Kingfisher — Restaurant in Tucson

This is a painful review to write. We have been going to Kingfisher for well on 25 years. We lived in Tucson for many of those years and after we moved, we would always visit Kingfisher as it was, hands down, our favorite restaurant not only in Tucson, but probably in the country. After last night's experience, we will never return.

In town for my son's graduation from UA, we booked a table for Friday night. I had learned earlier in the day that Kingfisher had relatively recently come under new management. This worried me but I thought, "how can they mess this up."

Wow. Did they ever. The first thing I noticed when coming in was that with one exception, none of the staff that had worked there for decades was to be seen. Sitting down, the waiter immediately asked if we were ready to order after he asked us for our drink orders. We said no and gave him our drink orders. After 10 to 12 minutes, the drinks arrived. One thing about Kingfisher cocktails were that they were decadently "large". These martini glasses were tiny suggesting the new management made the decision to "downsize" the glassware. The cocktails themselves were poorly made. My martini was half vermouth, despite telling the waiter to put just a drop of vermouth in the glass. My wife's Manhattan was a "Manhattan" in name only--watery and lackluster without the depth, complexity, and warmth of the original Kingfisher cocktail.

After the drinks came, we ordered appetizers and again, the waiter was insistent we put in our main order. My wife asked if we could wait and this seemed to irritate the waiter. When the appetizers came, my wife's oysters were just fine...no complaints, but the calamari was all coating and gritty tasting. The sauce had coagulated at the bottom of the bowl and so the taste was uneven.

Fifteen minutes later, the waiter returned to take the orders for our main. We ordered and the food came out in a timely manner. But here is the problem. Every single dish used for the appetizers by our party were piled up on the table. They sat there for several minutes even after the main course was served. Understand the following: the staff served us the main courses and instead of REMOVING the appetizer plates, simply pushed them aside to make room for the main dishes.

Regarding the food, I ordered the rib rack. The presentation on the plate was awful (they were turned upside down from the way one would conventionally display a rib rack). However, what was worse was the chef did not bother to cut the fat cap off the ribs and so each bite was 70 percent fat, 30 percent meat. My wife ordered the mussels, a dish she's ordered dozens of times. The mussels were fine, but the broth was hot water with sriracha seasoning. In other words, 0 depth of flavor and mostly salty spicy water. Even worse, 20 minutes after serving the mussels, a staff person came out saying they forgot to serve the bread that was supposed to come with the dish. There was a perfunctory apology as the the plate was slapped on the table.

Speaking of bread, Kingfisher was noted for it's great bread served gratis. When the waiter asked if we wanted bread, I said of course. When the bill came, we saw a $5.00 charge.

From start to finish, the service was spotty, rude, ad hoc, and not to the standards one would expect for the prices charged. To underscore just how far Kingfisher has fallen, this was a Friday night on graduation weekend. By 8:30 PM the restaurant was empty, staffers setting up the tables to close. The bar, which historically is lively until closing was ... empty. If you're reading this and expecting the classic Kingfisher, do not waste your...

