Iron Door — Restaurant in Oro Valley

TLDR: a quaint little restaurant with a decently long wait (maybe get a reservation if possible? We didn’t) at the top of Mt Lemmon with fantastic views, courteous staff, great servers, good food, AWESOME desserts, and an interesting history.

First off, I’m not one to think about whether a place is wheelchair accessible or not, but since we were waiting outside for about 45 min, I witnessed what went into bringing some mature customers up the hill- you’re not supposed to drive up the entryway, but it is steep and a long distance, so there were vehicles driving the people up the hill. I honestly didn’t pay enough attention to see if there was a separate entrance for wheelchairs, but where we entered, there were a flight of stone stairs leading into the historic building. Maybe the Iron Door can address whether there is a separate entrance in a response? 😎

The views are AMAZING! Definitely worth a visit up Mount Lemmon. I would say, if you’re a person who gets chilly, bring a sweater. They did not have the heat on inside as far as I could tell, and some windows were open. It felt like it might have been in the low 60s at best. If you’re used to cold (which I would be since I’m from Michigan 🤣) you’ll be fine!

We started out with a Michelob Ultra and I got a local beer, the Dragoon Amber, which was really good, though a bit heavy for me so I don’t know that I’d order it again. I had questions about the different local beers and our server was AMAZING! When he didn’t know an answer, he went back to the kitchen to find out and would come back quickly with the answer. We had really good service.

If you follow me, you’ll see I must’ve been on a grilled cheese kick, because I ordered the Graham's Ultimate Grilled Cheese (Gouda, gruyere and smoked cheddar with bacon and tomato slices on sourdough- no bacon for me 😎), which was good. I didn’t feel like there was anything hugely special about it, but I loved the mix of three cheeses. It was as expected.

2 of my party ordered the Iron Door Chili, (Served with cheese, onions, and our famous corn bread). It was served just high of lukewarm, which one member of our party commented on as a positive saying “most places try to scald you with their chili and this is at perfect eating temperate”, while the other commented on it as a negative saying “this is almost to a point where I’d send it back to be reheated, but I’m hungry so I’ll eat it quickly”. 🤣 The lesson here: you can’t please everybody.

I guess half of my party really just orders the same thing everywhere we go- I keep ordering grilled cheeses, and she keeps ordering Reubens. She got the George's Gorge (Turkey Reuben with sauerkraut, Swiss cheese, Thousand Island dressing grilled on marble rye.) the name of which we had a fun time repeating 👅. She said it was really good.

My bf and I shared the Mountain Berry Pie - I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to get a picture before we dug in. It was really good: sweet, yet still tart. We ended up adding a scoop of vanilla ice cream, because we decided it wasn’t enough sugar 🤪. Next time (if there’s a next time) I’d really like to try the strudels. The dessert was the highlight of the...

I wish I could have given them zero Stars because they didn't deserve a one star review. Twice. I have been there and so disappointed in their attitudes that the second time I left before I ordered the food. The first time I went with my dear friend who is handicapped And struggles walking with a walker. There is no handicapped ramp at the front door so she walked up the hill and went to the back door where there is a ramp. Then we went through the restaurant and back to the front where the Host is stationed. He told us that we had to wait outside because we didn't have a reservation. So out we go Walker and all and waited for approximately 30 minutes until we went back inside and waited another 10 minutes for a table. At that time he was very rude and we almost left but I thought that was just a one-time deal about a person having a bad day. So we tried again, number 2 review. We made a reservation several days in advance, on a Thursday for 14 people to sit at an extended table inside the restaurant. When we arrived we were told to wait outside but if we had to go to the restroom we could only go two at a time. We didn't need to use the restroom we needed to have a seat at our table that we reserved. Mind you, there is no waiting area outside. It is only blacktop and not even shaded. So we waited outside for about 25 to 30 minutes. Then they called our name and we walked up the stairs inside to the holding area. We were treated like chattel. The greeter, host, manager started counting off people and told the first seven people to follow him. While I was one of the first seven people, my husband wasn't and I repeatedly told him I don't want to be with the first seven people because I want to sit with my husband. So he counted off people again and these seven people followed him outside to a corner area . They were walked to the restaurant past several empty tables and told to sit outside in the corner. One of the gentlemen in our group felt very disrespected and voiced his opinion then he walked out. We were treated so disrespectful that all of us decided to leave. Our reservation was not honored. Our request was not honored. We wanted to eat together so we all decided to go someplace else. We ended up at the Mt. Lemmon Lodge that seated us immediately had our orders out to us with in 15 minutes. The iron door should be called the iron fist. I gave them two chances. I will never go there again and that was the opinion of All 14 of us. Sorry iron door but you didn't deserve our $500 . Being that we all work on Mount Lemmon, it's going to end up being a lot more than $500 that you lost. Due to your disrespectful attitude. We will all take our...

We wanted to cool off, so we went up the mountain yesterday for a late lunch.

First impression was either the establishment makes zero profits to reinvest in items like tablecloths (ours had holes around the edges where it’s moulded itself after what I assume has been years of service) appropriate dish ware (pie a la mode was brought out on small plate instead of bowl and eating without contents spilling off was a feat), or the management is cheap and has total disregard for cleanliness and details.

Sitting a while, watching the staff clean tables by pushing debris onto the floor, I noticed table lamp shade was covered in food spatter, and when my hand journeyed down to my lap to grab my napkin my finger accidentally found the years-old pile of crumbs in the corner pocket of the ancient tablecloth.

Not to dwell too much on the lack of cleanliness and upkeep, here’s the take on food: Mac and Cheese had a nice bacony flavor, but we could not find the cheese. Thank goodness we added the dollop of canned chilis to the top (for $1) or I don’t think there would have been any flavor other than bacon. We usually enjoy different takes on Mac n Cheese but this was confounding - we’ve never seen it made without any obvious cheese - macaroni had obviously had something added to it - a super watery (maybe) cheese influenced sauce that had totally absorbed? Sandwiches were edible - not what I’d call restaurant quality: more canned chilis mixed in with melted cheese and deli sliced beef on toasted bread. Pickle was crunchy, and German potato salad was a nice difference from the usual mayonnaisey fare. Potato chips looked like a small pile of plain Lays tossed on a plate. Mountain Berry pie was better than most - double crust was well made and baked but lacked depth, as did the filling. I appreciated the filling was not sticky sweet but the combination was a bit one-note and needed some depth - the ice cream definitely added to the flavor.

Service wasn’t bad - our waitress was very nice and attentive. The overall impression of the greeters/seaters was, well...clueless? The staff (and management) definitely could use some training on how not to scare patrons with, well, a filthy venue as well as proper serving and seating techniques. I personally start thinking of all the ways I could get poisoned during my meal when I see a filthy dining room, and watch staff dump droppings onto the floor. Customers also get a little anxious listening to the yelling in the kitchen.

Would I go back? Not unless it was my last option up the mountain. I’d give other venues a try or just eat before heading...