LON’s at The Hermosa Inn — Restaurant in Paradise Valley

We had high expectations for this experience: the restaurant is beautiful and the reviews are stellar, but unfortunately, nothing today convinced me to return.

The introductory madeleines were poorly made. They were dry, crumbled apart, and were overall underwhelming with an unpleasant texture that demanded water to wash them down.

The shrimp cocktail was bland and shockingly low quality. The shrimp were very small and had a tough texture. The tomato base of the cocktail tasted canned. The tortilla chips served with it were almost certainly store-bought at worst or stale and poorly made at best. In a city full of inspirational Mexican food and consequently stellar shrimp cocktail, it’s bold to serve a low-quality, under-seasoned, and unimaginative take on a shrimp cocktail with no supporting flavors present as part of a $100/pp meal (not including drinks or tip).

The French toast bread pudding tasted better, but the lemon ricotta/cream on top resembled a broken whipped cream and was an odd texture and gritty. The texture of the bread pudding itself was also a bit off in yet another poor execution. The custard used to bind the pudding together tasted more of scrambled eggs than of custard. It was clearly overcooked.

The main courses were all underwhelming and disappointing. They were all extremely under-seasoned and cold upon arrival. We had to ask for salt for the table, which for a place that is charging over $100/pp, having to ask for salt to compensate for a remarkably bland meal is not acceptable. At this price point, seasoning is the absolute bare minimum of expectations.

The pork tenderloin was overcooked and dry while being cold. It was under-seasoned if at all.

The open-faced omelette was overcooked and the egg was rubbery. It was under-seasoned again. It came with a fruit medley on the side straight out of a continental breakfast at a holiday inn. This meal was over $600 total for 4 people. To be served an egg white omelette with bland vegetables atop with a side of poorly cut fruit is an absolute insult.

The short rib was shockingly cold, which for a protein with a higher fat content such as short rib, the resulting texture was extremely unpleasant as there was cold and unrendered fat present in every bite. There was almost no seasoning present, yet again. The poached eggs were far too underdone and had a lot of unpleasant, raw egg white within.

The dessert was also just very unimaginative. For over $100/pp, I expect a bit more than whipped cream with macerated strawberries. The service was also unrefined. I want to preface this with the fact that our server was fine albeit not as present as we would have liked. However, the overall service was unpolished.

We arrive at our table and are immediately greeted with a dirty napkin on the floor as well as a used fork from the table(s) before us. They use linen here, so when these linens are dirty, it is very obvious. It was gross. They did not pick these up at any point throughout the service. They were not exactly hidden either as they were only halfway under the table and I could see the dirty linen and fork before even sitting down at the table.

After our first course, we had several empty plates in the center of the table leftover. Our main courses were brought out to our table, set at our table, and then the staff proceeded to walk away without clearing the previous course’s plates, which were clearly empty and in the middle of the table ready to be removed. Our table was cluttered for the entirety of the main course.

There were also flies everywhere. Had we been on the patio, this would have been understandable. However, we were sitting deep inside of the restaurant. It was a nuisance and gross.

I know that all restaurants charge a “mother’s day” tax, but this is no justification for the complete mediocrity that we experienced across the board. For 4 people: food, 1 drink each, and tip, we spent almost $650. What we got in return was an insult from the food to the service; absolutely nothing lived up to even half of what we...

We chose Hermosa Inn as our wedding venue with food being provided by Lon’s hoping for a classy and upscale wedding. Unfortunately we were disappointed by Lon’s food and service. The vegetarian platter had ONE piece of potato and ONE piece of asparagus whereas the non vegetarian plates had triple the amounts of vegetables (photo attached). This was so embarrassing as there was no bread on the tables either to supplement. We had to take the vegetables off of the regular plates and offer it to our vegetarian guests. Lon’s had a table for coffee on the side and only provided paper cups for our guests coffee. Keep in mind the amount charged per person per meal was $150 excluding the alcoholic beverages. As a part of this deal our guests were supposed to have soft drinks served at the dinner time which never happened, Instead, they were going around with alcohol as we had to pay extra for that. As for the regular dinner plates, What we sampled prior to the wedding was double the size of what it was served at the wedding, which is quite misleading. Not to mention that the meat that was offered at the wedding time at least the portion that my husband and I got as the parents of the bride was 2/3 Fat and only 1/3 meat. Also, the appetizer that we chose that was supposed to be going around during reception time was so scarce that most of our guests did not even know there was any food going around during the reception. I wish there was more transparency, and we would’ve known how little food there was going to be and we would’ve been given the option to either pay more If we wanted to have a decent amount of food. At that point we would have either chosen to pay more or just go to a different venue altogether instead of being embarrassed like this in front of our guests. Lastly, they booked another venue right next to ours at the same time. No one could hear any of our speeches as within 5 feet from us there were people under the influence next door being extremely loud. When we show concerned prior to the wedding about having another venue at the same time right next to us, We were falsely reassured by Liz, The event manager, that no one in this place has ever gotten drunk to that point, and there was no reason to be concerned. Besides the fact that no one from the venue or Lon’s did anything about this. We had to literally go to the event ourselves and ask them to keep it a little down. At least you’re in our speeches. Lon’s may be a good place just dining in, but absolutely not a great option for a...

This was an unusual experience for me. Despite having previously dined at Lon's, I decided to call ahead and make early dinner reservations since I had out-of-town guests. To my surprise, the person on the phone asked me to specify my gratuity before confirming the reservation. Not only was 15% no longer acceptable, but I was required to commit to paying either 18% or 20% before even arriving at the restaurant. While I don't skimp on tips and am happy to reward excellent service, this approach felt unreal and somewhat off-putting. The person handling my reservation even suggested that I could opt to pay more if I wanted to.

When I inquired about the necessity of this policy, stating that I had never encountered such a practice before, I was told that table assignments were based on the gratuity percentages for the waitstaff. When I questioned what would happen if I didn't like my waiter, I was assured that "all our wait staff is great." My response was, "Shouldn't I, as the patron, be making that judgment since I'm the one receiving the service?" The person seemed eager to end the call and essentially refused to make our reservation because we were not willing to commit to a gratuity percentage before dining. It was disappointing.

I couldn't help but think, has anyone else experienced this before? What is happening to our society and people? Why this emphasis on greed? In high-end restaurants in Paris or Europe in general, it's not expected for patrons to pay a tip, although it's appreciated if they choose to. Isn't a tip supposed to be given voluntarily as a gesture of gratitude for excellent service? Aren't restaurants already making enough money to adequately compensate their waitstaff? Why are they relying on patrons to supplement their salaries? I have decided not to revisit this establishment and would not recommend Lon's at the Hermosa due to this disappointing customer...