Rancho de Tia Rosa — Restaurant in Mesa

TLDR: take out order placed 9 hours prior to scheduled pickup time not ready for over an hour, no response or refund from the business after nearly a week and multiple emails. Witnessed extremely unsafe practices (this coming from someone with over a decade in this business) and complete apathy from management. Will not be returning. Continue reading if you want to hear the specifics.

On May 5, I chose to order dinner for my family from the Mesa location of Tia Rosa's. Since I expected them to be busy due to the holiday, I texted my order (1 roast chicken family meal, 1 shrimp taco, and 2 margaritas) as directed by their website. By 2pm, I still had not gotten any kind of respponse to the text, so I called to confirm. They let me know the order had been received, apologized for not responding, and I had a text confirmation shortly after getting off the phone.

I arrived with my wife and 2 year old daughter to pick up our food just prior to the scheduled pickup at 5:45. There was a line out the door (again, not surprising given the date), so I had my wife and daughter wait in the car while I went to pick up our food. I stood in that line for a full 45 minutes, only to be told that this was just the line to pay, and that I would need to step to the side (in their quite crowded lobby) and wait for my name to be called. Oh, I ordered drinks too? Well then I need to go over to their bar (which had people sitting at it, despite the closure order) to get them from the bartender myself. It was during the 15 minutes I spent in between paying and hearing my name called that I spotted the only manager (a tall blonde woman dressed in white) that I saw during what would turn into an over an hour ordeal.

The delay was very clearly caused by a total lack of any kind of system for matching customers with food. Every table I could see in the closed-off dining area was stacked with assembled orders, and the hostesses (who were clearly trying their best with what they had been given to work with) were left to grab orders at random and call the names out in the hope that the person in question was there and had already paid. The appearance of the manager gave me hope that she would sort things out and get food moving. I could not have been more dissappointed.

I watched her "work"- She didn't organize her crew. She didn't diffuse any of the irate customers crowding her lobby. Instead, I watched as she systematically threw her employees under the bus one by one. The only "managerial" thing I witnessed her do was interrupt her employees who were actually working to shove them over to whoever was complaining the loudest, slowing the service even further. I never saw her talk to a single customer herself. I never saw her touch a single order. She was clearly above all that.

When my name was finally called, I was handed a bag containing the single shrimp taco. I asked where my chicken meal was, and was told I needed to go outside to a second line to pick it up. When I reached that line, I was 10th... and the chicken was being cooked to order right in front of me. The chicken I had ordered 9 hours prior, and waited for over an hour on-site for, had not yet even touched the grill. By this point, my toddler was in full meltdown and I was forced to leave without my food.

Today, 6 days and multiple emails to the restaurant later, I still have not received a reply or a refund. I feel I shouldn't be surprised, as this is consistent with the complete managerial apathy I witnessed for over an...

Do NOT bother. This place was filthy dirty. Ordered food before we noticed how dirty it was. Ordered a cocktail and was shocked when the bill arrived. A pineapple margarita was $22.00! WHAT? We spoke to our server and he pointed out that no prices are on the menu and it "always puts us in an awkward spot." Well, if they don't want to be "in an awkward spot" then why don't they explain that their cocktails are SUPER EXPENSIVE? I can go to a Five Star resort in Scottsdale and get a great cocktail for less than $22.00 made from scratch, not grocery store margarita mix and a splash of tequila. Once we got the manager involved, she too agreed that the cocktail prices should be on their menu. She agreed to drop the cost from $22 down to $12.00. I thanked her and we were then presented with our final bill. This now had an additional "non food service charge." For any non cash transactions (we were using a debit card) the customer is being charged a service charge. Absolutely ridiculous. Not sure who owns this establishment but, they need to take a few lessons from RESTAURANT RESCUE. Suggestions : Deep clean the restaurant.

Deep clean all chotchkees above and around booths.

Rework your menu and price to include any "mystery service charge."

Train staff to be upfront with clients regarding overpriced cocktails. You'd be better off with three or four finely crafted original cocktails. Seek out a mixologist for help.

Deep clean your restrooms.

Clean parking lot and tidy up your patio.

This place looks like it hasn't had anyone paying attention to their business, staff or physical structure for a VERY long time. Such a shame because years ago (prior to the fire) this place was PACKED ALL THE TIME! Sadly, that's no longer the fact. This place will definitely be closed...

Beautiful and fun-looking restaurant, and we got seated quickly on a Saturday night, but those were the only positive things our group experienced... It took 10mins to get anybody to acknowledge us after sitting down and give us water - they brought only 3 waters, but there were 4 of us, plus it took them another 5mins to bring the additional water, which we had to ask for. We kept waiting another 5mins after that, but no waiter came to ask for our order, so we decided we would order for takeout due to a time crunch. We had to literally get up and ask somebody to come take our order. An additional 5mins after that, our actual assigned waiter finally came to our table and asked for our order, but we had already ordered, of course. Then, it took 25mins before even getting any updates on our food (we had to flag a bus boy down to check), which they said the food would come "soon". We then asked if we could pay while waiting for the food just to speed the process. That took an additional 15mins(!!!), and the food still hadn't come out yet. We then waited another 5mins for our "soon" food, and we left. Well, the food was underwhelming itself. The main carne asada plate was roast beef, not carne asada. The two tacos plate gave you the option of only rice OR beans (not both), and the pictures on the menu were deceiving by showing a small salad which it didn't come with either. The other food was also bland. And, lastly, the prices - it is over-priced for the amount of food you get, by at least $5. Nobody even offered any discounts for the poor service tendered. Long story short, it was highly...