ZONA Cantina + Cocina — Restaurant in Gilbert

Family and I were excited to try this place out as we have seen multiple restaurants come and go. We were seated promptly and the staff was friendly. Seemed odd to be paying for chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant but we did anyway and the salsa lacked any flavor or spice. We ordered our food which came out in a timely manner but again each person in our party thought everything was extremely bland and nothing about each dish stood out. Based on other reviews and the prices we expected a lot more so I’m not sure how so many people were raving about the food. Don’t get me wrong it didnt taste bad just didn’t taste good either. Certainly not what you expect from a Mexican restaurant. Where the real issue of our visit came was with the dessert we ordered. My fiancé is allergic to cinnamon and the butter cake lists a topping of cinnamon and brown sugar ice cream. We spoke with our server about not having that ice cream and just vanilla ice cream on the side and that the cake itself didn’t have cinnamon. Her initial answer was “probably not” which I explained that probably not isn’t a good answer when it comes to allergies. Dessert came out with the cinnamon ice cream on top so we flagged her down to send it back. We were brought a chocolate cake to see if we liked it without us asking. They then brought out the butter cake with no ice cream at all on it but there were still trace amounts of cinnamon in the dessert so now I’m fiancé is dealing with an allergic reaction. No manager came by to apologize or see how we were doing. We still paid for the dessert. This is something that should not be taken as lightly as it was and is dangerous business practices. Anyone reading this should be extremely careful with this restaurant regarding any allergies...

We visited last night, on the grand opening. First-time experience, 3 stars. I am hopeful the next visit will be 4+ stars as they smooth out the kinks of opening a new location. We have never been to the Mesa spot, so this was our very first visit to Zona.

What went well: • Seated immediately with a reservation. • Our server was very friendly and did a great job welcoming us as first-time guests. • Food came out lightning fast. • Everything we ordered (two sushi rolls and the carne asada plate) was tasty and without issue. • The food was beautifully plated. • Music volume was comfortable, not too loud. • Happy hour drinks are an unbelievable value.

Areas for improvement: • Staffing seemed light, both at the bar and on the floor. Drinks took about 15 minutes to arrive. Our food was delivered by another staff member, and our server did not check in until over 15 minutes later, by which point we were nearly finished eating. Closing out the check also took quite a while. • There were no utensils or napkins at the table, and they weren’t brought with the food, so I had to get up and ask after our dishes arrived. • Some tables are placed very close together. Each time our server went to the table beside us, she hit the back of my chair, which was unavoidable given the layout. • No wasabi was served with the sushi rolls. This may be because it is a Mexican restaurant, but it felt unusual and was disappointing for my husband. We would have asked if they had it available, but we were not checked on. • We felt the courses we ordered were just above what would be a fair price to pay, so it did feel overpriced.

We plan to try again when the weather cools down, so we can enjoy the outdoor seating, avoid the cramped tables, and stick to the...

Boyfriend and I went for lunch today, hostesses were both nice. We were seated immediately. The place is definitely decorated to be cute and trendy, we just weren’t happy with the service and overpriced, subpar food. Our server was very short with us, not rude but definitely not great service. She checked in once for drinks, took our orders, and then the last time we saw her was when she came back with the check. I asked for modifications to be made to my meal, nothing crazy in addition, just taking out 2 items i don’t like (sour cream and pico de gallo). When food came out, after a long wait, my order had both things i didn’t ask for. And server was always elsewhere and didn’t bother coming back to ask how our food was, if everything tasted right, if we got everything we ordered, etc….normal server things. I don’t think that’s a crazy thing to expect out of a server when you’re at a sit down restaurant. Maybe we caught her on a bad day🤷🏽‍♀️. Boyfriend’s quesabirria tacos were yummy, consume was good, but the beans and rice were both dry and lacking flavor. Just not good quality for the price. Lesson learned, i’ll go across the parking lot to...