Gertrude's by Tarbell's — Restaurant in Phoenix

The atmosphere was great but couldn't save the review in my opinion. Before continuing, it's fair to note that this was only my experience, and others may have different opinions about what quantifies as good food or service. To clarify, neither the food nor the service was bad, it just wasn't good.

The menu is actually pretty appealing when you look at it, but once the food arrived, it wasn't as expected. To start, the Salmon Bagel provided a half filet of salmon, overcooked, plopped onto a bagel, which is far from the thick sliced smoke/raw salmon you would expect when ordering an item like this. Not bad, but overcooked and dry on top of it being difficult to eat conventionally makes it a big miss in my book. We also ordered Quiche, which we quickly discovered was not fresh. The egg was discolored, approaching that sort of "left out too long" color, which gave us an indication that it had been refrigerated for at least a couple of days.

We also ordered the Juevos Rancheros, which wasn't bad. The salsa was actually really good!

The last dish I want to talk about what the breakfast fried rice. It seemed magnificent on paper and truly was not so bad. It is a unique dish using wild rice and other spices and finishes to achieve its own flavor profile, so do not expect a typical fried rice flavor. My one issue is that the egg was tossed onto the dish as if someone made an empty omelet, and through it in as a side, rather than the rice being fried together with the egg. It was as if the egg was a side to the rice, and not part of the dish, which is a big mistake for any friend rice. Although unique in flavor, it wasn't exactly appetizing. I think someone out there would enjoy it, but this was a one-time dish for me.

My final issue foodwise was that I asked for a piece of toast on the side. There were no bread options, which is fine, but I also asked for a soft-boiled egg with my toast, as I intended the toast and egg to be my complete breakfast initially. I saw hard boiled eggs on the menu and figured it were possible, but I was told they could not make a soft-boiled egg. I have never been to any breakfast place and been told the chef could not muster a soft-boiled egg. My assumption, given the nature of egg dishes we received, is that the restaurant prepares its hard-boiled eggs in advance, so fresh food can't always be expected. I was fine with this and asked for jam instead. I was told the restaurant carried prickly pear jam. I received my toast, not with jam, but with syrup. Prickly pear margarita syrup in a plastic container, to spread on my toast. What made this worse was seeing the very same margarita mic next to the jam in the gift shop connected to the restaurant.

As for the service, it wasn't terrible, but we were rarely checked on, received our drinks without straws, received our coffee without spoons or sugar (we were brought a bowl that had only Splenda and stevia after he asked if we wanted sugar and cream), and some dishes came to us without silverware, so we had to wait until the waiter came back to our table to ask for it.

This wasn't a bad experience, but the kind that makes me say that visiting once was enough, and that I wouldn't recommend, which is sad because my interest in the other dishes is high but eclipsed by my distrust after this experience. The service and food, while not bad, leaves much to be desired for a restaurant that bas raving reviews all over. It stinks to say, I've had better food and service at places like iHop.

The atmosphere is all you're getting here...

In May, my husband and I took a thrilling trip to Phoenix, Arizona, to see the Rolling Stones! It was our first road trip as newlyweds, and we were excited.

As a gardening maven in Phoenix, I suggested visiting the Cacti Botanical Garden. As dinner time rolled around, we decided to eat at the on-premise restaurant Gertrude's, expecting a pleasant dining experience with my husband and friends. Instead, we were met with some of the most appalling and outright racist treatment I've ever encountered in a restaurant. The shock and disappointment were palpable.

The hostility began before we were seated, with a 20-minute wait in a nearly empty restaurant. The hostess and waiter showed blatant disregard for our group, making it clear that we were not welcome. The waiter's suggestion that we 'go to a different restaurant' was so disrespectful it left us speechless. To add insult to injury, they completely disregarded my service dog, insisting he be placed on the dirty restaurant floor rather than in his sealed carriage. The floor was disgustingly filthy and unsanitary, and the request was humiliating for any pet owner, especially for someone with a service animal who has a legal right to be there.

As a Black woman, I've unfortunately experienced racism in various forms, but this situation felt like a throwback to an era I had hoped was behind us. Watching how I was treated, my Italian husband, English, and Armenian friends were equally outraged. No one should have to endure such treatment based on their race or background, nor should they have to tolerate such blatant disrespect toward a service animal.

I should also mention that we went to ten other restaurants with our service dog and this was the ONLY restaurant that gave us an outrageous time. So it was clear to us that this was a racial issue and not an issue regarding a dog.

I would strongly advise against dining at Gertrude's, especially for people of color or those with disabilities. We all deserve respect and dignity, and Gertrude's failed to provide either. This establishment needs to seriously reflect on its customer service and take...

The food and atmosphere were fine. The hostess (blonde older woman) on the other hand was extremely rude to us and we wont ever be going back or recommending others to go either.

We had a large group of people arrive asking if they could accommodate us which they said no, which is fine, they appeared to busy and there was an hour wait even for a table of two, so we made plans to go somewhere else after walking the gardens for a bit. When waiting in the lobby with my two small children the hostess asked us if we needed a table or if we were just taking shelter (it was lightly raining), when I told her we were with the large group that was asking to be seated she snapped back, almost yelling "we don't have a table for YOU!". After leaving and walking around we were headed out to Fate Brewing Co. as they said they could accommodate our party. While walking out another hostess saw us and told us that the dinner rush was over and that we could still eat there if we wanted to stay, having children with us we decided that might be easier so we decided to stay. As we tried to get our group and kids situated the older blonde hostess that was originally rude to us came flying over to our table yelling about how she "didn't realize how many people were in our group" (it was 12 adults and two kids at one table and 4 older kids at a separate table) and we were "encroaching on other guests" by being there. I was a little shocked on how unhinged this woman was. She knew how many were in out party and we were not close to anyone so to tell us we were "encroaching" was quiet rude. We had plans to go elsewhere, they were the ones who told us to stay and then turned around and treated us like a burden. ...