Rene At Tlaquepaque — Restaurant in Sedona

I planned a celebratory birthday dinner for my wife tonight at Rene's as the culmination to a great fun-filled day, and we were greatly disappointed. It started out just fine and the hostess greeted us and acknowledged and wished my wife a Happy Birthday, but the service went south from there. Our server's name was Lilly and either she is new and inexperienced, having a really bad personal night, or truly couldn't care less about providing a high level of service -- as she single handedly spoiled the experience.

To begin with --- we had to wait excessively for her to even come over for the first time to introduce herself, and then she didn't even acknowledge my wife's birthday. She then went on to tell us how busy she had been today and therefore several items on the menu were sold out. Fortunately, none of the choices we wanted were on the list, so no big deal. We ordered a bottle of wine and then at the same time, placed our orders for appetizers and entree's all at the same time since we worried about how long it took her to show up the first time.

We then had to wait a really long time for waters and bread/butter to be brought out to the table. It took so long, that our appetizers came right behind the waters and the bread. After the course, we waited another excessive amount of time for our entrees to be served --- we had a 7 pm reservation and were seated right on time, and our entrees were finally being served around 8:15 pm. The saving grace to the night was that the food quality was excellent, both the appetizers and the entrees and the outdoor patio ambience was perfect -- hence the 1 star rating ! Once our entree dishes were cleared, we waited for at least another 15 minutes and no sign of our waitress, nor did she ever check in to see if we had any issues with our food after it was served. We actually had to flag down another waiter who was clearly on the ball as we watched him wait on his tables (wishing he was our waiter) and asked him to send our waitress over. We watched him go inside to do just that, and then saw our waitress come out and attend to another table and not come to our table. The same waiter came back to us to confirm that our waitress had been over, and when we told him no, he seemed appalled and once again went to seek her out, diverting from delivering meals to another table in order to do so. Only after another 5 minutes, did she come over with the dessert tray and clearly annoyed, fake an apology for the delay, and ask us if we wanted any dessert. At that point, we were disgusted and tired of waiting and worried that it would be another 30 minutes before we ever saw the dessert, so I handed her my credit card and asked for the check. She unashamedly took it, once again making no reference to the birthday or seeking to make things right, and brought us the check. I have never not tipped a server before -- but I have never received such poor service. I hope it made a statement and maybe a wakeup call -- but somehow, I don't think Lilly will care, so hopefully management will after this review.

Rene's is a very expensive fine dining establishment and customers expect and deserve an appropriately high level of service -- if servers like Lilly represent the level of service that is considered appropriate by Rene's management, this will be the last time we will be dining at this restaurant. What a...

We had the pleasure of eating at Rene at Tlaquepaque, where we met Executive Chef Orlando Amaro. It was an amazing experience, with me wanting to return for more and more.

We started our dining experience with a wonderful Wagyu carpaccio with paper-thin layers of one of the world’s most well-known beefs in the world on top of mixed herbs and greens, and a crunchy string potato straws was an absolutely exquisite balance contrasting nuances of the flavors and the tenderness and freshness of the beef.

Next, we had a Carabineros Shrimp reminding me of the many times I visited Spain, Morocco, and France. With this amazing red vibrant exterior red color, these shrimp, referred to as Cardinal Prawns to many, had this tender, flavorful meat in the tail, but the true delicacy is the added bonus of the head where you can extract some of the best flavors of the shrimp. It was beautifully prepared, slightly undercooked to cherish the natural flavors.

I am a huge fan of French Onion soup. I have had very good French Onion soup in many facets of the world, but Orlando prepares this dish in such a simple yet amazing way. Unlike most places that prepare the soup in a chicken or beef-based broth, Orlando has done something so special where he relies solely on the skin of the onion to flavor the broth giving it a light natural flavor that is not overpowering that truly highlights the true flavors of the onion.

Lastly was the entrée. My friend had the Homemade linguini pasta with fresh Maine lobster, burrata, saffron sauce and scallops. Again, Orlando uses natural flavors from the different fresh ingredients that don’t overpower each other but allow for a flavorful compliment.

