Red Mountain Cafe — Restaurant in Mesa

Four stars instead of five because the ambiance is pretty bad. From the outside it looks like a seedy bar, with the blacked out windows and only a tiny oval "open" sign. On the inside, it looks like they opened in 1974 and haven't updated anything in nearly 50 years.

On the other hand, I don't want them to get new stuff because I'll have to pay for it with a price hike, but then I just wouldn't go back, so if they spruced up the place, I'd lose a nice little place to go in the summer.

I say summer because this place should be called 'The Snowbird Diner'. It's so busy all winter while they're here, but the locals must think it really is a bar and keep driving by because last night, there were only three tables full on the right-hand side of the place.

The restaurant is completely divided down the middle with only the checkstand joining the two sides at the very front. The kitchen is in the middle, making both sides look very small. We've sat on both sides. The left side seems a little bigger and the restrooms are over there, but the right side is cleaner, at least from my experience.

Last night we had the best waiter ever! Chuck had all three tables and was very attentive to everyone. He was on top of all of our needs throughout the meal, refilling beverages, bringing wherever his patrons desired. We left him a 50% tip. He was amazing.

Now to the food. My husband had a five star experience. He got the Friday night fish fry. The cod is succulent and juicy. The breading is perfect and crunchy (At least it was last night--when they're more busy it may be more of a rush job).

Unfortunately, I had more of a two star experience. I ordered a patty melt. The recipe for a proper patty melt is a juicy hamburger patty on toasted rye bread with grilled onions, thousand island dressing, and Swiss cheese. They serve it with cheddar cheese, which is fine with me because I like it better anyway, and the onions were grilled and there were plenty of them. However... The hamburger should never have been served in that condition. It was black. The toasted rye bread was burnt. And there was no sauce at all. Fortunately for me, I know how to make thousand island dressing, so I took some of the tartar sauce from the fish and mixed it with ketchup to exactly the right proportions and it added the expected flavor perfectly. I only ate half of my sandwich though. Even with the sauce I made myself, it was still way overcooked and chokingly dry.

Then okay, I make the best potato salad in the world. Don't roll your eyes--you haven't had it, but everyone who has can testify that they've never had better, so I don't know what possessed me to order the potato salad as my side. It was gloppy and vinegary and generally terrible. The picture is at the end of the meal after I couldn't gag it down at all. It was gross. They have plenty of other sides. Pick anything else!

My husband loved that fish so much that we will definitely be back. He will have the fish and I will not have the patty melt. There are lots of good looking things on their menu. I never found out for sure if they serve breakfast all day, but if they do, I think I'll try...

We ordered food to be picked up in store and upon getting our food they rushed to package it and send us on our way. When we arrived home we realized half of our order was not in the bags so we called the store to get it situated and they told us that they cannot make the food for us after we spent $50 at their establishment. We asked for a refund as well and they said I had to go through whoever I went through when ordering but I ordered right off the site and not through any delivery service. I even said I would drive back to the store to pick up my missing items and she said and I quote “I’m gonna have to say no”. If I knew this was how they would be as a buisness I would have never given them my money. The food isn’t that good to begin with so this was a waste of my time and money. Very disappointment in this establishment and their employees.

RESPONSE TO REPLY:

First off, we called in 2 times total because the first time you wouldn’t listen to us and kept interrupting while we explain the situation which is frustrating because you acted like you didn’t care that you guys forgot our Baked potato, hash browns and eggs. We did not ask you to remake our entire order, all we asked for was the missing items. We called in the second time because we could not figure out the refund process since we did it through the Google page and NOT through a delivery app so it kept giving us your guys phone number. You didn’t even want to listen to us or even help us at all. You interrupted us multiple times during the call and then asked if we did the refund and since we couldn’t figure it out (which we tried to explain MULTIPLE times) we said no and you just went straight to “then im gonna have to say no on making the missing items”. First off that’s theft, I paid you guys to make us everything we ordered and in the end we didn’t even get the items AND we lost out on money. What kind of establishment treats customers like that? I’m really disappointed in how we were treated in store and over the phone. I didn’t mention before because it didn’t matter at the time but since we are on the topic of disrespect, I also need to add the fact that we got side eye and rude looks from one of your employees who was working the front while we waited for our food. Now if I owned a buisness I would NEVER treat my customers the way I was being treated at this...

multiple wrong orders through delivery service. Even after I called in and talked to them the very next order was wrong. Delivery services won’t even cover for them anymore. So when they mess up you’re just out. And now all of a sudden when I place orders, they get canceled. So I’m assuming my review has hurt somebody’s feelings.

Update: Still being vindictive and canceling my orders. Just because I complained about them getting every order wrong. I can’t believe the ower allows these employees to do this.

Update 2: The restaurant has responded. First of all doorDash automatically assigns the coupon every time I place an order. That has nothing to do with me. So they were just blaming it on DoorDash. Second of all They asked that I call in and speak to somebody which I did. I spoke to a manager. She said it wouldn’t happen again and it happened the very next day. notice they did not apologize or respond to the fact that I received multiple, let me repeat that multiple incorrect orders. So many that DoorDash Stop reimbursing for the errors. Lastly they talk about how reviews affect “real” families How about when I place an order multiple different orders And I have to listen to my kids cry and complain because their food didn’t come. So yes it does affect real people and real families.The whole reason review websites exist is so people can post reviews about experiences. Definitely not harassment. If you don’t want a negative...