Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Scottsdale

We went to Coopers Hawk for our 10 yr anniversary. We had heard amazing things about this place so we were pretty excited. Thinking it would be a mix between Bourbon and Bones/firebirds. First let me say, I've been to bourbon and bones once and firebirds about a million times. BOTH of those places have recognized birthdays/anniversary. Even just as much as greeting us and saying, have you ever been here before, are you celebrating anything special. In fact, I usually make a reservation at both of these places and in the comments I usually put if we are celebrating something. Bourbon and bones went out of their way to recognize our anniversary last year. Once I checked in, they immediately greeted us and told us happy anniversary. Then the waiter did and a manager did later in the evening. bonus we even got complimentary dessert there (which obviously NEVER happens with anniversary). Firebirds, similar thing, they always just recognize the anniversary and say congrats. Makes you feel extra special and it's easy to do! Well... check in with Coopers hawk. We got there about 20 minutes early for a 5:15 reservation. They told us our table won't be ready until closer to our time. Which was fine... we went to the bar and noticed the dining room was pretty empty. Bar staff was great. We got two different flights of wine, they didn't really talk to us or explain anything. Which is fine... but again, nothing special. I chatted one of them up finally and he started explaining all the wines. I told him we've never been here so then he took more time explaining their process which was great!! Very knowledgeable!. Finally... it's 5:30 and we were like.. hmm why isn't our table ready yet. Go to the host stand and they were like... yeah table is ready. Lady walked away for something else, someone else comes up to help and it was a small confusing mess. Got it figured out and they sat us. The entire place is beautiful from afar. Up close.. you realize how dusty all the things are. Considering the fact you are sitting customers directly next to a divider that it face level, you'd think they would wipe it down. Waitress took a little bit to come, but that was fine since we had wine from the bar. No idea what her name was, maybe she was new or just nervous. She didn't say a whole lot to us. We got an appetizer of Flatbread something. IT WAS AMAZING!! I could eat that every day. We got a bottle of wine, the way they put it in the decanter is pretty fancy and cool. I was very nervous that someone was going to bump it on our tiny table and knock it over though. We were extremely close to the table next to us (they had chairs and ours was a small booth attached). Food came out decently fast. Our waitress came by again to check on things and refilled water. This would be the last we saw of her until we were fully done. She refilled water ONCE. Our glasses sat empty the rest of the evening. The steaks we got were fine. My husband got some parm. Crusted thing on his. It was basically a thick cheese crisp. Delicious alone but with the steak it was weird. I'd suggest not getting that added on to your steak. Overall.. this was a fine dining experience. Nothing over the top, nothing that makes it stand out compared to others, probably more cons than other places I've been to. Bourbon and bones is obviously MUCH more expensive and the experience there was A++ and food delicious. Firebirds is extremely reasonable and the experience there is always wonderful also, while food is also delicious. I'd probably stick to firebirds as my regular experience and then continue looking for a more upscale that isn't as expensive as Bourbon and Bones, but just a lil more than Firebirds. I've heard the Coopers Hawk in surprise is much better than the Scottsdale one. So maybe we will try that one and see if it as fantastic as...

It was my first time here. Great place when walking in! Lots to catch your eye. Bottles of wine, truffles, decanters etc. The place is big! With a large bar area AND patio as well as the restaurant. 3 of us went around 7.15pm Sunday nite without a reservation....... only seating was in the bar area. Nice mixture of bar seats, high tops and booths. My friends had been before and ordered martinis they had previously enjoyed there, I ordered their "house" Bordeaux (Bin 80) and thoroughly enjoyed it! We ordered 3 waters WITH lemons .... had to ask twice for the lemons. My wine was half way gone by the time the martinis arrived..... and instead of being "ice cold" as the previous time..... they had to add ice from their water. Sitting at the bar too long. We ordered our apps and entrées and were asked if we would like pretzel bread brought to the table? We all said yes please. The table next to us left and was cleaned and re-seated .... and they still got bread BEFORE us. Our salads were brought out by our female server, and I reminded her about the bread.... it arrived half way thru our salads. We all sat there with empty salads plates and side plates and the wooden breadboard for quite some time before we placed them at the edge of the table ourselves, in the hope someone would see them and remove them. NO-ONE DID!! Around 10 minutes or so later.... a gentleman brought our entrées over and I asked him "are you seriously bringing those out while our dirty salad plates are still stacked on the end of the table"??!! He informed us that he was actually the "service manager" and totally agreed with me!! He was agreeable, apologetic and cleared the plates himself.

