Fat Tuesday — Restaurant in Tempe

My first meal in Arizona since 1995 started here. I used to live in the Mesa area while going to school back in the 90's. We had an overnight layover after vacationing in Mexico and decided to stop in Phoenix instead of Dallas. And when there is free time, it's all about the food! As I searched the Tempe area on Yelp, Fat Tuesday popped up. Looked at the menu and was sold as I love Southern food. Plus, they're located on infamous Mill Avenue, an area I wanted to show my spouse.

ATMOSPHERE: ID was required to enter at dinner time. I thought they were a restaurant but they're more of a bar, so the absence of little ones was nice. Inside lighting was dim, with a mix of bar seats, low and high tops. Covered front patio seating looked onto Mill Ave. while rear patio seating sported backyard-style furniture and tables under colorful string lights. Daiquiri machines lined the back of bar. A live DJ spun and music pumped throughout the eatery. The vibe is young and fun.

MENU: Southern-influenced bar-style apps, pasta, sandwiches, wraps, salads, burgers, desserts, daiquiris, beer, wine, sangria.

BEVERAGE: Creamsicle Daiquiri OMG, this was absolutely delish! After ordering my boring white wine, my spouse said to take a sip of the daiquiri. I immediately canceled the wine. I guess they're known for their cornucopia of flavors, apparent from the lengthy menu. The daiquiri was thick and icy, and tasted just like a creamsicle popsicle. Being dubbed with their 190 Octane moniker, it also included a bit of Everclear, oh yeah. Because we were having dinner elsewhere, I sadly only had one.

FOOD: Alligator Nugs Yup, this was real alligator meat inside and it was really good. The texture was just as the server described - a mix between chicken and fish. The "nugs" were breaded, deep-fried and were insanely moist and tender. We opted for Cajun fries which had a nice kick to them. I preferred ranch dressing to their remoulade sauce for dipping. Highly recommended!

Wings (10 pcs.) The Cajun dry rub had a spice level of 3 on a 5-scale. While mostly savory, there was a bit of sweetness in the rub that I wish wasn't there, but, I finished all of it. The wings were cooked perfectly crispy with fairly juicy insides. A seriously great deal for normally pricey wings. Ranch and blue cheese dressings were tasty accompaniments.

SERVICE: The bouncer checking ID's was friendly.

It's seat yourself so we chose a table in the rear patio. Lexi was our server and greeted us shortly after sitting. I thought we wouldn't receive good service due to her young age but she was great. She answered all of our questions, checked on us often and was very professional.

OVERALL: What a great find! Fun vibe, tasty...

We went here for my girlfriend's birthday this past weekend. We were there for maybe a half an hour and the drinks were eh. Ok. Their big thing is the wall of slushy mixed drinks behind the bar. Those are eh. Ok. The ice greatly waters down the little bit of alcohol in them. What's worse is the flavor doesn't even make up for it. It's basically like drinking water alcohol with food coloring in it. Which considering the quality and amount of alcohol given, they're overpriced as well. My girlfriend was not drunk and excused herself to the restroom. She felt sick earlier after dinner and got sick in the restroom in the trash can. Some guy, who shouldn't have been in the ladies restroom in the first place, looked at me and said she has to go. "She threw up she has to go!" I was calmly trying to explain that we had just gotten there and that she had barely had anything to drink. He didn't care. We went back to the table to tell our friends we had to leave and he ran over and flashed his light in her face. A guy from the door came over. I tried to explain to him as well and my gf was totally fine and trying to explain to the other gentleman. The guy from the bathroom said "I don't care if I said she's gotta go she's gotta go!" The worst part about this is, is that neither one of us raised our voices except to be heard over music and were totally respectful the whole time. It completely jumped the night off on the wrong foot and caused my girlfriend to be upset and embarrassed on her birthday. I will never return and neither will any of our 8 friends that were witness to this that evening. We'll also be writing other reviews on other...

Usually my friends and I love this place, but not anymore after last night. Last night a man was being very aggressive toward a woman and even poured his drink all over her face. That’s when my friend stepped in and tried to deescalate the situation. The aggressive man proceeded to poor another drink all over my friend’s face and then punched the other women in the FACE and gave her a BLOODY nose. At this point no security was called and nothing has been done by nearby employees. The woman ran to the bathroom to fix her bloody nose and after my friend rubbed the alcohol out of her eyes, she chased the man and his friends to the back patio. She was upset that he poured his drink all over her face and punched the woman. FINALLY that is when security was called. Security did not handle it well at all and ended up kicking the aggressive man and his friends out ALONG with my friend. They had my friend go out back the back exit (where it’s dark) with the aggressive man and all his friends. Are you kidding me? The man had just punched a woman in front of 20+ people without hesitation. Can you imagine what him and his friends could have done to my friend?! They should’ve had her go out the front entrance and them out the back or vice versa. Luckily, nothing happened to her and she’s alive and didn’t get jumped.

The moral of the story: whoever owns/operates this location needs to get better training for their employees. Very stupid and unintelligent choice were made by the staff and the security that could have cost my friend her life. There are better bars/clubs other places that have better security where you can...