Cala Scottsdale — Restaurant in Scottsdale

As a foodie of Scottsdale, I have been to more restaurants out here than I can think of. CALA by far is one of my favorites, this is one of my top spots to go and I frequent here a lot. Tonight was quite a different experience than I’m used to.

The food and service was great except for one issue. My hostess was so welcoming and sat me immediately despite being early for my reservation. The food is amazing, I got hummus and the pasta alla vodka with an espresso martini. All of it was beyond flavorful, well priced for Scottsdale, and a great atmosphere to get some work done in. My waitress, Kinsey, was phenomenal, so sweet and helpful with what to order. She made sure I had everything I needed and came to check on me many times.

The one issue I had was with the manager, Alec. I did not personally speak with him, but asked who he was, and I’m very glad I didn’t interact with him. I noticed he was being very rude to my waitress, as well as the host and a few other employees. The restaurant was slowing down (I stayed until about 2 hours before closing), so I asked for a box for the leftovers. As it was nearing closing, the restaurant had one other table but me, and a few patrons at the bar. When the employee came back with my box, I was chatting with them for approximately 2 minutes about how good the restaurant is and how great my food was. Then, I processed to watch the manager get angry at the employee who brought me my to go box after she left my table. This happened one table away from me and I could hear his tone of voice and the things he was saying to them. No way shape or form is it appropriate to get angry with an employee in front of a customer. Let alone getting angry at the employee due to me raving about the experience of CALA and how much I enjoyed it. Alec should have known better and pulled the employee to the side and spoke with them, not in front of a paying customer. I was the reason the employee was standing there, I started the conversation. In addition to that, he was sitting on his computer in the lobby area, very well visible to the customers left, and not checking on any tables but the ones that were his acquaintances. On top of it all, he was letting what I assuming are his friends stand the hostess stand (as these girls were dressed in going out/party clothes) and putting their belongings there. He is beyond unprofessional and should have known better being the “manager”.

I’m extremely happy with the service of the team that helped me, down to the foodrunners, as well as the food, but watching a MANAGER treat his employees like that left a disgusting taste in my mouth. Prime example of management believing they are better than the employees and that they have a right to treat their employees horrible, especially in front of customers. I found it beyond disrespect to me that he felt comfortable to scold employees in front of me, in an empty restaurant that I was speaking with. It made me believe this wasn’t the first time he has done that.

I came here to work on a Sunday night to end my weekend, but instead was leaving irritated and disgusted by the way I watched people be treated. I understand pulling an employee to the side to speak with them if necessary, but it was revolting, ill-mannered, and unacceptable to do those things in front of an customer. Not sure what needs to be done, but Alec needs to learn the etiquette of treating his employees, especially in front of customers because his behavior of the entire night...

I came to Cala for dinner with a bachelorette party of 6 total. We had been recommended by many to come to Cala. Our food was delicious but was ruined by our experience. If you sit outside on a hot day, The cushions get wet from the misters. Our entire party and dozens of other women left with soaking wet butts and outfits. We were dressed to go to a club following dinner but we all had to go home and change due to the design flaw of their patio. The cushions are not noticeably wet when you sit down initially but after an hour we all were wet with small puddles on our butts.

I am not sure if because it was a Friday night, things were busy and moving quickly, but we had some service oversights that were slightly frustrating. 4 people in our party of 6 do not drink. So majority of our party ordered NA drinks. When they brought the drinks to the table, they realized half way that they had brought them to the wrong table. Two of the Na drinks were correct so they left them with us. A few minutes later, our actual drinks get to the table and the na drinks looked completely different than the ones they had given us earlier. The waitress didn’t know which ones had alcohol and which ones didn’t. It was uncomfortable and no one felt like they could drinks the drinks we were given due tot he fear that there was alcohol in them. On top of that, after we ordered food, we never saw our waitress again until we got our check.

We left with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. Our pasta was $34 a serving to leave with soaking wet butts and without enjoying any of our $13-$17 drinks. The food was decent but the experience was not worth our $350+ tab.

I think moral of the story, they need to figure out the mister situation with the couches. Ladies beware of sitting outside on those couches in your expensive outfits. I’m not sure if the NA beverages is a common experience? But definitely a really upsetting one that contributed to a sub part experience.

On the bright side, the location is ideal and the house music they play keep the atmosphere upbeat and energetic. This is what kept me from giving a 1 star based on the...

A group of seven of us came down from Canada to Scottsdale for the May long weekend. We were very excited to eat at this restaurant— the ambiance seemed great and the food looked excellent. We had a reservation at 8:15, we were on time and told we had to wait a few minutes. No worries. We had a drink in the lounge and waited until about 8:25. I went to the hostesses to check in and they said our table still wasn’t ready as there were people still eating. Fine. 10 minutes later we still hadn’t been seated. I think if you make a reservation you should be seated on time; that’s the whole point of a reservation, right? Why are you seating people at a table that’s RESERVED? Anyways, I go back to the hostess stand and I’m clearly frustrated. A really great hostess named Kenna reassured me and told me she had spoken to her manager. Waited another 10 minutes, nothing. I decide that I’m now going to find the manager. At this point we’ve waited 30 minutes for our reservation. Pretty unacceptable in my opinion. I find the GM, Francisco, and he proceeds to tell me, verbatim, that my “group are impatient pieces of s** and that they’re trying their best”. Excuse me? I couldn’t believe it. I told him that was incredibly inappropriate and I let the hostesses know. Of course, we were seated right away.

Regardless of that absolutely vile experience at the beginning of the evening, the food was amazing. Best saganaki we’ve ever had. The drinks were fantastic, ambience was awesome. The service was excellent. It turned out that the owner was there that night— we didn’t meet him, but he ended up comping our entire meal which we really appreciated. Thank you for that.

The whole point of this review is really just to air out your GM. Someone who is supposed to be in charge of running a business cannot be speaking to guests that way— it’s completely unacceptable and quite frankly disgusting. I hope the owner sees this review and considers making some serious changes to...