I am a pretty good cook. The other night I threw some shrimp in a saute pan and effortlessly cooked them to perfection. Going to a farmers market and finding some treat to turn into a gourmet meal is one of my great joys. So, if I can make great food, what can a restaurant offer me? In addition to making my evening easier by letting someone else do the cooking and the dishes, going to a restaurant is a chance to spend pleasant time with good company. Last night, that company was the prettiest, smartest, sweetest girl I have ever known. With her along, my trip to Kingfisher Bar and Grill was going to be a great time. It is restaurant week in Tucson where a number of places offer a Prix Fixe menu at a reasonable price. Kingfisher serves a mixed green salad, shrimp appetizer and a choice of Hawaiian fish or Atlantic Salmon for $40. We threw in a plate of oysters and a couple of drinks, which expanded the bill considerably. The drinks menu is an eclectic collection of drinks from around the world. I had a caipirinha and my date had a James Bond martini. We were both pleased with our selections. We dove into our salads, delighted by the crispy fried onions on top. When I was growing up, you never ordered seafood in a place that was not near an ocean. At best, you got something a little off, at worst it would be spoiled beyond edibility. We joked about how frightened my dad would be if he knew I was eating oysters in Arizona. These days, air freight flies around the world almost as fast as fishing boats are unloaded in Seattle or New York. Half our oysters came from New Jersey and the other half came from Oregon. They were not quite up to what I get from Puget sound, but they were tasty. Next up were grilled and chilled shrimp. In the grilling process, a smoky, herby flavor was added that made them delicious. Unfortunately, they were left on the grill a little too long and further toughened by the chilling process. The main courses were masterpieces. I had the macadamia nut crusted Hawaiian fish. It came with sweet potato chips, rice and spinach. The fish was perfectly cooked - the crust was crunchy and the fish was delicate. It was all seasoned perfectly. I would have added something to the spinach and cooked it a bit less, but that is just a quibble. My date had the Atlantic Salmon. The chef made up for the fact that it was not king salmon by adding just the right amount of smoke and serving it with a sauce that was amazing. The dish included grain and string beans. The beans were cooked with a number of tasty additions that made me wonder why they didn’t add anything to the spinach. The staff managed that trick of all great restaurants of being around when you need them, but not pestering you when you want to gaze into the eyes of your date. The decor was understated old west. The room was clean and classy. Overall, everything was well done. I have to mention the table next to ours. I couldn’t tell you who else was sitting there because there was a baby that was just too cute. My date earned a smile from the little guy by telling him how sweet he looked. If we were younger, my date and I would have gone home immediately to make a baby of our own. The baby was pleasant through the whole meal. He only complained when he was handed to dad so mom could go to the bathroom. All restaurant babies...

We have not been to Kingfisher in several years. The people are friendly, the server and bus people were attentive, and the food was served promptly.

Unfortunately, the meal (see photo) wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. I was surprised they charged us $5.00 for bread, BUT, it came not just with butter (which, regrettably was cold and hard when it arrived) but with an exquisite tapenade (that my wife liked so much that we ‘begged’ a couple of small containers to take home with us!!!), and in any event the baguette was superior in texture and flavor.

The clam chowder and the bisque were each quite good … I’d say the Clam Chowder at the Arizona Inn is much better, but the Arizona Inn Clam Chower was the absolutely best I have, EVER, had. So saying that Kingfisher’s isn’t quite as good is quite a compliment.

I asked them to add (it turns out 3) grilled shrimp to my Caesar salad (which is why it costs $22.00, instead, I guess, $17.00), and I am glad I did, as it was the BEST grilled shrimp I’ve had in a long time on a Caesar salad (and I include in this the grilled shrimp I get on the Caesar salads I get at Caffe Torino in Oro Valley). … I also liked the unusual croutons because they were more like slices of baguette than chunks of bread, and what I liked about them was that they are not hard as rocks as some croutons were. … Still, the Caesar salad was kind of odd. It came with a slice of lemon wedge, which I thought was for the Shrimp, so I squeezed it all over the salad. … … Which, as it turned out was the only dressing on the Caesar Salad. It did have shaved parmesan as you’d expect, but being served with no Caesar dressing was probably a mistake (at least I hope it was). Still, I ate it, and was happy to finish it.

My friend who got the “Hawaiian Fish” said it was mahi mahi, and liked it ok. But, it wasn’t, apparently, anything to write home to Mom about.

Nor were the two salads. I tasted my wife’s Warm Cabbage Salad, and other than the fact that we were expecting shredded cabbage, but got chunks instead, my wife liked it, but I found the (what my wife identified as) fennel sooooo overpowering as to make it inedible. My wife said it wasn’t overpowering, so maybe it’s a matter of taste … but I actually like fennel, and have had fennel cream pasta in other places, so I guess I just found the cabbage salad not to my liking.

Kingfisher has been a Tucson institution for decades and decades and I hope it continues for another 50 years. But, I just found it not very much to my own liking for the $42.00 a...