Happy Rooster Cafe — Restaurant in Tucson

A trip to the Eastside sent us for the first time to Happy Rooster. This was originally a DMV office, so real vintage Tucsonans will be excused for trying to use the north door, which was the original entrance to pay for their car registration. Note: the only door is on the south end. A large sign to that fact would help. Once inside, we were warmly greeted by the ladies. It's was cool and very clean, not a dirty table in sight. After getting our ice teas in humongous repurposed quart jars, we selected from the vast menu of items. My bride had the hot lunch meat loaf with fries, toast and coleslaw, substituted for the day's undetermined veggie. I ordered the French Dip with onion rings. It was a bit of a wait but the ladies kept our jars full of tea and the atmosphere lent to conversation. At one point, they turned down the music without being asked. Our food did come hot and right. Her meatloaf was more than generous, it was a Huge portion. She did comment it was a bit too full of veggies, but that's just a personal taste. The abundant fries were done crispy and pleasingly oil-dry. My French Dip was on a crisped bread with white shredded cheese. Nice touch! The rings were crispy with a savory flavor. I hijacked her toast, which was delectable. For a finish, I had what they call a Raspberry Mini-cake, she had the lemon version. They were just a monstrous cupcake with a scrumptious fruit frosting. YUMMM. They were very attentive and asked more than once as to quality and our needs, but were not annoying. We were welcome to stay as long as we wanted, there was no rush to leave. Happy Rooster is a small building north of 22nd, hiding behind the gas station. Parking is a bit rare but well worth searching for. Go on in,( south entrance, mind you) and take a seat. You will not be...

VERY friendly staff and service and they are the reason for the sole star. Window sill next to our table was filthy (really makes for an uncomfortable experience when I’m sitting right next to dead bugs as I eat) and food had issues. We are service industry people, so we do get that making mistakes happens. But when you know you made mistakes and then try to hide them hoping no one will notice? Not okay. Got a BLT with cheese but came without cheese and burnt bread which was turned inward to hide the fact. Asked for a new set of bread (we could actually hear the server tell the cook to watch the toast yet he still burnt it again). Dry over-cooked bacon on burnt toast is not appetizing so I just gave up. They did compensate my $1.20 for the forgotten cheese but overlooked the fact that my entire sandwich was left uneaten. Honey Stung Fried Chicken was still cold in the middle. Chicken Tender basket was just plain sad looking. Basic store bought tenders with a few soggy fries. Server was outstanding and did try her best. She even she looked frustrated with the food. There are quite a few reviews that detail the food as having issues. Hoping the owners will take notice and retrain kitchen staff. Tucson is filled with too many other great restaurants to not try and make things better. Their front of the house...

My wife and I onlyy get but one or teo dates a year and we chose here for a breakfast date for our anniversary. We were served by the better server just as rush began. Another server was trying hard to go home. This frustrated our server and hindered our aervice quality.

The food was terrible. Eggs over easy were two easy and at the end of the day didnt sit well with my wife's stomach at all. The side bacon was over done. It seemed a better idea to eat over done bacon rather than risk under done. The corn beef hash was under doneexcept the edges. And the coup de grace, the biscuits and gravy.

We love some biscuits and gravy. It takes my wife and I back to the days we were soldiers eating it at the DFAC. Happy Rooster's came with an added bonus of a dark, curly hair. Now I have face and chest hair, but it was not one of mine. No matter how hard I tried to rationalize it, no way couls my hair end of in the food on my wife's side of the plate. Nor was it any hair my wife has on her head.

In the end the server gave us .50 off the biscuits and gravy. As a manager in a restaraunt myself I felt this was a terrible mistake, but didnt protest because we just wanted to leave. She should have taken biscuits and gravy off the total. I would not...