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| - The food is very good. But seating, at least for us on the night we visited, was unforgivable. It was worse than if they had charged us half price for the food but asked us to sit in the parking lot.
Here's what happened.
We arrived at around 5:15 p.m. last Saturday night. It was still early and so the place was not yet in full swing. Yet, we were seated between a 4-top and a 2-top. This was not a problem on its own but I fail to see why a restaurant forces intimacy when it isn't necessary. More than half of the room was empty on the other end, yet all the diners were beside each other. The 4-top was comprised of retirees who had finished their meal but were enjoying their not so quiet conversation. The 2-top was a couple who had arrived not long before we did.
It did not take us too long to review the menus and order our drinks. (Their Sangrias, by the way are very delicious. I really wish I could come back for more or taste their other cocktails.) Soon after our order was placed, people for a birthday party started arriving for the table directly behind my husband. The table in the end had maybe 10 or 12 people. They were not particularly loud or rambunctious. I never heard anybody from their party say anything. But had we known that there was going to be a birthday party that close to us, we would have requested a different seat or just left.
The very big problem was the minute amount of space between the back of my husband's chair and the back of the other chairs at the birthday party table. The space was extremely tight and resulted in my husband getting bumped many times. At some point, the man sitting next to my husband at the other 2-top moved his chair so that he sat diagonally to his table because he was getting bumped as well even though there was more room behind him than my husband. (A few important things to note: we are not claustrophobic by any stretch of the imagination, we are not big people and do not require a lot of room, and we have no problems dining in communal settings.)
The absolute worst point was when I saw a waitress with plates in both hands, try to pass behind my husband and in order to do so had to shimmy sideways and drop down a bit so that the space could accommodate her hips. This resulted in the plate in her right hand getting very close to my husband's head, who luckily at that time was leaning forward. What if she had miscalculated and a plateful of hot food fell on my husband. It sounds funny, but really it isn't. It is negligence, plain and simple. To get an extra table or two in, the owner put its diners and workers at risk.
Nothing in this story is an exaggeration. And it pains me to write this review because the food was very good. Very good. And very much worth the 10+ miles from Central Phoenix where we have many other options. But I am writing this review because the experience was real, and because I want to help other diners who might include comfortable seating arrangements as a priority in their dining choices.
I have not seen another Yelp review mention this issue, so maybe we just got the worst seat in the house on the worst night, ever. Maybe some people are so big that they get bumped every time anywhere they eat, so they don't care. Maybe some people like getting bumped when they eat because it is the only human touch they get. Hence there being no issue for them.
Before we left, someone, presumably the owner, came over and asked about our meal. My husband mentioned something about the seating situation and how he was bumped consistently throughout our meal. The response was that their normal seating was changed because of the birthday party. This simply cannot be true. If you look at the pretty picture of the room, you will see that when the room is empty and all the seats are pushed in, there is barely enough room for multiple workers to move around in.
By the time we left, the room had filled up. I am barely 110 pounds and am not ungraceful but had to be very careful not to bump into another diner's chair on the way out. I was not successful.
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