Serial Grillers — Restaurant in Tucson

This is the second time I've gone here, and I'm honestly very disappointed. I didn't want to leave a bad review because I usually can just move on and get over it. However, this just hit a specific nerve for me and I had to say something about it.

The bald, heavyset man at the front who takes the orders was the main issue to be honest. The food wasn't great this time but I know that happens, so really, I'm only on here to talk about him. I know we all have bad days, I work in retail so TRUST me when I tell you that I know.

This man was very rude, though. My grandfather is almost 70 years old and although he wears glasses, he still has a hard time seeing. There was a menu placed at the front door that he tried to read but couldn't see very well because the lights near the door were a bit dim. So, we went to the counter to get a menu. The man was very polite at first when my grandfather asked for a menu, but then proceeded to snap back with "So, you walked past the menu at the front door...?"

I was very taken aback because I was confused as all hell as to why this guy was mad about it. My grandfather, who rarely acts this way, was kinda shocked himself and I think it even embarrassed him a bit. He stuttered and just said, "Yeah, I know, I just figured- I don't know. I just thought we'd come up here," And then I couldn't hear the rest of what he said because he trailed off. He was uncomfortable, but didn't want to make it a big deal so he just took the menu and we moved to the side to look at it.

After this, I'm like, "Okay, I'm just gonna let it go. It's making me angry but we all have bad days, whatever." I ask for american cheese on my burger instead of the jalapeño cheese. I get an eye-roll and an irritated tone. Whatever, right? I can let that go too.

My grandfather goes to pay, and after paying, the man tells him to look at the screen next to the register for the tip percentages. My grandfather clearly doesn't hear him, and the man gets irritated and says it again in a ruder tone. My grandfather simply didn't hear him again, so I gently pointed that out to him so the man didn't have to say it again because at this point I'm trying to save my grandfather from this guy's nasty tude. Because there is legit no reason for it.

My grandfather says ABSOLUTELY Y nothing to this man. He's not rude back, just keeps his cool. That's not usually like him because he suffers from Dementia Alzheimer's, so he can be quite hard to deal with. This is also why I was angry. He was rude from the get go and we didn't even do or say anything bad to this guy. He was just disrespectful right away.

I talked to my mom about this and she said he's always like that when she goes in there and that's why she'd stopped going. I understand we all have shitty days, but c'mon, man! I was at a loss for words.

All in all, the waitress was sweet and super kind, and the rest of the staff seemed to be as well. Like I said, food wasn't great this time but that makes sense, it won't always be. I can get past that.

What I can't get past is this man being rude unprovoked. I bet he wouldn't want someone treating his family member that way, and I sure as hell don't think he'd like being treated that way if he came into the store I worked at and I treated him the same right away.

I know these things usually don't get handled by the store and probably will get ignored. But hopefully, this helps someone else before they...

I’m not one to write reviews but I’m so upset by this experience that I have to. I’ve been to this restaurant several times over the past 3 years and this is the first time I’ve experienced terrible service. The girl who took our order was extremely rude and unpleasant. First off, when we walked in, there were no menus to be found. My 5 year old son found one on the floor and picked it up. It was a piece of paper with print so small my mother couldn’t read it. We didn’t have chance to read the menu before the girl called us up to take our order, which was fine but I could tell right away she wasn’t happy that we weren’t ready to order. My kid wanted something from the kids menu and she responded very harshly that they didn’t have a kids menu anymore. I had to read parts of the menu to my mom since she couldn’t read the fine print on the paper menu. The girl seemed very annoyed and unhelpful. It was 4 of us looking onto one menu, she could’ve at least given us a second one to make it easier for us to see. After ordering the food my mom wanted a beer as well. My mom didn’t know that she had to order the beer by it’s number not the name of the beer. So when my mother ordered her beer by the name, the girl again was so rude and just said, “I need a number!” No please, no thank yous, no nothing. Just rude. Then she handed us two clear plastic cups which we thought were water cup since I ordered water. But my kids also ordered fountain drinks. We thought maybe she forgot to give us the fountain drink cups so my mom reached over and just grabbed them. They were literally right in front of us. We didn’t think it was an issue, we just thought she had forgotten them. Then the girl came back after getting the beer and said “don’t touch the cups!” and snatched them right out of my mother’s hand and threw them out. We get the whole COVID situation but my god you don’t have to be a B*. I should’ve said something to her right there and then but I didn’t want to make a scene. It was so uncalled for. We are customers and we’re paying for food and service. More than anything it’s about service. I’ve worked in the restaurant business for several years and I could never talk to a customer the way she talked to us today. So we sat down felt pretty bad. We got our food but we felt tension and we didn’t really enjoy the visit. The food was great, no issues there. But that girl should probably be working in the back away from customers. She seemed so unhappy and uptight. I looked around at some of the other girls working behind the counter and they seemed very happy and pleasant. I could hear it in their voice, they were nice and welcoming. By my observation, it was just her. She had the problem. I’m so annoyed that I almost don’t wanna go there again. Service...

My girlfriend and I tried serial grillers for the first time because we heard good reviews about the other locations. When went at about 7pm. Arrived to a dark parking lot and a building that looks closed because the only light you can see is the super bright sign. The patio at the entrance has no lighting.

When we entered we were greeted with the most obnoxious lighting, looks like they use nothing but super bright Cool White 7500k LED light bulbs throughout the whole building which makes the atmosphere feel like an overly lit office space than a restaurant. A warmer bulb choice like that of the original Chuy's or any other restaurant in town would of made the experience more comfortable.

Ordering process is the same as Chuy's. Grab a menu from the stand when you walk in, place your order at one of the registers. We both ordered a burger with fries & were never asked how we would like it cooked. My girlfriend ordered a beer and I got a large coke our server asked if we were going to pay upfront or open a tab. I guess that's standard protocol for this outfit?. So we paid upfront for the beer and food.

The carbonated beverages are self serve, like a burger king, they also have tea, sweet tea & lemonade dispensed through a similar self serve machine. They have like 60 some beer choices. The food took about 15 minutes to arrive. The burgers were pretty pink in the middle, I'd say medium, we prefer medium well but figured maybe this is the way the restaurant prefers their burgers to be experienced. Turns out they're nothing special. Meat has no flavor, only thing I really tasted was the condiments, ended up having to break it up into bite sized pieces and dip it into the ranch cup that came with the fries to finish it. My girlfriend took a bite or two of hers and didn't want to finish it. Ended up getting a box to take the rest of the fries and burger home, where it sat in the fridge for a few days until we just threw it out.

We overheard that they are still making changes to the restraunt and that they wanted to open really quickly so the countertops at the "bar" and other things are temporary. As a owner and operator of a small business I understand wanting to open quick & generate revenue to fund improvements but if the flavor of your product/food your offering and the atmosphere doesn't "wow" your customers into wanting to come back your making a one-time/customer sale vs a repeat...