Desert Lounge + Grill — Restaurant in Tusayan

My husband and I stayed at The Squire during our trip to the Grand Canyon and opted for the hotel's breakfast rather than going elsewhere. I'm sorry to say that we were very disappointed with the service that we received here, and we made sure to not go back for any of the remaining meals during our stay. To begin, it took FOREVER for us to get seated. We arrived with no other guests before us, but ended up waiting approximately 10 minutes before the staff even bothered the acknowledge us.There was a woman working the register at the desk area where we were waiting, but she seemed to completely ignore us as she was checking out other guests that were on their way out. I understand having to manage other guests, but she could have at least told us that she would be with us soon or she could have apologized for our long wait. We were just about to call it quits (in retrospect, I wish I had), but she managed to snag us just in time. And no, she never apologized for the slow service. When we finally were seated, the server did not show up for about 5 minutes. When he did, I asked for the tea selection and he said he didn't know and that he would go check. Five minutes later, he comes back to tell me that all they had was black tea and green tea. For a big, fancy hotel that requires you to pay $10+ for breakfast, you'd expect a slightly broader tea selection. I went ahead and got the green tea, but was not offered sugar. It took about 25 minutes for our food to finally arrive (all we got was the simple breakfast sandwiches) and they were good, though certainly not worth the wait. As we were eating, we noticed that a lot of people had accumulated in the line waiting to be seated and everyone seemed just as irritated and flabbergasted by the lack of service as we had been when we had to wait. One man even stepped into the dining area to get a server's attention, since the server had obviously not been paying any attention to the growing line of guest. I don't know if the place is just understaffed right now or if their staff is simply incompetent, but their inability to tend to their guests is just downright unacceptable. It is also ridiculous to me that a server, whose entire job is to know the menu and serve it, couldn't even remember the TWO tea options available. The whole ordeal was so frustrating that it was almost laughable. I was relieved to finally finish our food and get the hell...

I hardly ever write reviews for anything, but I feel obliged to explain how dissatisfied I was with my experience here:

1: The prices. Everything is, of course, going to be wildly overpriced, but here the food was not even remotely worth what I payed. For example, I ordered the signature elk tenderloin, a supposedly 8-ounce piece of lean meat. In reality, the portion was just shy of 6 ounces. I can forgive this to a degree, seeing as not many other restaurants I go to have elk, but the dish was simply a tad too small to carry the $30+ price-tag.

2: The food quality. As I stated, I bought the elk tenderloin, and, to put it plainly, the best part of my meal was the broccoli, carrots, and bread. The meat was just so tasteless -- even with the sauce with which it was drenched. Not to mention the mashed potatoes had some decently-sized chunks in them (which did not bother me at all if I am honest, but they claimed to be mashed). The presentation of the food, however, and how it was set up on the plate was very good.

3: The service. My family had reserved a 7:30 reservation for this place and we arrived a little ahead of schedule (about 5-10 minutes early), so I was only a little surprised when the host had to arrange a table for us (we are a party of six). Let me be clear, my surprise came from the fact that I work in the restaurant industry, and we always make sure to have reservations set at least a half an hour prior to the arrival. That is why seeing the host put a table together for a reservation was a little alarming, especially for such a fancy-looking restaurant. That is forgivable, though, as we were a little early. Once my family sat down, however, our server did not come to our table for about another 10 minutes. Once again, this did not bother me much at all, but it just goes to show how unprepared the restaurant was. What did bother me was that it was almost an hour after ordering that the food finally came out, and I do not need to get into detail again regarding how disappointed I was with the food after this long wait -- it was not at all worth it.

All in all, my experience at The Coronado Room was mostly negative. It is not worthy of one star, as nothing was THAT terrible; it simply did not meet the top-notch criteria the rest of the hotel boasts. That said, be sure to lower your expectations before...

First, the restaurant was nearly empty. In one order, we ordered a glass each of red wine, the fried squash and zucchini appetizer, my wife the elk prepared short of medium rare, with a baked potato; and I, the filet mignon rare and charred, with rice pilaf. I had to explain to Alfredo, the waiter, what "charred" meant. Alfredo, said he would turn the appetizer and entre orders in separately. It took forever to get the wine, and even longer for the appetizer, and even longer for the entres. When we finally got the squash and zucchini it was almost burnt, and a complete rip off...6 little slices laid flat on a plate for $12.00. When the entres finally came, my wife's potato was on my plate and my rice pilaf on hers, and the meals had to be returned to the kitchen. Her elk was almost raw, my filet mignon was not charred at all,. My filet was very tender but had almost no flavor at all. After dinner we ordered the NY cheese cake, which took forever to come, then I ordered a Drambuie rocks which took so long to get that I nearly walked out, and when it did come, it had to be sent back because it came without the rocks. The waiter was very personable, but I never saw anyone move around so rapidly and get so little done. An hour and 15 minute dinner turned into 2 1/2 hour ordeal. The next morning we went to the Navajo room for breakfast. It was nearly empty. We ordered the breakfast burritos. 20 minutes later our water glasses and coffee had been topped off 3 times, but no burritos. The hostess was talking to a group of 4 people and paying no attention to other guests. She finally came over and asked how everything was so far. We hadn't received anything, yet, so I said, "I don't know, yet." She turned, left, and went back to chatting with the same group of 4 people and paying attention to know one else. Finally, I got up, walked across the room, broke into her conversation, and said, "We ordered two burritos over half an hour ago. We'd like to see the canyon sometime today. She turned and ran into the kitchen, and our burros finally came out. So, mediocre to okay food at full prices, absolutely...