Citizen Public House — Restaurant in Scottsdale

I ate here recently with an out-of-town friend that I hadn't seen in many years. I chose this restaurant because I was eating vegetarian that day and wanted to try the chopped salad that I had read about.

The location, decor, and atmosphere is excellent. Based on prior reviews, I had very high expectations for the chopped salad. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed to learn that the salad was not entree sized. It was more appropriately sized like a standard dinner salad that arrives prior to an entree. I was also disappointed to learn that if you are a vegetarian, they don't have a vegetable substitute for the salmon portion of the salad. They simply suggest a larger portion of one of the other ingredients. (Maybe it's just me but, considering this this restaurant has been around awhile, I would think that the chef might have similar requests in the past and would have come up with a different vegetable alternative to the salmon. Also, I was disappointed to learn that the salad did not come with any bread. If you want bread with your salad, you have to order a bread plate appetizer (4 slices of crusty, white bread) which comes with a miniscule amount of black garlic spread and a tapenade spread. Butter was a special request. That salad review is the bad part of this review because it was the main reason for choosing this restaurant.

The tofu stir- fry was very flavorful and delicious. I expect that because we had a late reservation, our waitress tried to pass off leftover bread, no remaining black garlic spread, or whatever she could to make our dinner seem normal. She didn't. Note to the management and the owner(s): Please instruct your wait staff to own up to any deviations to the menu and/or service. I am understanding & appreciate that "things" happen. I am NOT understanding when I feel that I am being patronized. Note to any reader: People and businesses sometimes have a bad day. I would still give this restaurant another chance to redeem themselves, but not right away. I would try a lot of others first in my search for...

This restaurant is so good we came back the very next night! The first night, we started with a well-balanced margarita. Rare for me to have one these days, but frankly it was irresistible. Next, the chopped salad was so delicious, so unusual, it felt like the first of our lives. That was only the beginning. Then came a generous and fully flavored meatloaf that is better than your mother’s and certainly better than your mother-in-law’s! My wife’s sea bass with broccolini has her raving still about its perfection. The next night, we arrived ravenous, yet still discriminating, after a 5-hour hike. We started with chicken wings, spiced with flavor not found in a jar. The bread with ricotta melted in our mouths. For entrees, the hamburger dipped in a French onion soup ranks among the tastiest burgers ever. The burger naked was damn good, but with the dip, mon dieu! The French fries went mostly uneaten … ‘cause we devoured the gnocchi, prepared most untraditonally with pasta and the right amount of cheese, mushrooms and accents. The service (Calen and the next night Torrey), was as exceptional as the cuisine. Calen and Torrey knew the dishes, were immensely helpful, and fun, Calen is simply a very nice guy who wanted assurance we embraced each food moment. Heck, he even checked on us Night 2 despite holding down a large private gathering behind us. Who does that?! Torrey is full of personality, fitness and caring, too, a blast to have had her as our chaperone. Our empty plates never lingered on the table. The worst part of the evening was leaving. Citizen Public House, long...

I have been wanting to try this place for awhile now and finally had the chance tonight with my girlfriend. Everything was amazing. Atmosphere, food, drinks, presentation and service were all on point.

We started with a couple drinks and the bacon fat popcorn. The popcorn was good, but gets greasy toward the bottom of the bowl. The drinks are unique and interesting. You can tell that a lot of thought has been put into the drink menu. We tried four different drinks and all of them were well made and had a great balance of flavors.

I had the short ribs with pureed parsnips and greens. The short ribs fell off the bone and had really good flavor. The cherry bbq sauce that came with them was to die for. The sides balanced out the meal perfectly.

My girlfriend had the grilled lamb loin with risotto and grapefruit fennel salad. The lamb was cooked perfectly and had good flavor. (She stole my cherry bbq sauce for quite a few bites, but that is a testament to the sauce and not a knock on the flavor off the lamb at all.) She said she loved the risotto as well.

We ended the meal with the flourless mint chocolate cake. It was really good, but after the meal we weren't able to finish it between the two of us.

Last, but definitely not least, our server Kat was wonderful. She was fun, friendly and helpful. Service can make or break a restaurant as far as I'm concerned. If the rest of the staff is as good as Kat, this place has nothing to worry about in that department.

I will definitely be back to try the pork belly pastrami and more of the...