My Carne asada Flatbread was really good and most enjoyable. One friends medallion trio was perfectly Med Rare. The other friends $37 fillet however was not! Our server did not come back to check on the temps, so we asked another server to get her. She took the ENTIRE plate back to the kitchen ... leaving my friend with NOTHING to eat!! As she sat there watching us. UNREAL! Around 6 mins later the manager came over, apologized and said another one was being prepared and would be out shortly. 16 minutes later..... I got out of my seat and went looking for him! I filled him in on the entire sh show and suggested that the servers be trained on taking the "steak only" on a side plate and at least leave the guest the veggies and potatoes to enjoy. He agreed and apologized again. He finally brought the new plate back himself about 3 mins later. WITHOUT the fork! She of course had to ask him for one. The server had taken it with the returned steak and failed to replace it during the 25 minute wait!

Now we did not have to pay for most of the check! The manager took off a lot of items and our check was reduced greatly. We were extremely grateful and thankful for that at least. But there is nothing more upsetting than treating yourself to a nice dinner and receiving dreadful service! Especially at those prices.

Will I go back and give them another...

SERVICE: Forgive me in advance... TERRIBLE. We went here with some good friends of ours who are members of the winery and they were raving about it. Our waitress was beyond bad, borderline rude, and easily ruined our experience 👎. Why? We had a table full of dirty dishes for most of the evening even when buser's, server's, and MANAGEMENT all walked by. When they came by to take items they would take one item. Besides that, I ordered a maker's mark old fashion which I didn't enjoy (see "FOOD" below) and the waitress took it, didn't apologize, ask if I or anyone needed anything else, etc. I decided later to attempt again at this staple drink, but when I asked if a different bartender could make it, the waitress said, "No. There's only one." Even though I saw at least 2 + barbacks. Management didn't come over to say/ ask anything at all for hour 2.5 hour dinner ⌛, which was only that long because I need to assume our waitress forgot about us...often. I timed it one time and it took her 17 minutes to ask how things were from a previous visit.

(Service= -1 Stars ➖⭐) first time I've ever given negative stars.

MENU: This was a highlight. The options were great and there were a lot of them. Not the level of a cheesecake factory menu, but reasonably sized and diversified. From the 🦐 app to the 🍪 dessert there's something for everyone. Literally, 🍔, 🥩, 🐟, 🍗, and lots of other choices. The prices were a little outlandish compared to the portion size, but what are you going to do.

(Menu = 1 Stars ⭐)

FOOD: This was the only thing that was ON POINT! At first I thought they were going through an identity crisis when I ate shrimp and cheese that they paired together, then I noticed that I was just overwhelmed by the party 🥳 in my mouth! I got the skirt steak, small but delicious. I tried a bit of everyone's dish, the short rib risotto, the spare rib, the chicken, and tried their meatballs as I do everywhere. All of it was delicious. The old fashion was HORRID just as a side note (watery and just gross). The only reason I would ever go back is the food, I mean the Reese's warm 🍪 was one of the best desserts I've ever had.

(Food = 1 Stars ⭐)

AMBIANCE: The entry is a winery which is neat. The actual restaurant was loud, but had great decorations and fixtures 🛋️. It's a very large place which was fine, I guess. It looks as if they over spent... But it under delivered. No "feeling" really, it wasn't cozy or sleek kind of just there!

(Ambiance = 0 Stars)

OTHER: It's a good concept and why do you go to eat... The food! That's the point right? Unless the service was SO bad across the board. Our friends said they've never had that terrible of service and we're embarrassed. I'm not one to dwell, so I think the concept and the food were fantastic.

(Other = 1 Star ⭐)

WOULD I GO BACK? I don't know, but I'm leaning toward a figuratively "not without an apology". The experience is not just the food or just the service, but yes one can out way the other, which is a shame.

3 stars(⭐⭐⭐) - 1 Star(-⭐)...