Spokes On Southern — Restaurant in Tempe

I have mixed feelings about our 1st visit to Spokes. Overall, the food tasted good and the small lake near the patio was pleasant. But even with those, we likely will not be back.

We went for an early dinner on a Sunday, just before 4 pm. The restaurant was only about 10% full, so we were excited to have a whole section to ourselves. We only had 4 adults and 1 child. Our server was prompt to say hello, take our order and get us our drinks....

However, after we received our drinks, we were never checked on again until our food was delivered. It took over 25 minutes from the time we placed our order to receive it, and as you can imagine, we needed some refills. 3 of us ordered drinks, and all glasses were completely empty by the time our food arrived. When our food arrived, it was only warm, as if it was under heat lamps. I don't mind if my food is not burning hot, it just makes you wonder how long it was sitting at the counter. The long wait time confused us because there was only about 20 other people in the whole place and we could see that our server wasn't busy because she was on her phone most of the time by the food staging area.

Needless to say, it was primarily the service that will be keeping us away in the future, both because of how long it took to get our food and the lack of attention we received from a server that was clearly not busy enough to be on their phone. We also noticed a 4% "Service" charge on the tab, not sure what that was for with only 5 people eating in with no mention of it anywhere on the menu or website (at least not...

Despite the theme supposedly being bicycle themed, interior was any other mid town bar. It was nice, and service was good. Everyone was really friendly! But that is about all that was good.

The best way to describe the food was "midclass American white-washed." Everything was meh. Nothing was worth praising, besides maybe the waffle fries. It all tasted off or unseasoned. Take for instance my buffalo chicken sandwich. Buffalo sauce's main ingredient is hot sauce, so even mild buffalo should have a spice to it. This sauce was almost sweet, but somehow the buffalo flavor was overpowering the poor excuse of fried chicken in my sandwich. Its white food for white people who never leave the suburbs (which is probably why we were the most diverse group in the whole place).

But the real low point was the "creme brule cheesecake". Undercooked base, minimal caramal drizzle (which isn't even right for creme brule) and the most underwhelming vanilla bean flavor. Was it creme brule because of the vanilla bean? Creme brule means "burnt cream" for pitys sake! Only someone who has never been 10 miles from their super white neighboorhood and who has never experienced anyone elses culture would call that creme brule!

My whole party agreed we would not be returning, but we made sure to tip. Staff were super nice and they were the highlight of the evening. Seriously if you have the money and want food to have flavor, the Taco Bell down the street at least has decent sauce packets to go with their Americanized...

This place has a lot going for it. It is in a great location and the layout looks like it would be great to either dance, drink, mingle, just by walking a few feet to a different area. The service was way above expectations. With some of my family having a gluten allergy, the employees were extremely knowledgeable in what would be safe, they even brought up that their fryer was a shared, their barbecue sauce had Guinness in it, so not safe, and made recommendations for a safe alternative. They kept our drinks full and knew their drink menu and made recommendations based on what we liked and their drinks were really good. What brought their rating down was their food. It was just blah. Yes it is a bar/grill, but the flavor profiles of the food were a little off. While the fries artichokes and dip were really good, other items fell short. I had the mushroom Swiss burger and only ate half of it because there was no taste. I had a couple bites of my wife's brussel sprouts and thought the balsamic and bacon would pair well with the sprouts, but it was just off. My son, who I swear has a hollow leg, didn't even finish his burrito. The stuffed pablano was overpowered by the sweet potato and drowned out all the other ingredients. Their wings did save them, however. They were cooked very well, not dry or undercooked, and the glaze they used was superb. I can see this place going far and lasting a long time if they can just bring up their food game. I will give this place another try...