, case number shown as 03-13063 (CGC); also reported at 305 B.R. 396), which granted in part and denied in part two landlords’ requests about rejected restaurant leases and rent paid for a short period after the petition. It is a dispute over leases and does not address the hepatitis A claims. Oak Point Partners’ page says a bankruptcy plan was approved, a liquidating trustee was appointed, and Oak Point acquired the estate’s remnant assets in July 2010; the confirmation order itself was not reviewed.

Outbreak claims. According to Marler Clark, a law firm that represented victims, the Bankruptcy Court’s order of February 17, 2004 allowed claimants to try to mediate and settle their claims despite the bankruptcy; the firm says it resolved 78 individual claims, including a $6.25 million settlement for one man who needed a liver transplant, and that an $800,000 class settlement fund for people who received immune globulin shots was distributed among 4,991 claimants who returned claim forms by October 24, 2005. Those figures come from the law firm’s website; the court orders and settlement documents were not reviewed, so no docket outcome is stated here.

Is Chi-Chi's Legitimate?

Public records tie the Chi-Chi’s name to identifiable companies. Chi-Chi’s Restaurants, Inc. (Hopkins, Minnesota) has filed an annual report with the SEC dated April 21, 2026 saying it operates one Chi-Chi’s restaurant, in St. Louis Park. The USPTO lists Hormel Foods, LLC as owner of the Chi-Chi’s registrations for food products and of the pending application for restaurant services, and the Chi-Chi’s retail site is marked © 2026 Hormel Foods, LLC. A December 2024 press release describes an agreement between Hormel Foods and Michael McDermott for restaurant use of the name.

These records show who is behind the name. They do not measure food quality, service or how complaints are handled, and several items could not be confirmed: the license agreement itself, the gift-card terms, the legal entity that holds the restaurant’s licenses and the outcome of the USPTO examination.

Court & Public Records

Company Relationships

• Affiliated with: Hormel Foods, LLC
• Affiliated with: Rojo West End, LLC
• Affiliated with: McDermott Restaurants, LLC

Frequently Asked Questions