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Ok, I'm downgrading to 3 stars. Now C4 is still a good place, but recent visits have shown the restrooms to be consistent disasters. Water overflowing with caution signs and bars of soap and lack of paper towels. Yuck.
My last visit on a Friday night, the restaurant ran out of macaroni when I was looking forward to the Chorizo Mac and Cheese. I had to settle for a shrimp quesadilla which was ok, but nothing near the deliciousness of the mac and cheese.
Review - 2/16/08
My huge Elton John glasses are off to Ben, his cute dog and his team at C4 and the Clarendon Hotel. I'm impressed with how quickly C4 underwent changes to the restaurant and menu.
I'll keep this quick because Erica's awesome review covers it all.
The chorizo mac and cheese was very delicious. I'm all about all things cheese and love a bit of spice, so this was an obvious choice when I saw it on the menu. It was also only $7, but should you be in a sandwich or burger mood, the California Club with the usual fixings and chipotle mayo also delivered for my friend Bobo. The potato wedges that came with it were huge...I'm talking quarters of potatoes here.
Our party of 10 got dramatically improved service from our last experience, and only toward the end did I tip off the server that we were guests of Ben's from Yelp. Yes, one person got their appetizer tortilla soup....for dessert! But other than that, our server was gracious, chatty and demonstrated knowledge of the new menu. The best part of the service was after dinner when Ben and his cute dog asked us how dinner was and we gave him our feedback.
The best parts of the new C4 beside the Chorizo mac and cheese?
* A stunning rooftop bar and cool happy hour promotion with different DJ and comfy patio furniture to watch the glittering Central Phoenix skyline and relax in a fab setting reminiscent of the Standard Hotel in L.A.
* Desserts. The flourless Mexican chocolate cake was incredible, with the flavors of both spice and cocoa that left us all wanting more. The key lime cheesecake had great hints of lime zest throughout.
The warm Santa Fe orange paint on the walls and new Southwestern/Native art in the glass case suggested a new direction for the restaurant -- one that I'm pleased with and hope continues to be improved upon.
3.5 stars for food and service and 5 stars for effort by management.
Original review - January 2008
I feel like I'm being generous with the two-star rating. After coming here a few times for drinks I was waiting for a dining experience to actually rate the place, but two stars is all it gets.
Quite simply, the food and the service stunk. I understand the difficulty of serving 14 people, but our server got little to no help from other servers, which is surprising because it wasn't even all that busy.
There is a reason why the cocktails are more expensive than the food, it's because the drinks are better. J-man and Lauren pretty much cover it all. I will add that half of our party seemed to be ok with the food, but the other half thought it was disgusting. My mahi mahi sandwich with mango salsa was probably the driest sandwich I have ever had. I had to wait about 10 minutes to eat it though because the server had to replace the bun after she accidentally knocked the bun off the sandwich when she served me. It probably dried out from the wait. The fries were decent. The "house fries" were described as a mixture of french fries and sweet potato fries. The reality? 30 french fries and 2 sweet potato fries. I made sure to eat the sweet potato fries really slowly to make them last longer.
The only saving graces here were the cocktails and the pokemons. I kinda like them! The drinks were decent, but they took forever to arrive after ordering. Do yourself a favor and don't dine here. C4 will be a drinks only place for me.
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