Morning Squeeze — Restaurant in Scottsdale

About us: My husband (hubster) and I live in Scottsdale and go out to breakfast once every weekend. I try to pick a different place each time because I'm adventurous and we haven't yet found a place to become a regular favorite.

This review is for the: Morning Squeeze, Scottsdale Road location

Summary: Atmosphere lacking for me, but food good. A little spendy for what it is, but comparable prices for Old Town, so that's perfectly okay (total bill for 2 was $30and change, +tip = $37; a little much for standard breakfast fare for 2, but not bad for Old Scottsdale). Service was decent, too. Love the dog friendly patios. Cute to see a waitress carrying a tray with water glasses on one hand, and a dog-bowl with water in it in the other hand. :-)

The atmosphere: This is a little place on a corner on the North edge of Old Scottsdale. It's a sit-down breakfast/lunch restaurant. It is VERY noisy, with the exception of the North patio, which has doors to mitigate the sound of the restaurant but only has about 5 or 6 small (2 person) tables in it. It was full, so we couldn't sit there, but we were able to get a table outside on the West side, right along Scottsdale Road; better, but not ideal because the West side of the restaurant is open-air with a bar and seating flowing onto the patio - no walls to shut out the noise of the inside (and music a bit much, too).

On seating outside: While it's a cute, upbeat, trendy environment with nice looking booths inside, it was also way too NOISY. Seriously - like a night club - not how I like to start off my Sunday morning. I want to relax and enjoy my breakfast and Sunday morning, not jump into it screaming like a cold shower. Even outside, hubster and I had to shout across our little bar topper table to talk with one another. There's no way I would have made it through the meal indoors. Fortunately, it's now the end of October, so the weather is finally allowing outdoor seating to be possible.

Service: They have lots of nice, pretty, young waitresses whose service is just fine. Ours checked in with us two or three times during the meal and came to the table promptly to get us started with drinks (which was quick) and then take our order. The only wait was maybe 5ish minutes to get the bill when we were done. No problem. That's 4-5 touches on our table, which is perfectly fine for breakfast considering we never even finished our coffees. Speaking of which...

Food: Oy, terrible coffee. Bitter, super hot, and way, way too strong. So much that, for me, three sugars and the whole little cup of creamer and some ice cubes barely made a dent in taming it. But, if you like super strong, hot, bitter coffee, you're going to love it! Hubster and I never even drank enough of it to get refills, though.

I had an orange ricotta pancake (delish - although there's no ricotta on it so it must be in it) and biscuits and gravy. The gravy tastes like the canned variety, but I happen to like that flavor and thought it was good; husband was more "meh" on it. Hubster had bacon, eggs, gravy, chick fried steak; standard breakfast things. He said it was fine - pretty neutral on it. I loved that they garnished his plate with fresh fruit, which he doesn't like, but I do - works for me 'cuz I ate it! Overall, I'd say the food was okay. Also, the morning alcoholic beverage menu looked really good. If I had any inclination to drink booze in the morning, this would be an excellent choice.

End result: We probably won't go back unless we're in the area and see that there's seating open on...

Outrageously bad service. Can't comment on the food. (Read why.)

I was at this place for brunch yesterday with a friend. Arrived at about 1:25 p.m. on a Sunday. Pleasant hostess. The place was nearly full, with just a handful of people waiting for four-person tables. We were seated in less than five minutes. So far, so good.

We then waited about five minutes for water to be delivered and our orders to be taken. Then the real waiting game began.

About twenty minutes after our orders were placed, our waitress volunteered that our food would be right out. Ten minutes later, she volunteered the same thing, commenting (suspiciously in hindsight) that our orders were not lost and that they had not forgotten about us. Five minutes later, the same conversation took place, this time at our initiative. By the time had been waiting for forty-five minutes after placing our order, by which time the table beside us received its food order (even though they were seated and placed their orders well after us), we decided to leave. We were not prepared to wait any longer.

With no waitress in sight, we went out of our way to explain to the hostess that we had been waiting forty-five minutes after placing our order and that, with still no food, we were not going to wait any longer. We were very polite about it. We even volunteered to pay for the coffee my brother had and the orange juice I ordered, neither of which we even finished. The hostess was actually courteous, professional and apologetic. She declined our offer to pay for our beverages. No complaint with her whatsoever. We just left disappointed, but not yet disgruntled or offended. That came a few minutes later.

After walking down the street for a few minutes, we were surprised to hear our waitress calling out to us. She was running after us, waving a bill in the customary little brown folder, yelling "Hey, you guys didn't pay your bill!" With more courtesy and patience than the situation called for, we explained to her what we had told the hostess and what she had told us. The waitress told us that the hostess was not the boss! We offered to walk back to the restaurant with the waitress and get the hostess to confirm what we attributed to her. Finally, with some apparent reluctance, the waitress relented, and we went our separate ways.

I would not willingly trade an hour of my time for a glass of orange juice and a cup of coffee. I am a lawyer in my fifties. I do not walk out on bills. I don't like being accused of doing so, and publicly to boot.

I am entirely unaccustomed to service--restaurant or otherwise--of the nature I have described above. Abysmal kitchen service and, to add insult to injury, defamatory wait service. Any restaurant can have off days, and people can make innocent mistakes, but I will NEVER go back to this place. I am too old to put up with this kind of service in silence.

To be fair to the restaurant, and in accordance with my training and practice as a professional, I waited the obligatory 24 hours before writing this. It was not written in anger or out of spite, but rather in the spirit of fair comment and discussion.

I have never written up a restaurant before. I am grateful, however, for the opportunity to share my experience. Thanks...

Personally, I had a great time at Morning Squeeze. When I walked in, the staff very politely told us how long we had to wait and stayed true to their word. Once we got to our table, we were given a moment to look over our menus. A waitress came over to our table saying that she had forgotten to come to our table and felt really bad for making us wait. Truely, we had only gotten there moments before so she had not made us wait long. The staff were very nice, but they were all very casual and relaxed. This wasnt a problem however, I was just a little suprised on how casual they were while speaking to me. The staff quality was good. We got our food and drinks relatively quickly. My guest and I both got breakfast tacos (Im not sure if that is what it is called the name has managed to slip my mind). I got an Oreo Mocha and my guest got a mimosa combo (3 different flavors of mimosas in mason jars for only $9). The tacos were pretty good, they were not the best I have had but they satisfied my hunger. My guest finished all 3 of hers, I only ate one because they filled me up quickly. The Oreo Mocha was almost like a sweet chocolate shake with caffeine. I didnt taste a real coffee taste but the oreo was there. Though mochas are very sweet, I expected some coffee to taste. I did not finish this drink because of how sweet it was, but people who enjoy shakes would probably finish this. Once we were ready to pay, we attempted to get the attention of a waiter but he may hve not heard us and walked away. He was to talking with his fellow workers, so we didnt want to interupt anything though instead of having full conversations I think he should have been focusing more on his customers. Once we got our waitress and paid she gave us a reciept that she had wrote thank you on. I beleive this waitresses name is Cami, she was very sweet towards our table. Overall, I give this...