All American Sports Grill — Restaurant in Fountain Hills

Four of us visited this restaurant in the late afternoon a few days before Christmas. The place was pretty much deserted, three people at the bar and three tables of customers. The music was extremely loud and was making conversation very difficult, so we asked our server if they could turn the volume down. Our server was very nice, tried to be helpful, and was very apologetic when he finally told us that “the bar” didn’t want to turn the music down and that the music would be staying at its current level.

He offered to move us to an area on the opposite side of the restaurant. My husband and I resisted because we had been seated in that area during a previous and very recent visit and found it to be dirty with unbussed tables and another couple tables set up as a workplace for staff with trays of silverware and packs of napkins. It felt like we were eating in an employee break room.

Because the loud music was making conversation so difficult, we finally decided to move to the area the waiter had suggested. Unsurprisingly, it was in the same shape as on our previous visit. This time, however, two of the workers carried plates of food into the room, plopped down at a table right behind us, and proceeded to have a loud and hilarious (to them) conversation. One of our foursome turned in his chair and asked them to quiet down. The older of the two employees started waving her arms around, rolling her eyes, and loudly yelling, “We haven’t done anything wrong!” At this point, the whole situation had gotten very uncomfortable, so we packed up and walked out. On my way out, I asked one of the young hostesses if I could speak to the manager, intending to talk about noise issues. The bartender was carefully watching our progress and as the hostess turned, the bartender shook his head “no” to her. Suddenly, the older employee appeared at the hostess station, announced that she was the manager, that they had done nothing wrong, that she understood that we were “old and didn’t feel well”, and then followed up with several loud accusations that we were “just a bunch of bullies.”

I was stunned. Incredibly offended.

If she was a manager - which I doubt - she is really bad at her job. In our small town, restaurants hang on my their fingernails through the hot summer/absence of snowbirds months, and the last thing that a good manager would do would be to insult and drive away customers. Between her and the bartender (who apparently saw nothing wrong with how it all played out), it was very clear that we were not welcome, not valued, and certainly not wanted as customers. Their nastiness and accusations were absolutely appalling. The owners of this restaurant should be ashamed that their staff behaved like this.

We will...

The food is delicious, their chefs are wonderful for dine-in orders, when given correct order info. Unfortunately, for take out or phone in orders they can be iffy. If you order at the bar and then have them box it up for you to take home after they bring it to you, it will be fine. But for any take out always check it before you take it home so you don't have to bring it back for them to fix it. Take out is almost always wrong... size of serving of meat or fish, cooking temp/instructions, ingredients including allergy requests, etc. One would think, especially for allergies, that they would take the same care for take out or in restaurant dining but they don't. Of course that may be more due to the person taking the order than the chef. If the kitchen doesn't get correct info then of course you'll not get the right dish. Also, they have high turnover with their service staff. If you eat around you soon see your favorite servers leave and go to other restaurants in town...where they typically stay. I have personally seen management do things that make one wonder. For example, a group of us went for dinner on a Friday night. Several of us got our meals, I had to send mine back for a correction, and got it back before others at the table were served. One of the people not served went to see what the hold up was, spoke with the person at the bar, and was told to just go sit down and take a breath as there was only one server...and it wasn't said that nicely. The place was packed and they were still letting people in EVEN though they couldn't handle the people who had already ordered. My friend made a rude remark to the staff person as she came back to the table and just minutes later the manager came to our table to admonish my friend and told her to leave! We all left and we don't go there as a group anymore. They have had management turnover a couple of times that I am aware of so occasionally we will give them another try but it doesn't...

One of those horrible experiences that you don't forget. Three of us went in for lunch. We are 66, 68, and 58 years old. There is a note at the hostess station that says "cannot split checks". I hate that but was willing to deal with it, but one of the others was not, so we asked if we could sit at the bar and order separately? "Yes". So we did.

At the bar, the waitress seemed annoyed that we weren't there to drink alcohol, only to have lunch (it was 11:00am). Then threw menus at us (mine went spinning nearly off the bar top). Things got worse. She ignored us for a while doing other things, and eventually I spoke up "we're ready to order" as she walked by again to fill up a machine with ice or something. She ignored me. I know she heard me because when she was finished with that, she said "the other person will take your orders".

When the check came, she delivered one check. We spoke up that we prefer three checks. She said "not allowed", whereby we all said we were told we could at the bar. She resisted and finally said "I'll do it THIS time, but...). It gets worse. We explained that we were told we could. She went to the hostess (she said) and was told "no, I didn't tell them that". The hostess, who was dealing with maybe a hundred people by that point probably had no idea who we were. The waitress then said to us "don't lie". We were flabbergast! This sourpuss waitress turned out to be the manager! (or so she said). It's sad to think that SHE is showing other employees how to treat customers.

P.S. my food was horrible. The two ladies I was with didn't complain about their food.

P.S.S. they automatically give themselves 20% tip.

P.S.S.S. they charge you an additional fee to use your credit card.

Do you think any of us will return to All American...