Say it ain't so Jose,
Major buzz kill tonight. We were hungry for some Mexican Food up in North Scottsdale and me being far removed from the city for years decided to go to Arriba since I have been a big fan since the old Andale days on Camelback Road. It wasn't but 2 or 3 years since I have dined at this Scottsdale eatery and was quite surprised that the place wasn't packed. We sat down and my daughter and I decided to order and my girlfriend was not hungry so she ordered a frosty margarita and we all started in on the chips.
The chips were not that fresh but overlooked it as no big deal. My friend's margarita was void of any alcohol and my cans of Tecate tasted old and bitter. The waitress was quite thorough explaining that my girlfriend or daughter could not order from the children's menu because they were over 12 so they split an order of mini chimichangas and I asked for my favorite the Chicken Diablo.
When my order came I didn't even recognize the dish as my old favorite. The melted cheese looked as if it was melted days ago and barely covered the dark green chili below. I remember this being a very decadent cheesy gut bomb with extreme heat for cast iron stomachs like mine but the chili had no heat, barely any cheese and overly salty stone cold chicken breast seemed to have come out of a bag.
My daughter was grossed out by her chimi and offered me a taste and it was luke warm and very bland as if they had got them from the warming tray next door at Sam's Club.
Under protest from my girlfriend I asked the waitress to send our food back and just wanted to pay for our drinks and split. The manager came out and acted quite surprised by our dissatisfaction but can hardly believe she had never received a complaint before now that I see their smoking 2.5 star rating here on Yelp.
This is a real shame that one of the best corporate chains ever to come to Phoenix has shrunk to such a mediocre and unappealing experience. I guess I will need to do my Yelp research before I venture into any of my old favorites.