We had heard Thirsty Lion had recently opened and tried to beat the dinner crowds by going around happy hour time (4:45) on a Saturday evening. The place was packed and we were quoted an HOUR wait for two. We reluctantly decided to stick around and wait (have you ever tried to get out of the San Tan Marketplace parking lot at 5PM on a Saturday?).
Seems like the reason for the long wait was a mass abundance of Opentable reservations. We are sort of new to the whole "being constricted to eating out in the Chandler - Gilbert suburbs" thing (as opposed to driving to wherever we feel like for dinner - Tempe, Scottsdale, Arcadia, etc), so this Opentable thing was a bit of a surprise to us (apparently housewives like to make their freakishly early dinner reservations WAY in advance). Anyway, going forward we will be utilizing Opentable and planning ahead instead of winging it since we are tired of 45+ minute waits EVERYWHERE we try to go on a Saturday EARLY evening in Suburbia.
Our table was ready promptly at a little under the hour wait they had quoted us. We were seated on the patio and our server was very friendly, knowledgeable and timely. We had the scotch eggs (great), the beer cheese soup (rich but very good), the shrimp tacos (hubby raved about them) and the salmon with risotto (delicious).
We highly enjoyed the atmosphere and food and will be back. If they can perform this well during their first weekend open, I look forward to seeing what they can do once they have been open longer.