Scramble — Restaurant in Phoenix

This was my final stop in Arizona before boarding the plane back to the NYC area. Scramble was literally maybe 200 feet from my gate (so conveniently located at least), and did what it was supposed to do - provide some carbs/sustenance so I didn't have to exclusively rely on the charcuterie box that United offers on longer domestic flights (which by the way is actually pretty tasty and legit if you haven't had it). It wasn't a particularly memorable meal, but it wasn't awful. And for the standards of airport options, on par with most of the quick stops like this I've made in the past.

The line for this place was VERY sluggish, and if there had been more than three people in front of me, I likely would have bypassed this for something quick from one of the convenience stores. It took close to 10 minutes to get to the register, and even with the benefit of hindsight I'm not sure what the deal was. Maybe the people in front of me were giant derps? Maybe the woman at the register was a little slow processing the orders? The woman was actually SUPER friendly/nice, which I suppose could have actually slowed down the service with the extraneous small talk, but I think that's such a positive overall I wouldn't even care if that was part of the issue. Maybe I'm just jaded from NYC but every single place we stopped in Arizona had very good customer service. Good job, Arizona.

After looking up at the menu (pretty standard breakfast entrees), I had my heart set on biscuits and gravy. Unfortunately, I was told immediately that they were no longer available. The menu isn't that big - we're talking about 10 options for full-on meals, I'd guess - so running out of one of the choices seems like an unforced error in my book. It was also around 9am, so they can't even claim this was a weird time of day to have a full breakfast inventory available. And there's no way to inform people standing in line about that without putting up a little sign or something (which is one of my biggest pet peeves with food trucks, incidentally; I've stayed in line for 20 minutes with those only to find out that the handwritten item on the side of the truck isn't available. Cross it out!).

Regardless, I pivoted pretty quickly to a standard dish, the Two Eggs Any Way, with scrambled eggs, hash browns and a piece of sourdough toast. It showed up at my table fairly quickly given that Scramble had a handful of other customers, and as you can see from the attached, it was a big portion. I finished it, but only because travelling dramatically increases my appetite. Normal me probably leaves a bit of this on the plate. It certainly wasn't the best of this dish I've had before, but it wasn't bad. One nitpick that would be a quick fix - be careful with the placement of the pre-packaged butters. Because they had them on a pre-warmed plate, they were literally liquid by the time I opened them up for the sourdough. Just have them on the tray.

You could do...

Understaffed to say the least. I was going to order at kiosk but theres no modification settings, So i waited 7 minutes to order with the cashier. She was called to help get food out the window. I worked food service 20+ years, Im patient. When caught up, she took my order: $16 Two eggs any way (scrambled-hard). It came with hashbrowns and sourdough toast. I added Applewood bacon (well done) for $3 extra. I got my food fast because it was dine-in. When I received it, the eggs were scrambled (soft and fluffy) laid on top of a small puddle of water. The bacon was no where near well done and the toast was barely toasted. I attempted to take it back and ask for it to be cooked to temp, but by that time there was about 10-12 people in line. I used my soft sponge like toast to finish soaking up the water under the eggs and picked apart the bacon hopeful for a cooked piece. This is not my first time here but it is my last. I paid top dollar for something that should've been on the dollar menu. I am disappointed and disgusted. And it all started with the lack of customer service skills from the cashier. But my undercooked order passed through the cook, then the lady quality checking the food and calling out orders. 3x I got bad customer service. 3x I was failed. I've recruited and trained from hostess to line cook. Good customer service is mandatory and the foundation for repeat customers. People will pay nearly anything if the service is good. They will come back and go out their way if the food and service are top notch. But I will never do that here. It's over priced garbage....

I had a long wait at the gate and was getting hungry. There were several options at the gate, but I decided to give Scramble a chance, EVEN after reading a page of one-star reviews. I was more like, how bad can it really be?

Well, I took some photos as proof of my Sunrise Sandwich! The bread was nicely toasted, the temperature of the food was good (fresh!). The ham and egg tasted just fine. The only thing that was a bit meh was the hash brown that's not crispy enough and bland.

I get it, for something almost $20 after tax should have been more delicious and larger, but it was just what I needed before a long evening flight, so I don't vomit hard during many turbulence to come.

Lastly, the dining area was actually quite nice. Bright and clean. Closer to the gate lobby, there were some long tables and stools with outlets that you could sit, plug in your laptop and work if you needed some privacy. People (like me) was only using that area to wait for...