Icons Sport Grill — Restaurant in Gilbert

Don't play here if you are a musician or DJ. Within the past month (Jan 2023) they have been disrespectful to some of their musicians and guests of the artists, some of whom are also musicians and friends of bands who have played there and support other bands who are a part of the local musician community. Guest artists are not allowed on stage during another artists show due to liability (even if they are a more well known or better singer or musician). In January 2023 the bar has recently been known to cut an artists pay or change show details when they arrive, one band had to send his whole band home and just played a solo show due to unexpected cut in pay upon arrival which is unacceptable. These are all true things that have actually happened to our friends in the local music industry who all support one another.

On a personal level, a company I work for was hired Dec 2022 to run trivia and karaoke. The karaoke was going really well, and was starting to build a great following. Keep in mind it takes 1-2 months to build a show for people to start learning about it, and that with good advertising. However the bar was not doing any advertising except on their screen, nothing on social media, web, or even their print ads. So the customers were all people I brought in myself. I was specifically chosen as the host because the bar's goal was to take business from Skip and Jans (where I had worked for 2 years) and that was definitely happening. But after 3 shows, the bar was sold to a new owner who admitted to me on his first day that he actually HATES karaoke, and was not willing to pay the going rate for karaoke or trivia (which actually costs $50-100 more per night than karaoke). Trivia was supposed to start after football, and after karaoke had been going for a few months. We did a few more shows in January 2023 although our pay was cut by $50/night, and then it was cancelled a few weeks later. The bar also never paid us for their private holiday party we DJ'd there, the price was on rate sheet we gave old owner in writing, that was clearly ignored by the new owner (in other words they still owe us money). Our business agreement was with the old owner who was also helping us build our new business for karaoke AND trivia, so he was trying to give us multiple nights per week there hence booking us for the private party as well. I am just a DJ and I do not own the karaoke company so I technically have no say in the matter and I am not the liaison between the owners. But the new owner put me in an awkward spot by texting my personal cell phone and making unprofessional comments to me on FB replies when I simply asked about their inconsistent hours. I see now that he also made some weird comment about hours to one of my friends who left a Google review about his attitude towards them after they spent over $100 in there on 4 different nights. Anyway, bad business all around and clearly they will not be doing karaoke or trivia anymore because the new owner doesn't like it (yet it brings revenue). Some of the staff complained about karaoke in front of customers as well, which is so counterproductive (not to mention unprofessional). I feel bad for our fans who kept going in there spending money to help us build the show, and now they have nowhere to go but back to Skip and Jans. Oh well quite a learning experience for me as a subcontractor but time to move on to a place that will actually pay us and support our business reciprocally to us...

9/29/24: Well, despite the 3-star review from 7/16/22 (I said we wouldn't be back), but we did -- although we didn't know it until we pulled into the lot (my sister picked the restaurant and neither of us remembered being there before). Ah well.

As we walked in, though, it started coming back: that we did not remember being overwhelmed by the previous visit. I must say though, this go around was much better. The food was hot, with a few different items on the menu. the two pretzels were huge, as well as burn-your-fingers-hot, plus the wanton-wrapped deep fried pickles were a nice addition.

We did not have any cocktails this time so I cannot say if there was an improvement since out last visit. The ambiance was the same as last time, typical bar scene.

7/16/22: Checked out Catching Flights the Saturday before July 4th. Arrived around 4 or 4:30 and it was probably about half full. There is plenty of parking, which is always good and the place was maybe 1/3 to 1/2 full.

We picked a table in the back to avoid the loud booming reverberations from the live music. After a few minutes passed we got worried sitting in the back may not have been smart since no server came over quickly, but another minute or two later someone came by.

It was typical bar food, nothing to write home about but nothing to complain about either. The fried avo bites were a different appetizer than we've seen before and although I am 100% they were not freshly made but from a bag, they were pretty good albeit a bit too well fried.

The drink my sister got was 99% ice and 1% alcohol, totally not worth the $12 (I think that was the cost) considering it was more of a shot glass sized drink. The San Diego Sandwich and Black & Bleu Burger came out cold and hot, respectively. Both tasted fine, the tater tots were not specially seasoned in any way, just plain ol' tots.

Was it a good meal for the price? Sure. Was it so good that we would...

Three of us went on Friday around 5:30pm and sat at the bar. The only thing we were impressed with was they had our favorite ChiveTV...LOL.

Service: The place was about 1/2 full with 2 bartenders. We were initially waited on right away, but then service steadily declined after that. We had to ask for menus twice. Neither bartender came to check on us after we got our meals.

Food: We split two appetizers and each of us had a different meal. None of us were impressed with any of the meals. In fact, they forgot to put the bacon on my (standard topping for burger I ordered) and brought regular fries instead of tator tots. Way too many other bar restaurants offering much more to elect to go back here.

Happy hour: Only $1 off beer

I'll share some full disclosures:

1. Two of us usually try a different restaurant every Friday night. However, it's common for us to go back to our favorites.
2. A few decades ago I was a bartender and manager. Service is a pet peeve of mine since we had a high focus on it. This is especially true with how well bartenders constantly visually scan the bar for...