Mastro's City Hall — Restaurant in Scottsdale

We have been to two other Mastro's in Scottsdale and have had excellent  service.  The food was delicious and consistently prepared to our satisfaction.  Service was impeccable and ambiance perfect.  So when my husband decided to make belated Mother's Day reservations because I was out of town, he chose Mastro's City Hall because he knew how great our experience had been at the other Mastro's and said he wanted to give "City Hall" a try.  We were super excited and couldn't wait to drive the 2-hour round trip drive to and from Scottsdale. When we arrived, we found great parking. The hostess was very sweet and accommodating.  She was going to show us to a table,  but when we asked for a booth, she directed us to the bar and said we could sit anywhere because they weren't busy. So we chose a booth by the window in the bar.  Great setting - not a lot of people - it wasn't real loud because people hadn't arrived yet - enjoying our pomegranate drink.  We placed our order consisting of Tuna Tartare as our appetizer, French onion soup,  Mastro's House salad to split,  a  bone-in tenderloin requested to be cooked medium rare, and sautéed asparagus.  If anyone has ever eaten at Mastro's,  they would know that their steaks are not cheap.  In fact,  no item on their menu is cheap.  I think people who dine at a Mastro's patronize this type of upscale restaurant to enjoy good food,  receive quality service, have a beautiful evening, and just have an incredible dining experience! That's exactly why we were there. The Tuna Tartare was served first.  The server suggested that we share the salad since it was dinner size, and she offered to split it.  Then the FIRE ALARM went off.  It was so loud that there was no place to take refuge.  We went out to the outside patio where we saw a waiter standing there.  He even said he refused to go back in and take food or drink orders from the table he was serving because his ears were too sensitive to tolerate that LOUD alarm.  NO ONE came out to apologize.  NO ONE came out to explain what was happening.  We waited and waited and finally sat at a table.  NO ONE offered to serve our dinners on the patio where the noise was a few decibels lower.  Finally, a gentleman came out and told us that Mastro's had no way to turn this alarm off, so we would have to wait.  Fortunately, a fire truck finally arrived, but still, it kept RINGING and RINGING very loudly.  When we got our salad, it was warm and NOT split.  My husband's bone-in tenderloin ordered medium rare was medium well done.  That's the worst thing you can do to a $60+ steak!  We were so disappointed! We think that the chef had it ready to serve when the fire alarm went of, and he had to let it sit on a hot plate until the alarm was turned off as the steak continued to cook.  We knew that the restaurant staff was distracted and somewhat disoriented, but still NO ANNOUNCEMENTS made, no nothing! NO manager visits to each table to apologize or offer an explanation,  nothing.  It was "business as usual." I'm just saddened by the way this Mastro's handled this situation.  I know it's not easy to be a restaurant manager,  but I would've handled this situation very differently! This wasn't a fast food restaurant but a very nice upscale restaurant with a certain standard that to uphold.  It's just the fire alarm ruined the entire evening! We have both decided to NEVER return to this Mastro's.  The sad thing is it's my daughter and her friends who got me hooked on Mastro's because they frequent the many Mastro's in the Los Angeles area.  I hated to share this with her.  We both felt bad,  but that's the way it goes! We were contacted by Mastro's to see how things went during our visit, and we were very honest about what happened. They informed us that they would relay our message to the manager. He did call, but we missed his call, unfortunately. When we returned his call, he NEVER called us back! What unprofessional customer relations especially for an establishment such as Mastro's. As mentioned before, we will not...

This is a 5-Star review that was almost a 1-Star review. The bar at Mastro's City Hall is a regular spot for my wife and I to meet after work for a date night. When we were there last Friday, Christian was waiting on us at the bar when we first arrived. After taking our drink orders, and ordering a lobster roll, which comes with rice paper wrapper rather than seaweed, another bartender, I believe her name was Alex, began waiting on us. We decided to place an order for a few more rolls, and when we asked Alex if the kitchen could substitute rice paper for the seaweed wrapper (my wife does not like seaweed wrapper and prefers rice or soy paper wrapper) she said, "No, our kitchen does not make substitutions."

