The Depot Bar — Restaurant in Tucson

I moved away from Tucson a couple years ago and when we make it back for a visit we like to have a happy hour get together with a lot of our friends. This year we chose the Depot for our meeting spot mostly because of the "seat yourself" environment it offers since we knew people would be trickling in throughout the evening. We'd been to the Depot plenty of times before we moved and it was always a happening place with lots people, good food and great service. Apparently with a recent remodel they have gone downhill big time. When we first got there and sat down a server came over and asked if we knew what we wanted. Obviously we did not since we had just sat down but we tried to be quick about ordering since she looked like she was already walking away. We asked her if there were any specials and she said no, then when I asked her what the cost of a pitcher of Miller Lite was, she said it was happy hour so it was $5. Did I miss something, would happy hour not be a special? So, at this point there are 4 of us, she took our drink orders (2 waters and 1 pitcher of beer) and one person’s food order (a burger, the only one that was ready to order). She came back with the pitcher of beer but no waters. Not too big a deal since at that point a 5th person had joined us and she took their beer order and said she'd be right back with waters and her beer. 25 minutes later as more people are joining us we realize she never came back with my friends beer or any of the waters and then she also never came back to see if any of the new people that had joined us wanted anything. Since my sweet friend is too polite I took it upon myself to go to bar where 3 bartenders were standing talking to ask what the status was on getting the beer and maybe getting more orders placed. I was told they do not have servers and if we wanted to order then we'd all have to come up to the bar (where the 3 of them were standing there chatting and 2 patrons were sitting drinking-quite the ratio). I said that'd be fine but was confused why we had a server when we first got there. At that point one of the guys behind the bar, I'm assuming a busser because he didn't look like one of the bartenders, offered to come take our orders. I thanked him and said we'd be ready when he came out to us. 10 minutes later he came out with an attitude and took our drink orders; he said he'd be back for our food orders; it was another 10 minutes and then one of the bartenders came out and took the food order. Keep in mind with all of this that we had been there for over an hour and we were the only people in the restaurant side of the place. There were 4 people at the bar and a handful of people in the sectioned off smoking area. It's at this point that I started apologizing to my friends for choosing this location for our get together.

I can understand if it's not being run as a restaurant with servers anymore but if you give off the appearance of having servers when we first sit down and then don't say anything when we tell you we are expecting a lot more people, I'll continue to be under the impression that you should be coming to me to take my order and when you don't then it makes you look bad. Because there were so many people that had not yet showed up we ended staying there for the rest of the evening, with me apologizing the whole time, and we left around 11. As soon as we (the "guests of honor") left, so did everyone else. We brought in a ton of business to what would have been a completely dead bar and we were made to seem like an inconvenience to the workers that are probably used to the place being empty. It makes me sad to have to write this review since I used to go the Depot all the time when we lived there and have fond memories of it. Now all that is gone.

TL;DR if you want good food, call ahead and get it to go; if you want a chill place to meet up with friends...

My husband and I come here often. Only because we live so close. I have some good visits and some bad ones. I guess the only good thing is the food and the beers are cheap. The guy bartender always gives me watered down soda and needs more experience with some of The mixed drinks. I'm also kinda picky when it comes to a pastrami sandwich I always eat it with jal. Otherswise I wouldn't order one in the first place. Well I ordered a Reuben and requested jal. Didn't get that or 1000 island. Which are my two basic ingrediants to how i enjoy my sandwich. I ask for the jal. Again and I get a side of green chili -_-.... I'm a Mexican so in my tase buds there is a big diffrence between green chili and jal. Wish she would have told me that they only have green chili cause that would have made me go with the philicheese steak insted.. Then I would have been a happy paying customer... I didn't want to bring it up cause I get the vibe that her or the manager wouldn't really care about an...

Awesome burgers for great price. My quesedilla used to come with a lot more cheese, but I haven't been here in over 2 years. I got a beer on tap, but it had a strange after taste, which l can only attribute to the glass it was in. (Maybe from the dish water) We were a group of 8 for the most part, and only 2 of us were not so sure about our drinks. The second drink I ordered, a margarita, seemed fine. And they had some of the best tater tots I've ever had, and I do not like tater tots. The drinks were coming out slow for some of the table, and some people had to ask twice to be sure they were still coming and not forgotten. I didn't have that problem, though. I guess they were slammed for a Thursday night. Had a great...