Saddle Bronc Grill — Restaurant in Fountain Hills

This restaurant has zero respect for frontline workers. I am a driver for a food app and had the misfortune of getting sent to this place for a delivery. Everything started out just fine and dandy until one of the customer's item could not be made because it was no longer on the menu. This is a common occurrence, so I contacted the customer to inform them, upon which they ultimately decided to cancel the order (which also happens all the time, no big deal). That's when everything went south.

Upon informing the server at the restaurant that I no longer need the order, she responds with "let me check with the kitchen first". Now as someone who has been in the restaurant industry for over a decade before becoming a delivery app driver, I couldn't quite grasp why she needs the kitchen's approval to cancel an order (cause that literally never happens at any restaurant anywhere), but whatever, you do you.

After a brief moment, she comes back and informs me that they already started making the order. Again, I don't see what that has to do with me canceling the customer's order. And mind you, I never even finished placing the order! They should not have even started cooking the thing to begin with!

Regardless of their mistake, I took the diplomatic approach. It was becoming clear to me that they wanted payment for the unwanted order, so I wrote down the customer service number for the app I work for (which is an EXTREMELY hard number to get ahold of, mind you, so I didn't have to do this favor for her, but did anyway to make them happy), and told the server to call this number and they'll cover the charges. I would have just paid right then and there if I could, but the because of how food apps work, my employee credit card locks out when a customer cancels an order, so the charge will get declined (and there's no way I'm paying for this unwanted food out of my own pocket, since I am in no way legally required to). All she had to do was call the number, but instead this happens:

I wave goodbye to the server after giving her the phone# and start heading out to the next restaurant, when all of a sudden, what I assume was the manager, walks out into the parking lot with the server I was talking to, and demands that I pay for the order. I told her I'm not paying for unwanted food, and that it's not my fault that they started the order too soon, at which point she tells me she's calling the police. (Yes, seriously.) I say "go ahead, I didn't do anything illegal", and drive off. As I'm leaving, I hear her telling the server to "get my license plate". I couldn't help but laugh at her stupidity while I left to go make some money elsewhere.

Long story short, it's been weeks and unsurprisingly I'm not in jail. I can only hope that the police charged the manager lady with making a false report, but somehow I doubt that because it's Fountain Hills and the cops are a bunch of wet noodles in this town. I hope Saddle Bronc goes out of business for treating frontline workers like this, especially given that I'm putting my life on the line to earn a living! Give your business to someone else who appreciates the service we provide to those who are unable to leave their homes in these trying times! Shame on Saddle...

The food was mostly really good, but the service was very poor, even rude.

First experience: To go order. Bartender took the order while managing the bar with live music in the background. They got the order incorrect and left out the utensils. I called to let them know of the mistakes and got a voicemail during business hours. I left a message. Nobody called back. The food was very good, however.

Second experience: Called to place a to go order. Went round and round with the gal as she insisted they didn't have the item I was ordering even though it was on their Web site menu. Turns out the Web site is outdated. When I arrived, I let them know about the mistakes on the previous order. The server asked if I needed utensils as though it was an unusual request. She then said they were out of utensils but if I really needed them she could probably find some. Translation: she didn't want to bother looking for them. Another server brought us utensils. As I checked out, I asked if she heard what I said about the previous order being incorrect. She said she did hear me, but she wasn't working that day, had no control over what happened, and isn't a manager. I asked to speak to a manager. The owner came out and apologized and offered us free dessert.

Third experience: Called to place a to go order. Got the same gal I had issues with previously. She said she would need to get another server to take the order. She then argued with a coworker over who was supposed to take to go orders and left me hanging on the line and never returned. I called and asked for the owner and he took my order. When I arrived, the catty server walked by and smarted off at me. I left the restaurant. The owner followed me out and asked what happened. I told him, but he did not apologize. He just walked away. My wife went in to get our order and received the same catty treatment from the server and gruffness from the owner who just asked her "What do you want me to do? We cancelled your order."

We won't...

Tonight my mom and I decided to go to this cute looking grill for dinner. I am 15 weeks pregnant, and was looking so forward to a nice hot meal after being on the road most of the day. I ordered the meatloaf with mashed potatoes and asparagus. I ordered a glass of milk, 20 minutes later the waitress returned and said they were out of milk, and finally brought me a water. After an hour and 20 minutes, our food finally arrived. My entire meal was cold. My mashed potatoes had some sort of film over them from sitting out for however long they sat out, my meatloaf was cold, and the asparagus was so ridiculously overcooked that it had a wax-like structure to it and disintegrated in my mouth. I asked for them to take it back to the kitchen and reheat it. The waitress took it, and returned within 15 seconds. It was the same cold temperature , and it was blatantly obvious she did not reheat it. After this debacle, I asked for a box to take my food home to reheat it and eat there because at this point I was starving and over it. The owner (?) (tall older blonde lady) came over to see what the issue was. She looked at my sad plate and I held up an asparagus for her to see. Her resolution was "oh, let me get you some new asparagus". She took the asparagus back to the kitchen and returned with the same wilted sad asparagus, just slightly hotter. She refused to compensate any item on the order, which displayed her inability to properly run a business and sufficiently serve customers. She had multiple opportunities to rectify the situation, and didn't. Terrible service, terrible management, and poorly...