I had the Pork Shank. The first mistake I made was asking for a steak knife. To my surprise, when I placed my fork into the shank, the meat fell off the bone. I didn’t even have to use a knife. It was so tender (slow cooked for 12 hours) that it melted off the bone, packed with a citrus undertone of juices and full of flavors complimented with spinach, fennel, and onion this dish was truly a delight.

The meal ended off with the most amazing homemade Raspberry Panna Cotta, like no other. I have traveled to Italy many times and have had some of the best foods and desserts within the region; Chef Orlando’s take on the Panna Cotta infused with fresh raspberry flavors on top of a homemade chocolate crisp ganache with finely chopped nuts was the perfect mix of sweet and savory in the dish that literally melts in your mouth. Complimented with homemade cinnamon ice cream.

Rounding out our amazing experience was the phenomenal service of our waitress Jessica. Every part of the meal, she checked in and helped us really enjoy the beauty of the food and provided us a level of service like no other.

I really appreciate what the Owner, Chef Mercer, has done, bringing in one of the world’s best Chef’s (Chef Orlando Amaro) to bring a Michelin star-style experience to the Sedona area. Chef Orlando has created an unbelievable experience where you can taste his passion for food in every bite.

Para una de las mejores experiencias gastronómicas en Sedona, realmente debe experimentar el talento del Chef Orlando.

Or as they would say in Barcelona - una experiència inoblidable

Thank you, Chef Mercer and Chef Orlando, for creating such an amazing...

TLDR: The worst service from a particular female server named “Es” I have ever seen in my entire life, in out of all the 30+ countries I’ve ever been/lived. She unintentionally tipped a child seat holding our 6-week old (thankfully a potential disaster was averted), instead of a simple apology, she went on the defensive and followed up with the worst attitude ever. To the bosses of Rene, this server “Es” has no business in the service industry, especially not in a place like yours with a reputation to uphold.

Full story: Our party of 4 went to Rene on Nov 4, 2024 for dinner with reservations made. Our 6-week old baby was sleeping in a stroller, and as the place was pretty tight with space, the manager kindly offered to store our stroller and provide a child seat to hold our infant in the car seat to which we obliged. While coming to take our order, our server “Es” accidentally, I repeat, unintentionally grazed the child seat which caused it to tip over. I was watching the whole thing and quickly jumped forward to prevent our 6-week old from smashing his face against the edge of the table. I touch my heart, if she would have just followed up with a sincere apology, we would have just been shaken but have understood that it wasn’t her fault, and just gone on with our dinner. But guess what, her first response was, “I didn’t even touch the chair!”. Fine, we moved tables to an area which could fit our stroller. But what happened next just takes the cake. Look, we don’t expect her to keep apologizing (which she did not even do), but she followed up with a foul attitude, imagine someone who speaks to you like you owed them something especially after a potentially hurting our 6-week old baby. Shocking, from a restaurant, let alone a restaurant of Rene’s stature. At that point of time, I was still shaken from the whole incident and was clam the whole time, decided that I could no longer enjoy the dinner there wanted to pay for my drinks and leave. We only ordered a cocktail and a glass of wine. My wife didn’t touch the wine due to the whole incident, I asked our server “Es” if she could remove it from the bill, she refused. And the worst thing happened next. My wife wanted to explain to her that it we understood that it was an accident, and we were not blaming her before we left. Guess what. This fine human being without even letting her speak, said in an aggressive manner, “you better back off!”. Wow, thank her lucky stars she didn’t meet someone who would press charges or file a lawsuit.

Thankfully, the only silver lining from the whole experience, one of the managers (a guy who I forgot the get his name) who was aware of the whole situation came over and waived the bill for the 2 drinks. For the server “Es”, after the whole situation, do you lack any empathy or people skills? Seriously? Again, I am really the most calm person who hates drama. But this server “Es” just has no business in the service industry. In summary, get rid of her before she drags your good name down the drain.

P.S, after we left, we went to a real upscale Italian restaurant not too far away, and the service was 180 degrees off from what we experienced at Rene. I guess you guys need to pick your severs carefully if you want to brand yourselves as an...