Cold Beers & Cheeseburgers — Restaurant in Gilbert

I feel sorry for the couple of great servers that work here. Kelsie was an amazing server, balancing tables and doing her best to manage the situation, even when the kitchen was obviously in break-down mode.

We were regulars for food at one point. Now, it's only occasionally (to see if it has returned to the way it used to be). Yesterday was one of those occasions.

My wife, daughter and I put our names on the list and waited the 30+ minutes. No problem, it's a Saturday night. Looking around, the place was TRASHED. I counted 8 tables that hadn't been bussed, napkins, trash, straws, and other debris on the floor outside and inside. My first thought was, "dang, they must've had a serious rush." As we waited, I watched as only necessary tables were bussed (right before people were being seated). Unusual... maybe the person that busses tables called in?

We finally get seated (inside, instead of the patio where we requested - to avoid the interior chaos and children SCREAMING at the top of their lungs). Side note: People need to teach their children to respect that others are trying to talk and enjoy family time out to eat as well. These weren't screaming tears, they were screaming and running patrons and their children, as if this was a play-house. Insane to see adults acting this way, running by other people's tables and throwing napkins like a snowball fight. Of course, we immediately corrected the hostess and requested outside again.

Once outside, we immediately placed our food order. It was simple, one entree (cheeseburger) and one kids meal. It took 51 minutes exactly from the time we ordered until getting our food. The burger was cooked like a hockey puck (ordered medium). We didn't send it back, obviously. The chips were skimpy and a small crumb portion compared to normal. A very obvious "throw that out the door as fast as possible" situation. Our server did EVERYTHING in her power to make sure we were happy and wouldn't get up and walk out. I felt terrible, knowing that the kitchen was likely destroying her tips, even though she was busting it hard to make sure her tables stayed.

This was the weekend crew... the weekday crew... even worse. We've been in on Wednesdays pretty regularly. We have a drink and chat while our daughter is in class. The bartender is less concerned with people ordering or even trying to pay, than she is chatting it up with whatever person she finds interesting at the bar. This is a weekly occurrence. Every week, we say we need to find somewhere else to spend our money. Every week, we choose convenience and disappointment.

There have been times where we needed to leave and waited 20-30 minutes for a server to either give us our check, or never came back to get the check. Those times, we've added up what we think we owed and left it on the table.

Your management at this location is driving this place into the ground. I've spent years helping "break-down" businesses. This location is the biggest example of a poorly managed restaurant in our area. Your pre-covid operations were flawless, post-covid... it's like watching a dumpster fire in slow-motion.

Written from the toilet. I was the last of the three of us to experience the utter discomfort of last...

We ordered pickle chips appetizer, steakhouse cheeseburger with upgrade to sweet potato tots, pb&j burger with upgrade to onion rings, pastrami sandwhich with upgrade to fries. Pickle chips: standard fair. Came out piping hot and had good dipping sauces tho their ranch was lacking any real flavor. Steakhouse burger: It was... fine. The patty was nice and thick. But other than that there wasn't much flavor. I couldn't taste the garlic airlines or the garlic oil. I tasted no herb butter nor thyme. It tasted mildly sweet and had a soggy bottom due to the roasted tomato. It was a fine burger but a let down on the expectation in the description. It just tasted mildly sweet and had zero texture. The bacon was chewy and added no smokey note nor flavor aside from salt. Sweet potato tots: fine but not my jam. My friends loved them. Pb&j burger: There was plenty of peanut butter on the burger and it was surprisingly delightful. But aside from the peanut butter I couldn't taste anything else. There was no hint of chipotle, grape jelly, nor cheddar cheese. Those things may have been present but they were overshadowed by the peanut butter. And again, no texture aside from the meat and bun. Everything was soft and the bacon was a slight chew that didn't add flavor, only salt. Onion rings: Breading was dense, not in a good way. Which made them crisp but kinda hard to get through. They were not something I'd order again. Reminded me of burger king onion rings. Pastrami sandwhich: Meh. Couldn't taste the 1000 island nor Swiss. The coleslaw was flavorless. The pastrami was fine but not amazing. They don't offer rye bread for this, which is a shame. The sourdough we did get just tasted like white bread. It had more texture than the burgers. Fries: Good fries. They were soft and fluffy and well salted. But nothing to write home about. Service: The waitress didn't smile at all but was nice enough. She made sure our drinks were full. But I would have liked some more communication, and a smile. We went on a Friday night and knew it would be busy. She got us drinks and our appetizer nice and quick. But then she disappeared. At about 15 or so minutes she brought us drink refills but she didn't mention anything about the food. It took almost an hour to get us our actual food. By then we had finished our appetizer and 2 drinks. She brought it out with no apology. Don't get me wrong! I understand a busy kitchen. But a simple "hey, I'm so sorry. Our kitchen is backed up and is going to take a while. Is there anything I can get you while you wait?" Or something along the lines of how long it would take to get out meals would have been appreciated. Atmosphere: Typical sports bar with more tv's than actual light fixtures. Noisy. We sat outside tho and it was delightful and not too...

My buddy and I visited their new location on North Oracle near Ina Road, Oro Valley, Tuesday evening, their second night open. Yes, there were a few glitches I'll mention below. But overall, this a slick operation, and our waitress covered well.

They had a loss leader, 4 bucks for beer in a can but the first two choices my buddy ordered they didn't have yet. I had the same experience with the first draft choice, 7 bucks for 7 oz of a national brand hefeweizen. Both of our final selections came with ice old glasses and sitting outdoors on their huge patio at sunset made it net out to a win.

Speaking of huge, the inside is also that. This restaurant is easily 5-6 times the size of a typical Tucson restaurant.

This is fast-food style with service, designed to handle staggering high customer volumes.

We split a half pound burger that was 16 bucks plus a 2 dollar extra plate chart. A good burger, but nothing else. So expensive. We also split a side order of sweet potato tots which were tasty. They brought me a 2nd beer by mistake (at least partially my fault I think) so my bill was 23 bucks. My buddy's bill was 17 bucks.

That raises a 2nd issue. The waitress had to put all our charges on one itemed bill. (As I say, they're "fast food".) But she accepted and split two credit card bills according to who had gotten what. They apparently don't provide "extra" services. It's one bill per table. The math seemed about right. Total 42 bucks before tip for a burger, tots, 3 beers and tax.

OK, so I recommend this place? Will I come hear again soon?

For those who like LA style, fast food restaunts, featuring crowds, cold beer and big screen TVs, then yes, it works fine. That said, there are 3 much smaller, locally owned and operated places in the immediate area with exactly things to offer at much lower cost, sans the "cool" factor. They all will be closed in the next...