We knew this to be incorrect, as Christian has always managed to accommodate this request, but we didn't challenge it and just passed on ordering anything else at that time. A few minutes later, Christian came by to check on us and we asked him if we could order a few other rolls with the rice paper. He said he would check with the kitchen and within a few minutes, he returned and said they would take care of it.

Once we were served our other rolls, with rice paper instead of seaweed wrapper, Alex came back by to check on us, and I said to her, "Just so you know, in case anybody else asks, the kitchen did agree to make these rolls with rice paper for us."

Before I could get the last words out, she turned around and went straight to Christian, was waving her hands at him angrily, and clearly upset with him. It was pretty uncomfortable for us to watch. For the next 20 minutes, Christian stayed away from our side of the bar and Alex took over taking care of everyone around us, but she would not make eye contact with us or check on us. I'm assuming she must actually be a lead, or in a senior position, at the bar...

At this point, as a paying guest, I was furious with this level of immaturity from a server at a restaurant where we were going to spend over $300 for 2 people to have drinks and dinner, so I went to the host stand and spoke to the manager. He was not happy to hear what had happened and I saw him go and speak to both Christian and Alex immediately. As soon as he was done, Christian came over an apologized that we had to experience what we did, and we told him we were sorry he got yelled at, and that we were only letting his coworker know that the kitchen was willing to accommodate our request.

For the rest of the night, Christian took us back on and we had a wonderful finish to our evening. Ironically, Alex never again made eye contact or spoke to us.

We really appreciate the manager stepping in, and Christian apologizing on behalf of the team even though he did nothing wrong, as we have never had an experience like this at Mastro's before. Our servers have always been willing to talk to the kitchen about special requests and provide a great guest experience.

We'll be back again soon, and hope this was just an off night for one...

I took my son here yesterday along with my wife for his 16th birthday. I have eaten here once before, and many times at the Maestro's Ocean club in North Scottsdale. I have also enjoyed many other finer restaurants like Fleming's, Morton's, and Del Frisco. I can only say this was a very poor experience here. We made a reservation, and were sat on time. However, the service is terrible, and I mean terrible! They are very polite, but simply are never around. We spent over $350 on the meal, and it was mediocre at best. My son's Caesar salad came out covered in horseradish, we were told it was a mistake and remove from the bill, which was fine. The bone in filet was tasteless, and overall the food seemed less than par for Maestro's in general. The tables are packed super close together, and it is very loud. We sat on the patio as it was quieter, but we had a large table next to us that was pretty loud. But the worst part was you could not get a drink refill for the life of you! We got one round of refills in two hours of sitting and eating. We were done after barely over an hour, and we sat for 20 minutes before anyone came by to take the plate. It was my son's 16th birthday so we wanted this to be special for him, and there was a cake that was going to be coming, but finally after waiting 20 more minutes we asked for the check, that took another ten, then ten more to get it paid and then the cake showed up. So we were basically done by 9:20 pm at night, and it took til 10:15 to get the check and get it paid. Again, the waiter was polite the three times he came by in two hours, once for the drink order, once to drop drinks and take food order, and once to bring the refills. The food was brought out by someone else. In the end, it was a SUPER disappointing experience for a Maestro's restaurant, I can REALLY recommend the Maestro's Ocean club if you have the extra time to drive there, but I've eaten here at this location twice now, the first time was meh, this time was just super bad service. I can;t recommend this Maestro's. Lastly, tried to go to Landry's feedback page, but it just recycles after you input your info. so I called their phone line, clicked customer service, and was told their lines are extra busy, leave a message and clicked off. I would have preferred to message the management directly, however since they don;t allow that, I left this review. Either go to Maestro's Ocean club, or skip them altogether and do Steak 44 or Fleming's, way better service and...