Arriba Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Gilbert

I never write restaurant reviews but we recently had an experience that I feel compelled to share as I’ve never experienced anything like this in my life. On Tuesday 5/7, my and husband and I decided to take our son for a belated bday dinner at the location on Market St in Gilbert. We were planning to meet a few people there for a total of 6 of us. We arrived earlier than the rest of our party to request a table, parking lot and the inside of the restaurant were empty. We requested a table to accommodate our party size and would allow accessibility as I’m in a wheelchair but we were told by the gentleman up front that we couldn’t be accommodated. First, we were told that there was to be two large parties in the restaurant that evening, one in the front and one in the back so they could either sit us at two booths or they could push two high-top tables together both inadequate accommodations for a wheelchair user, or a party that wants to sit together for that matter, so we told the guy that obviously that wouldn’t work for us. After some back and forth the greeter offered his apologies and offered a manager but said that he didn’t think there was anything they could do, still waiting for the other members of our party to arrive we walked out in shock without speaking to a manager. We spoke amongst ourselves outside trying to think of ways to remedy the situation without going somewhere else so after about 10 minutes we went back in and asked to speak with the manager. After waiting about another 10 minutes for the gentleman up front to finish taking an order he went to get the manager and they both reappeared about 5 minutes later after he had been brought up to speed I’m sure as he came out to tell us we couldn’t be accommodated due to these large parties before we could explain the situation to him. I couldn’t believe that they wouldn’t have ADA accommodations or that we would be flat out turned away so I tried to remedy the situation by making a suggestion. I asked the manager if they could switch out the two high-top tables they would push together for a regular table and he said that they couldn’t do that as the parties were set to be there soon, mind you that we had now been there for 25 minutes and the parking lot was still empty, the restaurant was still empty and there were no customers waiting. Embarrassed, we left, since they were unwilling to accommodate us. We went back to our vehicle in the parking lot where we began researching other options and calling the other 3 people who were meeting us to coordinate another option since they were in route to where we were. We spent another 15-20 minutes outside before actually leaving to go to another place and in that time we were even more frustrated that the parking lot remained empty (if there were large parties set to start as soon as they said, there would have been people beginning to show up but there was NO ONE), there had still been no other guests to arrive after us and that in that time or most certainly in the time that we originally entered the restaurant that we COULD have been accommodated but they CHOSE NOT TO DO SO, which I know is pretty illegal as all places need to have ADA accommodations open to guests with disabilities at all times, or at least allow them to wait for some to come available in a reasonable time frame. You can’t just turn people away because they are in a wheelchair and you are too lazy to move a table! Shame on you Arriba’s and your management team clearly needs some...

We have gone to Arribas for over 10 years as regular customers. It honestly used to be our family favorite. Over the past year or so we have seen a continual decline in service, food, and environment. Each time we chalked it up to “just that visit”. Well tonight took the cake. The service was sub par at best. Our waitress seemed like a nice lady but either had too many tables, or was overwhelmed. She only checked on us once in 30 minutes.We ordered a cheese crisp for an appetizer, the appetizer was dropped off at our table by a bus boy, with no plates to divide it between our party of five. We had our infant daughter with us along with her $1500 stroller and car seat. When the food was brought out it was brought out by one man, who put the tray of entrees next to the stroller and car seat. He proceeded To pass the plates over the car seat, luckily, I was holding my daughter, but if I hadn’t been, hot plates would be all over her head. He began spilling beans. The beans were dripping and dropping all over the car seat and the stroller. When my husband pointed this out to him and said you’re dripping the beans, he seemed to not care at all. No apologies, nothing. The car seat is light gray in color. Finally my husband said there’s stains and beans all over the car seat, and the guy said “oh OK I’ll go get a rag.” He then proceeded to come back with an old dirty, wet dishrag and a couple of paper napkins and wiped some of the beans onto the floor. Again, no apology, nothing. The waitress walked by and laughed and said “oh it looks like he’s throwing food at you.” We stopped her and asked to speak to a manager and she said” he is the manager.” We asked to speak to another manager. Finally after about 10 minutes, another man came back with the original man who spilled and dropped beans over everything. He said “we will pay for the stroller” and my husband responded and said “it’s a 1500 dollar stroller” and he said “oh then we will just pay for the cleaning. Just get it cleaned and bring us a receipt and we will cover it.” Meanwhile the guy who spilled the beans had a really bad attitude and rolled his eyes and said “it was just an accident” then he huffed away. The other guy followed after him and he walked away as well. The whole thing was very odd. Not once did anybody apologize to us, they didn’t compensate us on our check, nothing. Meanwhile, we have to use the car seat because our daughter is an infant and we use the car seat almost daily. Where am I supposed to get a stroller cleaned? There is no corporate office to call, so it looks like I am stuck dealing with the people at the Gilbert location. Needless to say, after 10 years as loyal customers, we will not be back. My concern, is not only with the stroller, but what if my daughter was in the car seat? She would’ve had hot food being spilled all over her this was not one bean that dropped these were tons of drops Of food and hot liquid the whole thing was spilling as the guy was standing there trying to pass other plates around the table with the plate of beans in one hand spilling and the other hand being used to hand us...

Had family come in out of town and we chose to go here, last time we went (a long time ago) everything was great- this time not so much. We had reservations arrived early and still had to wait another 45 minutes, when we got inside the place was pretty empty. They sat us next to their water wall The waiter kept placing his hands on some of our party (shoulder touch here and there but still, really?) the waiter was all over the place forgot drinks, forgot 2 childrens plates and 2 adults plates- there were 12 of us total. When we asked questions about something, he was pretty rude with his answers. When we got all of our food (some had to be returned 3 times due to the wrong food being served) he got everyone at the tables attention and told us that he was sorry for the bad service but when we arrived all the other waiters were leaving and he took on our table even though he was working on the other side of the restaurant, he then proceeded to tell us that 'no one wanted to serve our table because they were leaving" - so I guess that made it "ok" that we had such bad service. We felt bad for the guy, but at the same time it was not our problem and it should have been handled differently. By the time our meals were served and after his little speech about why we were having bad service (which he said was not an ok excuse) and the manager never even came over to say hi to us or reassure us we would be taken care of. I won't be going there again, after being treated that way and being told no one even wanted to serve our table and the manager couldn't even come speak to us? No Thanks. There are many other Mexican restaurants that have WAY better, friendly service and food, because the food was not that...