Hearth '61 at Mountain Shadows — Restaurant in Paradise Valley

We made advance reservations and came with a large group of 25 people for brunch to celebrate my wife's birthday on Sunday. The majority of the restaurant was empty. Unfortunately we had a very poor experience in terms of both the food and service -

They made us pay $29/person for a prix fixe menu and the menu ended up only giving us a one course meal, as you can see from the photo uploaded. Some of the items on this prix fixe menu are only $15-20 on their regular menu so its unclear why the upcharge even existed. Pretty ridiculous and technically a scam for doing this to us as a group.

The majority of people ordered the flat iron steak and it was overcooked for almost everyone's orders. Not only do you scam us with pricing but also provide poor quality food.

The servers were mostly unattentive and at some points we had to refill our waters ourselves. They also never came back to ask how the food was when it all came out.

When it came down to settle the check they provided one bill and a piece of paper for us to write/calculate everyone's totals ourselves. How infuriating is that? I went to speak to the manager and he said that they could do it but refused to do so.

I clearly do not understand the practice of a restaurant treating a large group of customers as an inconvenience from the start. This restaurant was given ample opportunity in advance to prep for this group and failed on so many levels. All you have done is make a quick buck to instead create 25 individuals who will spread poor word of mouth of your restaurant and that logically makes no sense.

*Response to Owner Feedback:

For #1, the birthday girl, Phoebe, mentioned that she never approved the menu items and the first time she ever saw these items was when we showed up for brunch. Who were you working with in the group that approved these menu items and was it done via email or phone? It was also not communicated from the servers to the group that this included non-alcoholic beverages, else I suspect more people would have gotten beverages instead of just water.

For #2, this would have been made more apparent if you had simply been proactive and asked around the group instead of asking a couple individuals in the group when you came over to the table.

For #3, making it inconvenient for your customers is never a good policy, whether its the standard or not. I would suggest instead of doing what is the standard, think about stepping outside of this mentality to go above and beyond what your...

The reason for 2 stars is simple: great service, poor food. But with failure in food a restaurant doesn’t have much to stand on.

Starting with the positives, our waiter, the staff, hostess, were all attentive and professional. I’d honestly give the people at Hearth 5 stars for their exceptional service.

The person responsible for disappointment is the executive chef. While I noticed the kitchen appeared understaffed (granted it was a quiet Sunday evening) each dish that came out of the kitchen was unbalanced and poorly executed.

The burrata: exceptional texture and creaminess (but almost certain not made on site) It was sadly overshadowed by a strange cringe-worthy chimichurri that masked the glorious cheese.

Sopressata flatbread: amazing in theory, should have been a salty, savoury, guilty pleasure. But this flatbread was overly tart, acidic and bitter / slightly burnt. So much lemon in the arugula topping, our waiter saw my eyes shut tight and wince and even asked to remake it.

Lentil mushroom stew: the mushrooms never made it to the flavor party. Albeit the stew was well seasoned and hearty.

The chicken: I’d say it’s quite hard to dry out dark meat. You have to really be careless to let a chicken thigh get gummy...well, that’s that.

The highlight: the bread. Asked a waitress if it was made in house, turns out it’s from a bakery called noble bread...Bravo!

Overall the experience was great and the staff tried their best to compensate, but food - terrible. I felt even more compelled to write this seeing all the rave reviews. It’s because of these rave reviews that I came to dine with high expectations. I’ll say with confidence that flavours were less than promising, and execution was a disaster. Quite the...

I went to this place for Valentine's day with my love. Here's what I thought...

Service: I had made a reservation at 8, but they didn't have a table available - they asked us to sit at the bar and wait 15 min. We ended up waiting 30 min, but they ended up covering our drinks, which I thought was a classy move. Still, 30 min? What a first world problem to have.

Food: The food was quite delicious. To start, we had oysters and ahi tartare. The oysters were ok, but the accompanying sauce had almost no flavor - you better love the taste of a fresh oyster to have them. Also, there weren't enough lemon slices, and the lemon slice I got was so thin I couldn't squeeze it. I was sour about that. The tartare was delightful an came with a bold presentation. The seasoning was perfect and it came with what looked like a chic

For entrées, my wife had the beet salad while I got chicken. The chicken had a delicious, crunchy skin on top, with a succulent, meaty middle. I thought with the crunchy top, the inside would be dry, but it wasn't, and it made my night.

The portions were pretty hearty, so we skipped dessert.

Drink: The drinks on the menu were all designed by the bartender at the bar we sat at while waiting for our table. I'm so sad I didn't get his name because I wanted to send some praise his way. Here's to you, unknown beverage soldier... I had what I could describe as a negroni, but with more volume. It was a little less bitter, but still great. Wifey had some sort of concoction with pineapple, tequila, and sriracha. It was delicious!

Overall, the experience was good, but the food was a skosh too pricey. I would probably go back, but it will have to be a...