Pescada — Restaurant in Scottsdale

Went Friday night for dinner. All 4 of us mentioned the fish smell when we walked in - yes it’s a seafood restaurant but it should. it smell of fish the way it did. Service was very very slow even though the restaurant did not appear to be full. Almost 3 hours for dinner for 4. Cocktails were average. Wine (expensive) came out quickly but was corked which we brought to our servers attention when he opened it. His suggestion was to order an even more expensive bottle of wine because he didn’t want to risk another bottle of what we had ordered being bad. We settled for the corked wine which was bad on us but it was clear he was only there for the upswell and not to make our experience better. Appetizers were good. When our finally meals came out we immediately smelled what can best be described as burnt rubber. The smell was the mussels. Our server was no where to be found so the mussels were set aside and the rest of the meal was eaten. Big mistake as the torture of the uneaten, bad mussels came at 4am. We did alert the manager of the bad mussels and he “let the chef know”. No offer to take the meal off the bill or replace it. One person in our party had left overs and asked for it to be boxed. When they cleared the table they put the plate of left overs in the pile of dirty dishes so we thought we’ll there goes they leftovers because they forgot we wanted it. Nope - they brought the leftover box to the table after the rest of the dishes had been piled on it. Realize they haven’t been open that long but it is pretty pricy and to have bad service and then suffer the consequences of bad food, we definitely...

We decided to try Pescada as part of AZ Restaurant Week. We love Soul , Alma and Vic & Ola's so were really looking forward to our first time at Pescada. Unfortunately, we left sorely disappointed.

During restaurant week, there is a fixed price menu as an option. We were about to order and found out that one of the two appetizers (the "special" gazpacho) and one of the entrees (the sea bream) were sold out. I just don't understand how that could happen when you know how many reservations you have, and you offer a limited fixed price menu. When it was time for dessert (deconstructed tiramisu) we were told that they ran out of ingredients for the tiramisu, so we'd get the olive oil cake instead.

Service was extremely slow. We waited a long time before we ordered and we waited a long time for each course. One of our friends added the wine pairing, and for one of the courses, the wine came well after the course.

Instead of the sea bream, my friend and I both ordered the "ocean trout" which came with asparagus risotto. Both had very little taste, and the fish itself was pretty dry. Same with the olive oil cake - not a lot of flavor.

We definitely like to try new places for Arizona Restaurant Week, and have found lots of choices in the past that we've gone back to. Sadly, this will not be...

Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

Staff was friendly and helpful, though somewhat inattentive, especially considering there were only 3 seated tables, including ours.

The food was great. However, be warned that the "baked oyster" dish is more like an oyster on a half shell with some baked goodies stuffed into it, so expect it to still be gooey.

There's a wide selection of beverages, including wines, various hard liquors, and a few specialty cocktails. Beer selection is very limited and is bottled-only.

The staff and chef were very open to and eager to hear suggestions, actively solicited for feedback in a non-intrusive way, and seemed to genuinely care about that feedback.

The atmosphere was nice, but the decor did seem a bit uncoordinated, with what looked like a mixture of old world Spanish, American art deco, and odd faux brass table lamps.

There's a large and comfortable patio with a mister system to help keep you cool in hotter weather, though it is on the southwest side of the building, so afternoon/evening sun may be quite oppressive depending on time of year.

Most menu items were between $30 and $50, and drink prices were very reasonable. With appetizer, entree, and 1-2 average drinks per person, expect to spend between $60 and...